by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Nuncio is the talk of the town in Scandinavia. On Wednesday night (Aug. 5) the 4-year-old trotter returned to action at Solvalla and though he raced for the first time over the 1-5/16th mile distance — and with shoes round — he managed to beat the favorite Daley Lovin by a half-length.

Kanal 75 photo

Nuncio was a winner on Wednesday at Solvalla.

Nuncio was timed in 1:54.4f (mile rate) and that was a new Swedish record for 4-year-old foreign-bred totters. Magic Tonight, who races Saturday afternoon at the Meadowlands in the Cashman Memorial, had the old record at 1:55.3f (mile rate).

Nuncio returned to racing after one month off and he didn’t get the best trip of the day.

Daley Lovin, driven by Erik Adielsson, was in command most of the trip and with five-eighths of a mile to go Nuncio was more than 30 yards behind the leader.

“I never thought we were going to get up to Daley Lovin, but Nuncio will win — and he did it. I’m so very impressed by this trotter,” his driver, trainer and owner Stefan Melander said after the race.