After an exciting battle in the nearly sold out Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart (GER), reigning World Cup Champion IJsbrand Chardon (NED) beat his rival Boyd Exell (AUS) in the first FEI World Cup™ Driving competition of the season.
Wild card driver Georg von Stein (GER) finished in the third place.
Chardon set the time to beat in the second round, in which the top three drivers started from scratch. Last starter Boyd Exell knocked down two cones and was unable to beat Chardon’s time, which resulted in Chardon wining Stuttgart again, for the first time since 2007.
Boyd Exell used a new left leader horse in his team as well. The 18-year-old gelding Costa contributed to Boyd’s very fast team of horses. Being the last man in, Boyd was so focused in the first marathon obstacle, he completed with an extra circle. Whilst trying to make up for this mistake, the four-times World Champion went even faster, but knocked down two balls and finished in second place.
Georg von Stein thanked the organiser for his wild card, which allowed him to test his horses: “I made changes to my wheelers, I took one out and changed position of the other. The spectators were amazing, the atmosphere was great. It is a shame that I knocked some flowers over in the second round, but I am very pleased with my results.”
Theo Timmerman (NED) used two new leader horses and his team was very fast. Unfortunately he had three knockdowns, which dropped him to fourth place. The four-in-hand of Rainer Duen (GER) lacked the proper settings and Duen could not get into the right rhythm, finishing in fifth place, ahead of Jérôme Voutaz (SUI) whose round did not go as well as he had hoped for.
The 2016/2017 FEI World Cup™ Driving series now moves on to Stockholm (SWE) on Sunday, 27 November. Boyd Exell and Rainer Duen will drive their second competition in Sweden’s capital city. József Dobrovitz (HUN), József Dobrovitz jr. (HUN) and Edouard Simonet (BEL) will kick off their season there. Fredrik Persson (SWE) will compete with a wild card.
Quotes:
IJsbrand Chardon used a new horse in the left lead of his team, the 10-year-old piebald gelding Casper: “I have had this horse for two years and I normally use him in my riding school. I started to use him in a few small indoor competitions and he did very well, so I decided to use him in Stuttgart.”
Boyd Exell: “I wanted to stay tight to the elements and I forgot to think ahead, this was a driver mistake! I did cut every edge though and I am very pleased with my horses, they form a very good team.”
Results FEI World Cup™ Driving, Stuttgart (GER), 19 November 2016:
1. Ijsbrand Chardon (NED) 97,61
2. Boyd Exell (AUS) 101,41
3. Georg von Stein (GER) 110,45
4. Theo Timmerman (NED) 136,84
5. Rainer Duen (GER) 144,19
6. Jérôme Voutaz (SUI) 150,11
Results in detail can be viewed here
FEI World Cup™ Driving, standings after 1 of 8 events:
1 IJsbrand CHARDON NED 10
2 Boyd EXELL AUS 7
3 Theo TIMMERMAN NED 5
4 Rainer DUEN GER 3
5 Jérôme VOUTAZ SUI 2