Tae Kwon Deo strong in Örebro as Elitloppet field shapes up
by Thomas Hedlund
Adrian Kolgjini trained 5-year-old Tae Kwon Deo (Muscle Hill—Brigham Dream), who won $199,500 Sprintermästaren in Halmstad last summer, showed no mercy to his opponents when the gold division was held at Örebro racetrack on Saturday afternoon. By tradition, the winner of the particular race usually gets a ticket for Elitloppet, if the performance is good enough and Tae
Kwon Deo glittered in impressive style.
From position first over, the 5-year-old Muscle Hill son came home in 1:52.1 over the mile and equaled the season best mark in Sweden, which was a performance good enough to receive a spot in Elitloppet at Solvalla in the end of this month.
The Elitloppet will be held, as we’ve told before, without spectators, but with the purse of $612,000 and on Saturday night, five horses have got their invitations to the mile race in Stockholm.
Vivid Wise As (Italy), Elian Web (Finland), Chief Orlando (Finland), Attraversiamo (Sweden) and Tae Kwon Deo (Sweden) are all ready for two heats at Solvalla on May 31.
Attraversiamo — the 5-year-old Swedish Derby winner by Kiss Francais, trained by Svante Båth — got his ticket for the Elitloppet earlier this week and it is interesting that all that qualified this year are all new names ahead of the invitation process on Solvalla’s part.
Propulsion is still not a safe card in the race this year and other well-merited trotters in Europe are either stationed in countries that are under lockdown due to the COVID-19 situation, or in business beside the racing track as studs (Readly Express, Ringostarr Treb for example).
Sixteen trotters will eventually gather at Solvalla and it seems like Elitloppet 2020, despite the strange situation with no on track spectators, will be a fresh year where the new generation of trotters breakthrough in a serious way.
More news regarding the Elitloppet: The post time for the final heat, will be 8:30 p.m. CET (2:30 p.m. EDT) on Sunday May 31 and that fact gives television viewers the opportunity to see the race broadcast live on one of Sweden’s largest TV channels.
