Boyd Exell and his team won the FEI Driving World Cup leg in London.
© Elli Birch/Boots & Hooves Photography
Boyd Exell wins London leg of FEI Driving World Cup
By Patricia Salem/FEI
Boyd Exell of Australia notched another win on Saturday as FEI Driving World Cup™ action was an evening highlight at the London International Horse Show.
His amazing victory at London was the defending champion’s third of the season, and he leads the standings in points to head to the Finals at Leipzig next spring.
Second place at leg 4 of 5 in World Cup qualifying events was awarded to Dutch athlete Koos De Ronde, who has finished as a runner-up at London in years past and couldn’t quite top Exell’s time. Third place went to Mareike Harm of German, the sole female driver on the circuit, who had the only other double clear of the night, her best performance of the season.
In a change of venue from the traditional Olympia show, London ExCel hosted the prestigious holiday competition. Whilst unsure of the switch at first, Driving athletes and their horses soon warmed to the much larger warm-up ring and arena.
Saturday’s course designed by Jeroen Houterman of the Netherlands was the same challenging one teams had been faced with all week leading up to the Saturday finale, and there had been few clear rounds. Requiring both speed and technical precision, it featured places for long galloping runs and sweeping turns, as well as a wooden bridge and two sets of tightly placed marathon boxes.
Seven drivers lined up for one last crack at the course on Saturday night, representing six nations. Only three made it through to the drive off to decide the winner.
First up in the last round was Mareike Harm, part of the silver medal-winning German team at the FEI Driving European Championship for Four in Hand at Budapest in September.
Harm had a tremendous round, going clear in just 143.70 seconds, nearly a second faster than her previous round, putting pressure on the two teams to follow. It was clear to fans that her training with Boyd Exell has upped her game and made her a true contender in the series.
Koos De Ronde was keen to finally see a win at London. With his wife Marie as his navigator, the Dutch driver pushed hard to top Harm’s time and lay down a real gauntlet for Exell. But perhaps he went a bit too hard, as he saw the ball atop one obstacle hit the ground, which meant he had 4 penalty points to add to his fast time of 137.25 seconds.
It all came down to Exell, driving with his usual team of Emma Olsson as navigator and Hugh Scott Barrett as backstepper. Would he be able to find seconds somewhere on the course to pull off another win?
It looked iffy at first, with Exell’s time almost a second behind De Ronde’s at the halfway point. But holding steady through the boxes and then opening the reins as he charged towards the finish did the trick. He crossed the beam in a blistering 134.38 seconds, beating his first round time by more than five seconds, with no penalty points, for the top honours.
Exell commented that he thought the sound was better in the new venue, and he could hear the music and crowd more clearly, which urged on both his human team and his horses. “You can feel the atmosphere in the new arena,” he said. “The crowd is with you at every turn.”
The veteran driver, winner of multiple FEI Driving World Cup™ titles and world championships, made some changes in his horses prior to Saturday’s competition. “The old camels are the best camels,” he remarked.
Driving as a wildcard meant no chance to add qualifying points, but it gave him the freedom to try some different tactics, including using voice commands as recommended by George Bowman, a carriage driving legend and winner of multiple British national championships.
As always, Exell enthused about travelling to London and the warm welcome he feels when competing there. “We’ll do a little bit of a show and try to look after our horses,” he said, before heading to the prize giving, where his equine team were adorned with reindeer antler ear bonnets for holiday cheer.
Both Exell and De Ronde tossed ribbon rosettes to lucky audience members in the stands as they circled the arena for their ceremonial laps. Each of the top three teams treated the crowd to a final all-out gallop to exit the arena, with their fans clapping in unison to show their appreciation.
Once the scores had been tallied, Jérôme Voutaz of Switzerland finished in fourth place, followed by former champion Ijsbrand Chardon of the Netherlands, Dries Degrieck of Belgium, and Daniel Naprous of Great Britain, in that order.
Exell still leads the overall standings on 27 total points. De Ronde is in second place on 15, with Degrieck holding 12 points. After Saturday’s strong finish, Harm has moved into fourth place with 11 points, chased by 2019 champion Bram Chardon, who won the Geneva leg, on 10 points.
Tied with the younger Chardon on 10 points are Glenn Geerts of Belgium and Michael Brauchle of Germany. Voutaz and József Dobrovitz of Hungary are tied on 5 points each, and Ijsbrand Chardon has 3 points.
With the Mechelen leg scratched at the end of this year, that leaves only Bordeaux for Driving teams to see who will punch a ticket to Germany for the FEI Driving World Cup™ Finals at Leipzig in April. Catch all the thrills and cheer for your favourites on FEI TV!
Source: FEI website
