AUSTRALIA'S champion four-in-hand driver Boyd Exell is again on track to win the World Cup for Carriage Driving.
He scored an impressive win at the World Equestrian Festival CHIO at Aachen, in Germany, last weekend.
Boyd took first place in the dressage and third in the marathon over a 8500-metre course.
The course designer, Dr Wolfgang Asendorf, described it as "a demanding course, which separates the wheat from the chaff".
"The drivers really have to use their heads here and contemplate exactly how to set the pace so that their team doesn't tire too early," he said.
Boyd added a sixth in the obstacle driving competition which was enough to give him the overall championship.
His team of horses at Aachen was Monty, Winston, Bill, Capone II and Rambo.
Boyd topped the rankings with a total score of 138.17 points, ahead of the Dutch driver Ijsbrand Chardon on 144.49 points and Christoph Sandmann, of Germany, on 153.46 points.
He won the FEI World Cup Final in Sweden last year and has taken part in seven World Championship competitions.
Boyd, 36, has lived in Great Britain since 1993. He started driving at the tender age of eight.
In England, another world carriage driving champion, George Bowman, was not so lucky.
Bowman, 74, escaped serious injury when his antique horse-drawn coach was struck in the side by a prison van that was pulling out of a police station.
The coach, which was returning from Royal Ascot races with 10 passengers, was pushed into a curb and tipped on to two wheels.
A woman passenger fell from the coach and fractured a hip. George was pulled forward from the driver's seat and landed face-first on the rear two horses as the leaders panicked and tried to bolt.
He suffered cuts to the scalp.
The accident could have been worse if the horses had broken away as it took place on a busy road.
The $50,000 coach is a write-off and several of the passengers were treated for shock. Mr Bowman was taken to hospital and later released.
