No Stopping Boyd Exell in First World Cup Competition at London Olympia

Boyd Exell was once again an unstoppable force as he took the opening competition in the FEI Driving World Cup™ at the Olympia, London International Horse Show, where he competes as a Wild Card entrant.

Koos de Ronde finished in second place and Chester Weber rounded out the top three.

Exell, de Ronde and Weber qualified for the Drive Off over the course designed by Dutch level 4 Course Designer Jeroen Houterman, who is at making his course building debut at Olympia this year.

Olympia is a particularly special show for Exell who describes they annual show as a homecoming event "This is my second home, I lived here 25 years and my friends and harness clubs and people that I lived and trained with for 20 years are in the crowd"

Exell drove his very experienced team, fast and carefully, through the shortened course without any mistakes and stopped the clock over three seconds faster than his rivals.

“IJsbrand put in a surprise mistake again so he will be dangerous tomorrow after his mistakes today and Koos will also be on fire tomorrow,” says Boyd. "We still have to get into the top three again tomorrow and then we start from zero again, so I have to keep my feet on the ground and keep focused!”

"They are a very eperienced team, Demi who was in the main arena with me tonight is 22 or 23 so she really knows her job and you can rely on her, I saved her for this show and then next few shows until the final so I am very pleased with them, a bit like a well oiled machine." said Exell of his team tonight. "I am a back with vengence as I am still not happy about my mistake in the final last year at Bordeaux, once I put that right I will probably relax again."

Chardon will be the first driver in the arena on Saturday in the FEI Driving World Cup™ competition in which valuable World Cup points can be collected.