Who will wear the yellow jacket?
by Thomas Hedlund
By tradition, the yellow jacket of the Derby will be given to the owners, trainer and driver of the winning horse and on Sunday (Sept. 7) in Malmö, at Jägersro racetrack. It will be a nervous and exciting day for the connections of the 12 finalists.
The $800,000 Derby for 4-year-olds is one of the very most prestigious races in Europe and Sunday’s field includes two Swedish-bred trotters trained outside of Sweden, which has been more common in recent years.
Paul Hagoort and Michel Rothengatter are well known trainers to the Swedish harness racing fans by now, but neither of the Dutch trainers are in favorite positions for Sunday.
Daniel Wäjersten’s Bullet The Bluesky (Readly Express), winner of the $800,000 Kriteriet and $320,000 Breeders Crown as a 3-year-old, has continued to be in the top of the crop and he completed his elimination at Jägersro on Aug. 26 in splendid style.
Dream Mine (Maharajah), winner of the $400,000 E3 for his trainer Jörgen Westholm last year, also impressed in his elimination and the two colts are starting side by side from post 4 (Bullet The Bluesky) and post 5 (Dream Mine).
Behind the aforementioned colts, a mare hunts, and La Yuca (Face Time Bourbon), winner of the $320,000 Breeders Crown last year and $480,000 Stochampionatet in July this year, might very well be the favorite when the car accelerates Sunday afternoon and she is the only girl in the race. Joviality was the only mare when she claimed the Derby for Erik Adielsson two years ago and it’s not an impossible task La Yuca is facing.
Trainer Daniel Redén and owner Tobias Persson could have chosen a safer spot by entering the $400,000 Derby for mares, but after the victory in the Stochampionatet, the owner aimed high and now La Yuca is in the final of the Derby.
Three mares stand out merit-wise. S.G.Empress (Readly Express), winner of the $200,000 E3 last year, Vivillion (Propulsion) winner of the $600,000 Oaks as a 3-year-old, and Screen Time Limit (Face Time Bourbon), winner of the $400,000 E3 and runner-up in the $320,000 Breeders Crown last year, are the horses with the most lifetime earnings, but that doesn’t mean that any one of them will win Sunday’s Derby for mares. It’s an open story with several horses showing great capacity.
Timo Nurmos’ Ulaya (Love You) for example. Eight out of eight so far in her career, and by that, Ulaya is the contender with the least routine in the field.
A very exciting day awaits in Malmö on Sunday.
VICTORY STREAK BROKEN IN LA CAPELLE
La Capelle in northern France hosted the $125,000 Grand Prix de la Federation Regionale du Nord Wednesday (Sept. 3) and a very big favorite was seen as Laurent-Claude Abrivard’s Inexess Bleu chased his 10th consecutive win.
But Inexess Bleu surprisingly went off-stride as he was on his way to disarming leader Falco Killer Gar at the top of the long homestretch of La Capelle. With the favorite out of the game, second over runner Hulysse Diego (Reve de Beylev) and Jean-William Hallais could use the racing room between horses and fight to the win in a mile rate of 1:53.1 over 1.1 miles.
GOOP, KIHLSTRÖM AND REDÉN TO YONKERS
Daniel Wäjersten was already ready to go to New York with Gio Cash for the $1 million Yonkers International Trot on Sept. 13, but now, more Swedes will join him on the journey to America. Björn Goop will drive Norwegian contribution Powwow, Örjan Kihlström will sit behind Double Deceiver, and the latter’s stablemate, Gamin Jaba, will get his trainer Daniel Redén in the bike.
For the rest of the European horses, the most likely thing is that Alessandro Gocciadoro will drive Diva Ek, Gabriele Gelormini will drive Hohneck, and Jean-Philippe Monclin will pilot Ideal Ligneries.
