Dries Degrieck (BEL) seals second win of the series in Stockholm (SWE)

 Dries Degrieck (BEL) rose to the challenge in front of a huge crowd at the Strawberry Arena in Stockholm (SWE) and showed that he is a force to reckoned with after a well-deserved win at the fourth leg of the FEI Driving World Cup™.   
The Belgian grinned broadly after he won both competitions on Friday night and Saturday evening.  Despite knocking a ball and adding an extra loop in his opening round, his clear in 146.81 in the first drive-off was enough for the top spot. Yet on Saturday, he elevated his performance even more to produce a phenomenal fast, clear drive-off round in 144.27 to clinch his second victory in the series following the win at the opening leg in Lyon (FRA) in early November.  

Paying tribute to his brilliant team – Big Star, Hunter, Kane B and Leon – he said, “I was really happy with all the rounds.  Of course, in the first round tonight I had two balls down but my horses did a great job.  They are quite young – my right leader is only eight years old – but I can feel that they take me with them at every competition and they are making it easier each time.  My horses are fast and they like a fast course, although I could work on my speed in the obstacles.  The audience here is amazing, and you can really hear them cheering us on.”  

The tables were turned as Dries beat former champion Boyd Exell (AUS) at his own game to drive so fearsomely that the pressure got to the Australian who missed a turn which cost valuable seconds – normally it’s Boyd who forces the errors in his rivals due to his tenacity.  The multiple champion started on Friday night with all guns blazing and drove a speedy clear first round in 144.91, but in the drive-off the game-plan fell apart as he uncharacteristically knocked five balls to add 20 to his time.  By Saturday he had regrouped and he secured his place in the second drive-off with the lowest score so was last to go, but he couldn’t see off the challenge from Dries and he finished on a time of 146.21.   

Boyd later congratulated Dries and third placed Anna Mareike Meier (GER), joking that after he and Mareike tallied 20 penalties each in Friday’s drive-off they decided that they would try and go clear the following day.  Reflecting on his mistake in the second obstacle in Saturday’s drive-off, he said, “In the drive-off we were flying, the team felt really great and we had good lines but then I looked down for a second at my inside wheeler and when I looked up, my left leader said, ‘Do you want this gap?’ and I sat for a second and didn’t react.  But we adapted well after that and raced to the finish, so I am really proud that we were only two seconds off the winner.” 

The only driver to produce two clear rounds in competition two in times of 160.68 and 156.72, third placed Anna Marieke Meier stated, “I’m really happy and as Boyd said, we had too many balls yesterday and so we watched the videos and tried to do better today.  Because you can choose the World Cup competitions, I always choose Stockholm because we really like it and this is my 5th time coming here.  My goal now is to get to the final, but I don’t even have the date in my diary!”
Improving with each outing with his new grey team, Glenn Geerts (BEL) secured a place in Friday’s drive-off and third place.  But a moment of miscommunication and loss of pace during Saturday’s first round meant he just missed out on another drive-off to finish fourth with a time only score of 162.30.

Making clear progress between Friday and Saturday, wild card Axel Olin (SWE) last competed at the Stockholm indoor event in 2018.  Using outdoor horses who have never competed at a World Cup before, Friday’s round was heavy in penalties but after telling himself to “have fun” on Saturday, he and his horses were much more relaxed.  Opting to stay in the same rhythm through most of the course, they only had one ball and a time of 163.71 (167.71) to finish fifth.  “I’m going to go home and enjoy what I did today and prepare my horses for the outdoor season.”

This was the opening event for Fredrik Persson (SWE) as a qualified driver.  Debuting the team of Lipizzaner horses he recently purchased from Chester Weber (USA), who used them in the 2022-23 series, they are still all becoming familiar with each other.  On Friday they were fourth and on Saturday, despite being faster against the clock, had a penalty-heavy round and ended sixth on 176.56.
The drivers were united in their praise for the organisers of the Sweden International Horse Show, saying that they are made to feel very welcome.  They also praised the well-designed course provided by Johan Jacobs (NED) which drove smoothly but asked the right level of questions at this halfway stage in the series.  Johan stated that he designed the course with the surface and layout of the arena in mind and the level of the drivers forward, giving plenty of options for both the larger, outdoor teams and the smaller, specialist indoor teams.

After the 4th leg Boyd currently tops the rankings on 27 with two wins and a second, and Dries is behind him on 20 with two wins from two events, followed by Jérôme Voutaz (SUI) on 14.  But it will all change again after the 5th leg in Geneva (SUI) when Boyd and Dries line up against Bram Chardon (NED), Koos de Ronde (NED) and Georg von Stein (GER).
The live coverage will be on FEI TV on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th December.