by Karsten Bonsdorf, USTA web newsroom correspondent

The 9-year-old European trotter Commander Crowe continued his winning streak on Tuesday evening (July 31) when he won the first leg of the World Summer Cup — the Aabergs Memorial raced at Jägerso in Sweden — in a new world record of 1:50.4f.

Though he had to trot three wide in the first quarter and the next quarter was second over without cover, Commander Crowe with Belgium driver Christophe Martens in the bike, was in a class of his own and won in a new world record of 1:50.4f — lowering Arch Madness’ record by one-fifth of a second. Second was Sebastian K in 1:51f, followed by Caballion and Sanity, both timed in 1:51.2. Those four trotters are all sired by a French stallion and out of an American mare.

That was another big win for Commander Crowe, who now has won eight top international races in a row this year, including the Elitlopp and Oslo Grand Prix.

The purse for the winner was $150,000 and so far in 2012 Commander Crowe has earnings of $1.4 million. His trainer, Fabrice Souloy of France, still plans to ship Commander Crowe to race in the Breeders Crown in Canada later this year.

On the same card some North American ex-pats showed their ability. Winmecredit, a 5-year-old trotter by Credit Winner, won in 1:54.1 and was driven by Erik Adielsson. Another Credit Winner son, the 4-year-old I’m The Answer, won in a very impressive style in 1:53.2f and was driven by Torbjørn Jansson, who was also in the bike behind the 3-year-old filly Xquisite Chocolate (sired by Chocolatier), who won in 1:56.f. Those three trotters are all trained in Norway by Frode Hamre.