by Thomas Hedlund

The $258,000 Gran Premio Costa Azzurra was held in Turin, Italy on Sunday afternoon and Norwegian-bred Cokstile (Quite Easy) was served a perfect trip behind leader and stablemate Chief Orlando by Antonio di Nardo.

In the last turn, Chief Orlando began to show fatigue and Cokstile just flew away from the rest of the gang, which was a merited one with trotters such as Vivid Wise As, Vitruvio and Zacon Gio in the field of seven horses.

Cokstile cruised to safe win in a moderate 1:54.3 mile, ahead of strong finisher Zacon Gio and bronze medalist Vitruvio.

Cokstile can look back at a great season where he’s been runner up in Elitloppet, Kymi Grand Prix and Hugo Åbergs Memorial.

Muscle Hill son in $240,000 German Derby

Wild West Diamant (Muscle Hill), driven by Robin Bakker and trained by Paul Hagoort, claimed the $240,000 German Derby for 3-year-olds in Berlin on Sunday afternoon.

Favorite Keytothehill and Heinz Wewering disappeared at an early stage due to a break and a second over trip for Wild West Diamant resulted in a safe win in stakes record 1:56 over 1,900 meters.

Straight Flush finished second after a pocket trip and first over trotter Toto Barosso held strongly as third.

This was the 125th edition of the German Derby and Dutch trainer Paul Hagoort claimed his seventh victory in the prestigious race. Robin Bakker has helped Hagoort in all his earlier wins in the race and among the duo’s previous winners horses like Tiger Woods As (Quick Wood), Tsunami Diamant and Mister F Daag can be mentioned.

Suspended Goop in favorite position

Solvalla racetrack prepares for stakes races this weekend and Saturday’s race card contains the biggest race for 3-year-olds in Sweden.

The $910,000 Svenskt Travkriterium is open for colts, geldings and mares, but since the mares can choose the $635,000 Oaks, it’s rare that a female 3-year-old tries her luck against the boys and this year is no exception.

Twelve eliminations were held at Solvalla on Sept. 11 — six for the Oaks and six for the Kriterium — where the top two advanced to this week’s stakes finals.

In $910,000 Svenskt Travkriterium, Björn Goop will maybe experience an extra exciting moment since his, so far, undefeated San Moteur (Panne de Moteur) most likely will be the favorite while Goop will look at the race from beside the track. The Swedish top driver is suspended on Saturday and Per Lennartsson will replace Goop behind the talented 3-year-old.

San Moteur, Head Run (Sahara Dynamite), trained by Robert Bergh and Önas Prince (Chocolatier), trained by Per Nordström, are the horses that people talk about most seriously ahead of Saturday’s battle over 2,640 meters, but the edition is very open and it’s not unusual that upset winners present themselves in this particular race.

Goop also managed to qualify three mares for the Oaks, so he will certainly have a nervous Saturday afternoon trackside at Solvalla.

$910,000 Svenskt Travkriterium

Horse – Driver – Trainer

Head Run (Sahara Dynamite) – Robert Bergh
San Moteur (Panne de Moteur) – Per Lennartsson – Björn Goop
Brambling (Bold Eagle) – Örjan Kihlström – Daniel Redén
A Good Point (Maharajah) – Kevin Oscarsson – Sören Norberg
Önas Prince (Chocolatier) – Per Nordström
Twigs Honor (Voltigeur de Myrt) – Erik Adielsson – Svante Båth
Beacon Kronos (Father Patrick) – Per Linderoth – Daniel Redén
Hell Bent For Am (Muscle Hill) – Johan Untersteiner – Stefan Melander
Henry Flyer Sisu (Bold Eagle) – Jorma Kontio – Timo Nurmos
Manny Muscle (Muscle Hill) – Ulf Ohlsson – Reijo Liljendahl
Black And Quick (Up And Quick) – Jörgen S Eriksson
Fire Piston (Ready Cash) – Kim Eriksson – Admir Zukanovic

$635,000 Oaks

Horse – Driver – Trainer

Eagle Eye Cherry (Bold Eagle) – Stefan Persson – Björn Goop
Beauty Kronos (Muscle Hill) – Örjan Kihlström – Daniel Redén
Hoboken Am (Muscle Hill) – Jorma Kontio – Timo Nurmos
Barbro Kronos (Trixton) – Erik Adielsson – Svante Båth
Heloise Am (Trixton) – Per Lennartsson – Roger Walmann
Beware Kronos (Muscle Hill) – Ulf Ohlsson – Svante Båth
Chablis Ribb (Raja Mirchi) – Leif Witasp
Circus (Readly Express) – Mats E Djuse – Björn Goop
Ester Wibb (Orlando Vici) – Oskar J Andersson – Jasmine Ising
Nikita Sunrise (Maharajah) – Claes Sjöström
Wallawalla Broline (Raja Mirchi) – Rikard N Skoglund – Björn Goop
Crashed Eggs (Readly Express) – Torbjörn Jansson – Roger Walmann

Saturday’s race card at Solvalla.