Australia's Boyd Exell drove Saturday's third-fastest marathon to maintain the lead he took in the first phase of Driving World Championships at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Second-placed Ijsbrand Chardon has put the Dutch team in front (273.77), while third-placed Tucker Johnson is leading the U.S. team's charge for second place (300.92). Sweden is third (311.24).

"Normally on most marathons you'll have one little something somewhere, but today seemed almost perfect. Even going safe we were still fast," said Exell, 38, on Saturday (Oct. 9). "I wanted to go fast enough to put pressure on Chardon, but not make mistakes. The horses were machines out there, they just really did it on their own."

Exell, along with teammate Gavin Robson, has put Australia in the team medal hunt too. They're in fourth, with 311.99 penalties, just behind Sweden. Australia has never won a team medal at the Driving World Championships.

Chardon, a former multiple-time world champion and one of the sport's fastest marathon drivers, was only 5.89 points behind Exell after dressage. Today he drove the fastest total time in the eight obstacles of the 25 drivers, scoring 4.17 penalties fewer than Exell. The gap between them is now only 2.72 points