The 7-year-old gelding Next Direction, driven by Iika Nurmonen, won the Sct Michels race at Mikkeli in a new race record of 1:50.4f.

The old record was held by legendary Varenne, who won the race in 2002 in 1:51.4f.

Next Direction was in command the whole trip and won by three lengths over Italian trotter Vernissage Grif, driven by Alessandro Gocciadoro.

The purse for the winner was 70,000 Euros, but the winner also got an extra 10,000 Euros for the race record.

In another race the 4-year-old mare Mascate Match, sired by Muscle Mass, won in 1:52.3f followed by Golden Tricks, driven by Johan Untersteiner.

The Mikkeli track in Finland is situated in a pine tree forest and is known to be very fast.

In Sweden, the prestigious Stochampionatet for 4-year-old mares at Axevalla was won by Diana Zet, driven by Ôrjan Kihlström. The purse for the winner was 2.4 million SEK or $265,000.