Driving News from Hungary

The weather was in favour of the four-in-hand drivers on the first day of the FEI World Cup Driving qualifier in Kecskemét (HUN) since it had stopped raining just a few minutes before the twelve drivers began the Dressage.
Among them was István Váczi (HUN), whose excellent test with his new horses won the day. Improving rapidly this year, Károly Hódi (HUN) placed second with a new set of Lippitzaners. The third place went to the most sinior driver László Juhász, 56, (HUN) charming the jury with freshness and elegance.

On the marathon day, both horses and participants in the First Equestrian Festival in Kecskemét suffered from the humid air. "The sunny afternoon on Saturday after the rainy Friday made the horses’ duty even more difficult,” World Champion József Dobrovitz (HUN) declared after winning the 14 km marathon. "My first set of horses are impatiently waiting for the start in Breda (NED) on Monday and the results with my spare grays (81,84 penalty points) look encouraging in view of the next event," he added. Attila Bárdos (HUN), son of the five-time World Champion György, became the second best of the day (82,08). "Our horses are in brilliant condition and they will surely withstand the permanent stress, no doubt about it,” the father emphasized, who is also the trainer and owner of his son’s team. It looked like Juhász was going to be the fastest on that day, winning all the obstacles; unfortunately, one of his grays was caught in the very last fence and they were forced to withdraw luckily without injury.

It was an exciting day altogether. For instance, fence 4 had to be cancelled for the whole event as a consequence of a partial brake.

With his young and willing horses it was only Hódi who managed the only faultless run on the cones-driving course on Sunday; however, he received 0,55 penalty points for exceeding the time allowed by 1,1 seconds. "Even the deep soil caused by the heavy rain, nothing could have stood stand in the way of my horses, so full were they with enthusiasm," the he commented. Kickinkg down a single ball out of the 28 pairs, the younger Bárdos managed to take up the runner up position. Having started his Driving carreer at his age of 26 in Kecskemét in 1978, József Bozsik (HUN) gained now a ball-plus-time penalty, taking up the third place. Overall winner István Váczi (total 149,45) managed to get into fourth place with two balls down and running out of the time allowed. However, he was lucky enough to secure the overall win ahead of the powerful Bozsik (149,54) with only a very narrow margin of 0,09 points, while Hódi (155,66) blamed his third place on a broken obstacle of the marathon course on the previous day.

For more information:
Cziglányi, Béla
cziglanyi@lovasok.hu