by Karsten Bønsdorf, USTA Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Beware Nuncio, Uncle Lasse is coming.

Stefan Melander, who owns and trains Nuncio and Uncle Lasse, thinks that Uncle Lasse will be able to match Nuncio in 2017.

The 4-year-old Uncle Lasse has stamped himself as one of the leading trotters in the crop of 2012 in Europe. On Wednesday evening (Oct. 12), Uncle Lasse won at Solvalla for the seventh time this year in a hand drive from Ôtjan Kihlström. And that performance impressed Stefan Melander.

“This horse is unbelievable. He might match Nuncio next year. Uncle Lasse has a perfect gait, and it seems that he is only jogging in races,” Melander said afterwards to Swedish media.

At the same time another North American trotter, Habitat, had his European debut at Jägersro.

Habitat, who last year won as the Dexter Cup and Yonkers Trot, has been at stud in Sweden this year. He was bred to 43 mares. Habitat is now back in training. Peter Untersteiner at Halmstad trains the 4-year-old trotter and was also in the bike Wednesday at Jägersro.

Habitat clearly needed a race under his belt and finished second in 1:56.2f. The race was won by Day And Night In (sired by Muscle Hill), driven by Johan Untersteiner in 1:55.3f.