Forty North American bred trotters to race at Solvalla
May 25, 2017,by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Senior Newsroom Correspondent
No less than 40 North American bred trotters will race this weekend at Solvalla, where Europe’s finest mile race, the Elitlopp is raced.
Six of the North American trotters to race at Solvalla landed Tuesday morning, local time, at the Landvetter Airport near Gothenburg in a special chartered plane, sponsored by Karl-Erik Bender (Palema Stable) and his company Benders.
Karl-Erik Bender has been a very successful owner and breeder over the years and has won the Hambletonian with Alf Palema and the Elitlopp with Gidde Palema.
On the plane were four trotters trained by Ake Svanstedt — Resolve, who will race in the main event, the Elitlopp, J A T O, Non Stick and Tech Titan; one trained by Jimmy Takter, Jimmy William; and the sixth trotter, Mountain Of Love, who has been sold to Swedish interests and will now be trained by Björn Goop.
Resolve came in second in last year’s Elitlopp, but has an unlucky draw this year in his elimination, where he will race from post eight.
J A T O, who earlier this year was trained by Ron Burke, will race for Ake Svanstedt in the Sweden Cup Saturday afternoon. The Sweden Cup is raced with three eliminations and a final.
Non Stick, who has won 12 races from 19 starts, will start in a race for 4-year-old mares and Tech Titan is in a race for 4-year-old trotters; both will race Sunday.
Ake Svanstedt will drive his quartet himself; Jimmy Takter has put his brother Johnny up behind Jimmy William in the Elite-race for 4-year-olds; and Björn Goop drives Mountain Of Love.
John Campbell will have a busy weekend as well. Saturday he will drive in two races and Sunday in seven. In the Elitlopp he will drive the rookie Tjacko Zaz, who has raced once, winning very impressively in 1:51.4f.
John Campbell will also drive former Julie Miller-trained Milligan’s School, now trained by Stefan Melander. Milligan’s School has raced twice and won very handily last time out.
Saturday a total of 15 North American bred trotters will race at Solvalla, while there are 24 entered Sunday.
Free programs (Swedish style) can been seen/downloaded from these links:
Saturday – https://shop.solvalla.se/travprogram?product_id=445
Sunday – https://shop.solvalla.se/travprogram?product_id=446
- Timoko sets new record, wins second Elitlopp (Sunday, May 28, 2017)
The 10-year old French top trotter Timoko, driven by Björn Goop, won the final in the Elitlopp on Sunday (May 28) at Solvalla in a new race record of 1.51. He was in front of Propulsion, driven by Johan Untersteiner, and Resolve, driven by Åke Svanstedt, by two lengths. Down the stretch no horse was able to reach the 30-1 shot Timoko, who won the Elitlopp for the second time from his fifth appearance in the final.