13 May 2011 – The Rolex One to Watch for April 2011 is the Italian rider, Simone Coata. Based in Campagnano, near Rome, Italy, the 24-year-old jumped from number 281 to 179 during April – a move up the Rolex Rankings of 102 places.
The Rolex One to Watch is an initiative which identifies the rider who has made the biggest jump within or into the Top 250 of the Rolex Rankings the previous month.
Simone began riding aged nine, following in his father, Piero’s, footsteps. He regularly rides with his father and his brother, Luca, and has two trainers: Giorgio Nuti – the 1972 Olympic Champion – and Gianluca Bormioli. His cousin, Stefano Brecciaroli, is a well-known Eventing rider and was a team silver medallist at the 2010 HSBC FEI European Eventing Championship in Fontainebleau, France.
As a pony rider Simone was a member of the Italian team at the FEI European Eventing Championship in Aachen, Germany, and also at the FEI European Jumping Championship in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. In 2008, he was on the senior Italian team that won the FEI Nations Cup in Athens, Greece.