Australia’s Boyd Exell made history when claiming the FEI World Cup™ Driving title for the sixth time at the 2014/2015 Final in Bordeaux (FRA) last February. (FEI/Pierre Costabadie)

Lausanne (SUI), 16 November 2015 – The very successful FEI World Cup™ Driving series will enter its 15th season starting in Stuttgart next Friday, 20 November 2015. After the introduction of the FEI World Cup™ Driving for Four-In-Hand in 2001, the series developed and became increasingly popular amongst Carriage Driving fans, competitors, organisers and media. The series is a fantastic platform for the promotion of the sport of Carriage Driving in general, and indoor Driving in particular.

After an exciting outdoor season with thirteen qualifying competitions all over Europe, 10 top Four-In-Hand drivers will battle it out in seven legs over the coming months.

Chester Weber (USA) who finished 5th in the qualifying series and Christoph Sandmann (GER) who finished 12th have both withdrawn. So Rainer Duen (GER) and Jérôme Voutaz (SUI) have moved up in the standings and are delighted to compete in the 2015/2016 series.

Last competed

Rainer Duen (44) is back after he last competed during the 2011/2012 series. Jérôme Voutaz (36) competed with a wild card at the CAI-W Geneva in 2014 and 2015 and is now part of the complete series.

Six-times FEI World Cup™ Driving Champion and winner of the Reem Acra Best Athlete Award 2015 Boyd Exell (AUS) won the Outdoor Qualification Ranking and will put everything at stake to defend his title. Silver medallist at the FEI European Championships in Aachen (GER), IJsbrand Chardon (NED), and bronze medallist Koos de Ronde (NED), both members of the all-conquering gold-medal-winning Dutch team, will also be in action.

Father and son József Dobrovitz and József Dobrovitz Jr. were members of the bronze team in Aachen and will defend the Hungarian colours during the upcoming indoor season.

European Four-In-Hand champion and reigning German champion Michael Brauchle and his compatriot Georg von Stein, who were both members of the silver team in Aachen, have also qualified for the series along with the only Belgian contender, Glenn Geerts.

Geerts entered the Top Ten late last season, and having put down strong performances during the outdoor season he finished ninth on the qualification leaderboard.

FEI World Cup™ Driving 2015-2016

The FEI World Cup™ Driving series is made up of seven legs staged in Germany, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain and Belgium. Madrid is a new venue for the series and will host a qualifier for the first time on 28 and 30 November as part of Madrid Horse Week. Madrid replaces Budapest (HUN) which held a leg of the series since 2008.

Five drivers from the Top 10 will compete at each event and organisers may give wild cards. The top five drivers compete at four events, the numbers six to ten will start at three events.

The scores from the best three events count. The top six drivers qualify for the Final, which will take place in Bordeaux (FRA) for the fifth consecutive time.

Competitors FEI World Cup™ Driving 2015-2016
Final Standings FEI World Cup Qualification:

1 EXELL, Boyd AUS 90
2 CHARDON, Ijsbrand NED 79
3 DOBROVITZ, József HUN 70
4 DE RONDE, Koos NED 68
5 WEBER, Chester USA withdrawn 67
5 VON STEIN, Georg GER 67
7 BRAUCHLE, Michael GER 66
8 DOBROVITZ, József Jr. HUN 61
9 GEERTS, Glenn BEL 60
10 SANDMANN, Christoph GER withdrawn 58
11 DUEN, Rainer GER 57
12 VOUTAZ, Jérôme SUI 52

CALENDAR

Stuttgart (GER) 18-22.11.2015:
Boyd Exell (AUS)
IJsbrand Chardon (NED)
Georg von Stein (GER)
Rainer Duen (GER)
Jozsef Dobrovitz sr. (HUN)

Stockholm (SWE) 27-29.11.2015:
Jozsef Dobrovitz jr. (HUN)
IJsbrand Chardon (NED)
Jozsef Dobrovitz sr. (HUN)
Georg von Stein (GER)
Michael Brauchle (GER)

Madrid (ESP) 26-29.11.2015:
Koos de Ronde (NED)
Boyd Exell (AUS)
Glenn Geerts (BEL)
Rainer Duen (GER)
Jérôme Voutaz (SUI)

Geneva (SUI) 10-13.12.2015:
Jozsef Dobrovitz sr. (HUN)
Jozsef Dobrovitz jr. (HUN)
Jérôme Voutaz (SUI)
Boyd Exell (AUS)
Koos de Ronde (NED)

London Olympia (GBR) 16-18.12.2015:
Glenn Geerts (BEL)
Ijsbrand Chardon (NED)
Jozsef Dobrovitz sr. (HUN)
Koos de Ronde (NED)
Georg von Stein (GER)

Mechelen (BEL) 26-30.12.2015:
IJsbrand Chardon (NED)
Georg von Stein (GER)
Michael Brauchle (GER)
Rainer Duen (GER)
Boyd Exell (AUS)

Leipzig (GER) 14-17.01.2016:
Koos de Ronde (NED)
Michael Brauchle (GER)
Glenn Geerts (BEL)
Jozsef Dobrovitz jr. (HUN)
Jérôme Voutaz (SUI)

Bordeaux (FRA) FINAL, 6-7 February 2016
Open to the top six athletes after CAI-W Leipzig

The first qualifier of the FEI World Cup™ Driving 2015/2016 season takes place on Saturday, 21 November at the Stuttgart German Masters and will be broadcast live on FEI TV, the FEI’s official video platform, at 13.50 CET (local time in Germany, GMT+1 hour). For information on this event, go to the official website or contact Press Officer Jörg Klopfer, joerg.klopfer@in.stuttgart.de, +49 7 11 95 54 31 28.

For more information on FEI World Cup™ Driving, please check the FEI website.

By Cindy Timmer

FEI Media Contact:

Ruth Grundy
Manager Press Relations
Email: ruth.grundy@fei.org
Tel: +41 787 506 145