by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Thursday night (Aug. 14) one of the main streets in Gothenburg, one of the biggest cities in Sweden (600,000 inhabitants), was a racetrack and more than 20,000 people turned out to watch eight harness races with trotters.

Kanal 75 photo

The crowd cheers on the trotters during City Trot.

City Trot, as it was called, was inspired by the very popular Korte Baan-racing in The Netherlands, which take place all over that country during summertime.

The setup is two lanes 250 meters long and two trotters compete against each other and the best in three heats advance to a semifinal. The trotters were cheered by the many people who could bet on the outcome of the races — win only. And they were excited as the trotters flew past them with a speed of more than 30 miles per hour.

A total of 16 trotters raced and the final winner was the local Nerone Bigo, driven by Veijo Heiskanen.

The event was so popular that it hit the front page the next day in Goteborgposten, the biggest newspaper in the town.

In Italy, the 8-year-old trotter Mack Grace SM on Friday night won his 15th Group 1 race. Mack Grace SM, driven by Roberto Andreghetti, won the Gran Premio Citta di Montecatini with a purse for the winner of $36,500.

Another Italian trotter, the 2-year-old Troja d’Asolo, a daughter of the great champion trotter Varenne, became Europe’s fastest 2- year-old so far this year, as she won easily at Aby Racetrack in 1:59.4 with Rene Legali in the bike. Troja d’Asolo is trained by Holger Ehlert, the German, who has been the champion trainer in Italy for several years.