by Karsten Bonsdorf, USTA web newsroom correspondent

The 9-year-old Swedish trotter Commander Crowe continued his winning streak on Saturday afternoon (June 16) in the Kymi Grand Prix at the Kouvola track in Finland.

Gerard Forni photo

Commander Crowe was a winner in the Kymi Grand Prix.

This was his fourth big international win in Scandinavia and again the chestnut gelding driven by Christophe Martens was superior as he won the 1-5/16th mile event in 1:55.4f by three lengths, followed by the Finnish trotters Womanizer and Maxwell Mayday.

The purse for the winner was $105,000 and so far this year Commander Crowe has earned more than $1 million.

Earlier this year Commander Crowe won the Elitlopp, Oslo Grand Prix and the Olympic Trot. He’s Swedish owned, but trained in France by Fabrice Souloy. His next race will be the Forus Open in Norway on Saturday (June 30).

In France some of the best trotters in that country met in the Prix Rene Balliere at Vincennes, a race over 1-5/16th miles, which is the shortest distance races are run at the 1,975 meter track.

Last Saturday Texas Charm, driven by Julien Dubois, won in a new track record of 1:53.2, standing start, and he went to post in this Saturday’s race as a heavy favorite.

However, Texas Charm became very hot behind the gate and took off like a rocket with fractions of :26.2 and :27.3.

As the back side of Vincennes is uphill, Texas Charm began to tire and with 500 meters to go he went off stride and was disqualified. Instead the second favorite, Main Wise AS driven by Sebastian Ernault, took over and he won easily in 1:53.2 (mile rate) on a sloppy track followed by Roxane Griff and Rodrigo Jet.

Main Wise As is a 6-year-old Italian trotter sired by Yankee Glide and out of Desert Flower K, she by Sierra Kosmos. He is owned in The Netherlands, but trained in France by the German trainer Mike Lenders.

The purse for the winner was $125,000 and Main Wise As now has lifetime earnings of $1.4 million. He might race next against Commander Crowe in the Forus Open.

In Sweden the very popular 6-year-old gelding Sanity, driven by Johnny Takter, returned to the winner’s circle after he flopped in the Elitlopp. Sanity won the Norrbotten Grand Prix over 1-5/16th miles at Boden in 1:55.1f (mile rate).

The race was contested at 10 p.m. in daylight, as Boden is close to the Polar circle. More than 10,000 fans saw Sanity win.