by Thomas Hedlund

The $247,000 Finnish Kriterium for 3-year-olds were held in Tampere, Finland on Saturday afternoon and first choice crop dominant Mascate Match couldn’t extend her winning streak in stakes races.

Mascate Match (Muscle Mass) has dominated the E3 circuit in Sweden during the summer and Pekka Korpi’s mare came to the Kriterium where high expectations were waiting her.

Driver Ari Moilanen sent Korpi’s trotter to the lead and midway through the 1.6 miles long race, Mascate Match got company on the outside by Markku Nieminen trained Raskolnikov Frido (Muscle Hill), driven by Santtu Raitala. When the field reached the home stretch, Raskolnikov Frido disarmed Mascate Match and also had enough power to resist challengers from far outside.

The mile rate for Markku Nieminen’s horse was 2:00.2 and Nieminen could note that his second horse in the race, Stonecapes Sparrow (Ready Cash) captured the silver medal ahead of BWT Echo (The Bosses Lindy).

Raskolnikov Frido was the second choice in the Kriterium and he has six wins in eleven starts this season.
Belina Josselyn on comeback trail

From France, top trainer Jean-Michel Bazire mentioned in an interview with TV channel Equidia, that his Prix d’Amérique winner Belina Josselyn (Love You) soon will be seen at the racetrack again. Belina Josselyn suffered a fracture during the meeting in Paris this year, but Bazire seems confident in her recovery and later this month, Belina Josselyn will most probably start at Vincennes as a preparation for the big Grand Prix races in Paris in winter.

“Belina is in 50 per cent condition at this very moment, but we aim for a start on Oct. 22 and then she will enter all four B-races ahead of the Prix d’Amérique,” Bazire told Equidia.