by Magnat

This season’s twentieth meeting will be held at the Marsa race track next Sunday 1st May starting at 2pm, and will comprise seven races. The highlight of the meeting will be two Assikura Cup finals on a 2,140m distance, reserved for trotters which are neither French nor Swedish.

The first final combines the Bronze and Copper classes and the following horses are scheduled to participate: Zut, Blizzard, Lemon Solo, Papa’s Dream, Divinis, Great Line, Boston Harbor, Insa, Lazume Simoni and Kejser Engely. Four Danes, three Germans and one horse from each of Finland, Italy and the USA, with ages ranging between 7 and 15 years.

The second final involves horses from the Premier, Gold and Silver classes with the following field: Count of Life, Socrates, Obi Wan Kenobi, Big Hit, Baronello, Indian Attack, Newman, Arifant and Bete Saknussen. Three Finns, three Germans, two Danes and one Norwegian, with ages of between 6 and 12 years.

The other trot events will consist of two Copper class races and one for the Bronze class, all over the long 3,140m distance. These include a number of trotters coming from recent good performances, such as Loulou Noir and Pretty Post in the Bronze Class, Lorraine d’Oliverie, Mirall Composite, Marathon D’Isques in the Copper Class, and many others.

We will also see two flat races, one for Class B and the other for Class A thoroughbreds both over a 1,750m distance, each involving a full field of eight registered horses. Both races include horses registering wins or good places recently, such as Ollie Fliptrik, Life Is Now and others in Class B and Uncle Bertie, Kimberley Downs, Giada Med and others in Class A.

Last meetings
The last meetings were characterised by two exciting Premier Class races over 2,640m. Saturday’s race saw Carnegie Hall taking an early lead and holding it until the last 600m when it was overtaken by Le Coup de Foudre which maintained a strong pace until the end, to win in a time of 1’17’1 per kilometre, from Gentle Way, Le Bolide du Suret and newcomer Candy Fantasy.

In Sunday’s race, we saw a brilliant, head-to-head tussle in the last 400m between Mon Daniel and Master Perrine with the win ultimately going to Mon Daniel by a minimal margin, in a very good time of 1’15’9 per kilometre. Belafonte and Mark de Chamant finished in third and fourth place respectively.

On Sunday, we also had an attractive international race involving Finnish and Maltese drivers. This encounter saw Maltese drivers Darren Mizzi (Kiton de Bouere), Julian Farrugia (Ironbar), Larson Mifsud (Improve Simb) and David Ellul (Vera L.H.) taking the first four places. However, more important than the final result is the friendly spirit existing between all competitors.

Malta Racing Club Chairman Dr Matthew Brincat presented the winner’s trophy to Darren Mizzi and mementoes to the drivers. We hope to see more friendly encounters of this nature with the participation of foreign drivers.

We also saw two interesting Gold Class races, with Nuage Somolli registering its first win in Malta after taking the lead in the last lap of Saturday’s race and maintaining it until the end to win in a good time of 1’16’5 per kilometre in front of Delvin Brodde, Rambo Lambo and Kalipso Pierji.

Sunday’s race was won by Matador Knick which overtook New Sun in the final stages and went on to win from the latter, Major de la Vronde and Victory Toll.

Other news
In the last fifteen days, the Malta Racing Club has received a number of doping test results. No prohibited substances were found in respect of the doping tests of Mirall Composite, Energy Launcher, Major Chaleonnais, Rybo Juvel, Big Hit, Ker Pellois, Tarruji, Natif du Moulin and Gigo Lloyd (re-testing for the purpose of returning to racing). Well done to the owners and trainers of these horses which were found to be clean from prohibited substances.

Unfortunately positive results for Category 3 doping offences were also received in respect of two other horses. We augur that we will see further reductions in the number of doping offences in Malta, so as to further promote a culture of fair play in this sport and to ensure that nobody achieves success by the use of illicit means at the expense of others who observe the rules.

Outside France and Sweden
The Assikura Cup Finals bring in focus horses originating from countries other than France and Sweden. Although not too numerous (accounting for 15% of new horses in 2009 and 12% in 2010 and in 2011 to date), they are a constant feature of the Maltese horse racing scene.

Since 2006, we have had newcomers originating from no less than 10 countries (apart from France and Sweden), i.e. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain (we understand that the particular horse is Danish but registered in Great Britain), Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States.

These are all European countries, except for the USA (but many of the horses originating in that country used to compete in Europe). The most popular countries of origin among them are Denmark and Germany, followed by Norway and Finland, confirming the popularity of Scandinavian horses locally.

Statistics issued by the Union Europeenne du Trot show that these countries have a prominent role in the European trotting scene. Italy occupies first place for the number of trot races held, with Finland in fourth place among the UET’s member countries. Italy is also among the top three countries in number of trot racehorses and prize-money, with Finland and Norway also featuring in the top five in these categories.

Without needing to go into the past, these countries also currently boast some excellent horses, such as the 2011 Olympiatravet winner Brioni (German), 2011 Prix de l’Atlantique winner Main Wise As (Italian), the 2010 Gran Premio delle Nazioni winner Lisa America (Italian – daughter of the legendary Italian trotter Varenne) and many others.

We look forward to seeing in action some other fine horses originating in these countries in the finals being held next Sunday.

We wish you all another exciting meeting on Sunday.