by Karsten Bonsdorf, USTA web newsroom correspondent

For the first time ever Kentucky Futurity winner Wishing Stone was entered in a race over the extended distance of 1-5/8th miles on Tuesday night (July 19) at Eskilstuna in Sweden.

Kanal 75 photo

Amour d’Occagnes was a winner for Christophe Martens.

Maybe it was the distance — or maybe he wasn’t at his best — as the Dutch-bred trotter Amour d’Occagnes seemed to be in a class of his own and won by open lengths with Wishing Stone finishing a distant second.

It wasn’t a true run race as Raja Mirchi, driven by Lutfi Kolgjini, was leading the way for the first 1-1/4 mile in just around 2:02 (mile rate). With 600 meters to go Amour d’Occagnes, with Christophe Martens in the bike, made his move. Wishing Stone (with his new trainer Ake Svanstedt in the bike) was sitting in the pocket behind Raja Mirchi and didn’t get out fast enough to follow Amour d’Occagnes going into the last bend.

Amour d’Occagnes was over the hill and won very easily in 1:59.3f (mile rate), while Wishing Stone was timed in 2:00.2f (mile rate). The purse for the winner was $60,000, while Wishing Stone got $27,000 as his share of the purse.

Though Amour d’Occagnes is Dutch-registered, he was born and raised in Normandy, France. He’s sired by the French sire Diamant Gede and out of the German mare Naomi November — she by Viking Kronos and out of a full sister to Hambletonian winner Prakas.

Amour d’Occagnes has developed into a top class trotter within the last couple of months. He made a very good impression at Bjerke, Oslo, in May, where he took his mark of 1:55.4f over the mile despite making a break from the start and later he was a very convincing winner at Charlottenlund, Copenhagen, over 1-5/16th miles in 1:57.1f (mile rate).

Anour d’Occagnes is French owned, but trained in Belgium by the brother of Christophe Martens, Vincent Martens. Amour d’Occagnes has now raced 21 times, winning 10 races and earning $188,000.