Dutch-trained and owned trotters have dominated the German Trotting Derby the last 10 years, but finally on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 21) German-owned, trained and driven Days of Thunder with Thorsten Tietz and trained by Robert Graumüller won in 1:57.4 (mile rate), which was a new race record, and that was a very popular win at the historic Mariendorf track in Berlin.

The purse for the winner was 154,613 Euro.

Owners, trainers, and drivers from The Netherlands are a great part of the trotting world in Germany, and every year since 2013 it has been a Dutch owned, trained and driven trotter who had won the Deutsches Traber-Derby.

The favorite this year was also from this group — Usain Lobell with Robin Bakker and trained by Paul Hagoort — but they had to settle for second behind Days of Thunder.

Days of Thunder is sired by SJ’s Caviar, who also sired the winner of the mare division, Riet Hazelaar with Robin Bakker in the bake and trained by another Dutch trainer, Dion Tesselaar.

The last time a German trained and driven trotter had won the Deutsches Traber-Derby was in 2012, where the Derby was won by Dream Magic BE with Josef Franzl.

Normally a trotter in Europe only has one chance to be a Derby winner, but the German crop of 2018 got a second chance. The Derby has always been raced for 3-year-old trotters, but the German Trotting Association changed it to a race for 4-year-olds and thus the crop of 2018 got two Derbies to race in.

Last year’s Derby winner Lorens Flevo had also qualified for the Derby 2022, but only managed to finish seventh.