by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Italian horses and trainers are very dominant in 2018 on the European scene.

On Sunday (June 10) the Oslo Grand Prix in Norway was won in a very impressive style by the 5-year-old Urli dei Venti, driven by Enrico Bellei.

In fact, another Italian trotter, Twister Bi driven by Christoffer Eriksson, was favored to win, but he went off stride just before the gate left the field.

Back in Italy a new race for 4-year-old international trotters, the Gran Premio Unione Europea raced at the Agnano track in Naples, was won in very convincing style by Vitruvio driven by his trainer, Alessandro Gocciadoro. Vitruvio won the 1-5/16th mile event in 1:55.2f and picked up a purse of $215,000.

Gocciadoro has his stable in high gear and is the leading trainer and the leading driver in Italy. His stable has won 126 races from 363 starts; that is a win percentage of 34.7 percent.

At the recent Elitlopp meeting at Solvalla, Sweden, Gocciadoro won no less than six races.