11 February 2025

Recap World Cup Final with Boyd Exell, Dries Degrieck and Koos de Ronde

After the tremendously exciting World Cup Final in Bordeaux last weekend, the three medalists looked back on the competition during the press conference afterwards. The atmosphere was good, there was room for serious reflection as well as jokes!

Thirty years

Dries Degrieck, with his second place this season, stood on the podium at the World Cup finals for the first time in his career. Earlier this season he already won the competition in Lyon and Stockholm. “I’m super happy with how last season went. I learned a lot from the drivers around me, how they manage such competitions. In addition, my horses were super, I learned a lot these past few months!”

“And Dries is only 29 years old! It’s great that he’s already doing so well,” Boyd Exell added. “So I think I have about thirty more years before I’m at Boyd’s level, haha! A lot can change in that time.” The others laugh. “Don’t believe everything you hear in the press, haha!”, responds Boyd sharply.

Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Bundy not ready for retirement

Boyd won the World Cup final in Bordeaux for the 11th time in his career. He won it last weekend by about eleven seconds. “Yes super cool of course. I’m especially super grateful to Bundy (official name: Bajnok), he won his 100th World Cup competition in the first competition and on Sunday his 101st. I don’t know any dressage or show jumping horse that has won that many World Cup competitions! He is now 22 years old and still super fit. We have in the back of our minds that his retirement will come one day, which is logical at his age. I have retired a horse twice after the competition in Bordeaux, but they did let us know before that they were ready for it. Bundy hasn’t yet, he was the fastest today while there were plenty of younger horses competing!”

“In addition, we are working hard behind the scenes to find a successor for him. We have already tried that with several, but each time they were just not as good as Bundy.”

Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Clear and higher speed

Koos de Ronde finished a very good third place in Bordeaux. It was the eleventh time for him to be on the podium at a World Cup final. “Maybe not the eleventh time I won, like Boyd, but certainly the eleventh time I was on the podium!” Boyd smiles and Koos continues: “The level was incredibly high this season. Boyd, Dries, IJsbrand and Bram won a competition this season. It was super close. My season went with ups and downs. I drove a few competitions a little too carefully. Then I went for a clear and safe round, but then I was just not fast enough to qualify for the Drive-off. I knew I could do a good result in Bordeaux with clear rounds, but I had to pick up the pace. That’s what I did and in the end it obviously worked out super well.”

“I agree that the differences were very small this year,” Boyd responded after it was suggested it was impossible to compete against him. “I think you could see that here in Bordeaux as well. Dries was fifth after the first competition but then drove a fast and clear round, putting lots of pressure on the rest. Bram and IJsbrand had to go full speed to finish in the top three but because of their fallen balls they just didn’t make it.”

Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Course difficult enough

“I liked the course. It was very flowing and in some parts technical. I think it was very nice to see for the audience and the people at home who followed it on the internet. Personally, I would have liked it to be a little more difficult for a final, but considering the mistakes that were made it was perfect for this competition. I think we showed good sport,” Boyd said of Jeroen Houterman’s course.

Click here for all results
Click here for the photo albums

Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Copyright reserved. Acquisition without acknowledgment and permission from info@hoefnet.nl is not allowed.