by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

The 6-year-old French trotter Univers de Pan, driven by Philippe Daugeard, won the Finlandia Race at Vermo on Saturday afternoon (May 10).

Gerard Forni photo

Univers de Pan, driven by Philippe Daugeard, won the Finlandia Race at Vermo on Saturday afternoon.

The Finlandia Race is the biggest race in Finland and is a leg of the European Trotting Masters Series.

This was the first time that Univers de Pans has ever raced outside France. He has stamped himself as a top trotter by winning the prestigious Grand Criterium de Vitesse at Cagnes dur Mer and he has been second in Prix de France as well as in the Prix de l’Atlantique.

In Finland he won easily in 1:53.4f followed by the two Italian trotters, Oasis Bi and Prussia, while long leading Sanity of Sweden finished fourth.

The purse for the winner was $150,000.

Immediately after the race Univers de Pan was invited to race in the Elitlopp in a fortnight, but the invitation was declined. His connections do not want him to race twice a day and he also has stallion duties in France, where he stands at stud for $5,500 live foal.