Exell Triumphs in Stuttgart Thriller

The ultimate champion, Boyd Exell (AUS) once again showed why he is nearly impossible to beat at the third leg of the FEI Driving World Cup™ in Stuttgart (GER).

Digging deep to see off his rivals, he came from behind on Friday to win, then pulled off an astonishing recovery on Saturday to take the prize and a maximum 10 ranking points to go to the top of the table. 

Facing the most challenging course so far this series, no one produced a clear round during Friday night’s opening competition. Even Boyd had to add twelve to his time after round one, and he entered the drive-off in third place. But second time out, Boyd did what he does so well and held his nerve which made life difficult for the others. Although he had eight penalties in the drive-off, his time was fast enough to give him an overall total of 326.92. 

 
Keeping the Friday night fans in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle on the edge of their seats, all seven drivers returned to the arena for the drive-off over the same course. Cheering as the turnouts splashed through the water and clattered over the bridge, they were given a world-class competition which went down to the wire. 

Crowd behind Brauchle

To their delight, it seemed that the night might belong to wild card entry Michael Brauchle (GER) who had the fervour of the crowd behind him and threatened to topple the master. Despite his blistering first drive for a leading total of 162.15, as last to enter in the drive-off, the pressure took its toll and a missed turn in obstacle five broke the rhythm and the horses didn’t find their flow again. A bell ring after a knocked cone which hadn’t yet been driven through added even more penalties and Michael slipped from first to sixth.  

The scores were zeroed for competition two at Saturday lunchtime. The capacity crowd had been whipped up before the driving started. Boyd, as the previous night’s winner, was last to go – so far, familiar territory.  A clear round in a fast time of 150.44 assured him of a drive-off place and again, he would be the last to go.

But it looked like the form book would be ripped up as Jérôme Voutaz (SUI) found his groove and did everything right. After his fourth place on Friday night, he raised his game to blast round in 151.87 with four to add and secure a drive-off place.  It seemed like the planets had aligned for the experienced Swiss as his horses pulled together brilliantly to fly around the same course in 149.36 with no penalties to add – the first sub 150 time so far.  It looked like we had our winner.

Enter Exell...

But, when you have Boyd Exell coming in last, nothing can be taken for granted. Breaths were held and knuckles turned white as his fast four sprinted through the cones, over the bridge and twisted through the two obstacles.  A flicker of a four on the screen which was then zeroed hinted that the judges had pinged a penalty then withdrew it… but a moment later a penalty four did appear in the golden box, and suddenly the Australian was fighting for his win.

Somehow, somewhere, he found five seconds on the latter part of the course. He glanced up at the big arena clock as he dashed down the long side then with an imperceptible change up in gear, his horses jet propelled themselves through the last few turns and raced at the finish in an astonishing time of 144.31 – over six seconds faster than his previous round. Even the extra four didn’t matter – he’d done enough and his total of 148.31 edged him ahead of Voutaz’s 149.36.