After his somewhat disappointing fifth place in the FEI World Cup™ Driving competition in Stuttgart two weeks ago, Dutch driver Koos de Ronde fought his way back by winning the third leg of the 2006/2007 FEI World Cup™ Driving series at the Stockholm International Horse Show. Hungary’s Jozsef Dobrovitz came second and herewith proofed that his team of Lippizan horses are getting better every show. Belgian driver Gert Schrijvers, competing with his team of beautiful black Arabo Friesians, ended on the third place in the Globe Arena.

Over 10.700 super enthusiastic spectators closely followed the performances of the six drivers in the technical but very nice course, designed by Swedish course designer Dan Henriksson. The crowd cheered loudly for every competitor and the music and fire work that was shown as the drivers passed the bridge, contributed to a unique atmosphere.

Koos de Ronde decided to continue training the horses he used in Stuttgart (two piebalds, one grey and one brown gelding, all borrowed from members of his carriage driving family) at home and his efforts were clearly rewarded in Stockholm: ‘They now have the routine they missed in Stuttgart. I knew I had to take very short routes in the obstacles, otherwise I would not have a chance to win. My horses just flew through the course this time.’ De Ronde made a small mistake in one of the multiple obstacles, but his time was too fast to keep him from winning.

Home driver Tomas Eriksson was last to go but he went too fast and missed a gate, which cost him precious seconds and a knock down. ‘My horses went really well, I am very pleased with them. I am not pleased with myself though. I was simply too slow,’ admits the winner of the first competition in Hannover, who dropped to the fifth place.

Jozsef Dobrovitz tried a new horse in the warm up competition but was not pleased with his result (sixth place). In order to get his horses together, the multiple Hungarian Champion got up early this morning to train his team in the nice and quiet warming up arena. ‘There is not much space to warm the horses up before the competition and I really needed to train them well, so I drove for one hour at 6 am this morning,’ explains Dobrovitz. ‘In the evening I just warmed them up a little bit and they felt good. I knew I had nothing to loose so my only goal was to put pressure on the other competitors.’ And that worked. Dobrovitz drove a fast clear round and the other competitors all had one ball down. With one more show to go for him, Dobrovitz has taken the lead in the standings, ahead of wild card drivers Christoph Sandmann and Michael Freund.

Belgium’s Gert Schrijvers was very pleased with his third place: ‘My horses were impressed by the crowd yesterday and they hesitated a little bit, but today they went really well. I was able to gallop through the course and unfortunately I just hit one ball because of the speed and this cost me the second place. But I am making progress: Fourth in Stuttgart, third in Stockholm, so I go for the second place in Mechelen and the first place in Amsterdam!’ jokes the sympathetic driver.

Wild card driver Fredrik Persson was not able to equal last year’s result when he surprisingly won the World Cup competition in Stockholm. ‘One of my leaders waited too long in the obstacles and knocked a ball down. It was only his second indoor competition so I don’t blame him.’

Switzerland’s Daniël Würgler started off well in the warm up competition where he came third, but he was less fortunate today when the young horse in his team put his tongue over the bit. Würgler was not able to make the turns properly and came sixth in his first World Cup competition of this season. The professional carriage driver was nevertheless very pleased and is not going to make any changes to his team for his next performance in Geneva next weekend.

Results CAI-W Stockholm:
1. Koos de Ronde (Ned) 100.25 (5)
2. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 102.84 (0)
3. Gert Schrijvers (Bel) 106.51 (5)
4. Fredrik Persson (Swe) 108.37 (5)
5. Tomas Eriksson (Swe) 112.75 (5)
6. Daniël Würgler (Sui) 115.25 (5)

Classification after 3 of 7 events:
1. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 15
2. Christoph Sandmann (Ger) 14
3. Michael Freund (Ger) 12
3. Tomas Eriksson (Swe) 12
3. Koos de Ronde (Ned) 12
6. Gert Schrijvers (Bel) 8
7. Ysbrand Chardon (Ned) 5
8. Fredrik Persson (Swe) 3
9. Laszlo Juhasz (Hun) 2
9. Atilla Bardos (Hun) 2
11. Daniël Würgler 1

In Stockholm, Press Officer Press Officer is Lotta Amnestål, phone: +46 709 79 56 35, e-mail: Lotta.amnestal@ridsport.se. Website: www.stockholmhorseshow.com

The FEI World Cup™ Driving in Stockholm will be broadcasted on the Swedish digital TV channel SVT 24 on Sunday, December 3rd, at 10.03 hrs.

The next FEI World Cup™ Driving event takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 8 to 10 December. Press Officer is Corinne Druey, phone: +41 21 312 82 22, e-mail: druey@syntagme-lausanne.ch Website: www.csi-geneve.ch