Ever young Don Fanucci Zet — the 10-year-old Swedish trotter — was able to race on the outside of the pacesetting Executiv Ek and still score a convincing victory in the Ulf Thoresen Grand International at Jarlsberg in Norway.
It may be a worn-out phrase, but Don Fanucci Zet is like a fine French red wine. He just keeps getting better with age.
On Sunday (July 5), the Daniel Redén-trained Don Fanucci Zet, driven by Örjan Kihlström, won the Group 1 Ulf Thoresen Grand International — a race named after Norway’s greatest harness driver of all time, Ulf Thoresen.
Even though Don Fanucci Zet had to do the hard work first-over on the outside of Executiv Ek, he won comfortably in 1:55.4f (mile rate). There was, however, plenty of drama in the battle for the minor placings.
The former Åke Svanstedt trainee Get A Wish, now trained and driven by Robert Bergh in Sweden, crossed the finish line second but was disqualified for interfering with Betting Pacer in the stretch. As a result, second place went to Norway’s Daim Brodda with Erik Høitomt.
Don Fanucci Zet earned the $80,000 winner’s share and has now banked $2.5 million in his career.
“I love this horse. He delivers time and time again in his races. Just think — I once bought his dam, a pacing mare (Kissed By The West), because I wanted to show that in Sweden you could train a pacer to become a trotter,” Daniel Redén said after the race.
“That was overconfident of me, because I couldn’t do it. But she did produce Don Fanucci Zet, so something good came out of that experiment,” he added.
Redén and Kihlström won another race on the card as well.
That victory came with Keep Asking, a son of Chapter Seven who was campaigned in the United States by George Ducharme. In the U.S., he won 10 of 27 starts, earned $598,949, and took a mark of 1:54 before being sold to Sweden’s Stall Zet.
Keep Asking, with Kihlström in the bike, had an easy assignment in the Anders Jahres Trophy, which carried a $20,000 first prize. The winning time was 1:55.3f.
Keep Asking has now made 12 starts in Scandinavia, winning seven times, trotting in 1:52.2f, and earning $270,000.