from Harness Racing Communications, a division of the USTA

Freehold, NJ — When Giant Diablo left the U.S. to return home to Sweden last fall, it was as the co-holder of the record for the fastest trotting mile in harness racing history. Now she is back, and might be even better.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Giant Diablo has banked $1.8 million in her brilliant career.

Giant Diablo, an 8-year-old mare, is expected to race Friday in the opening round of the Su Mac Lad Series at the Meadowlands. It will be her first pari-mutuel start since setting the world record of 1:50.1 in the Allerage Stakes on October 6 at Lexington’s Red Mile. (Donato Hanover equaled the time later in the day.) The $100,000 Su Mac Lad final is May 2.

“She’s come back stronger than last year,” said driver David Miller, who guided Giant Diablo through a 1:54.3 qualifying win on April 10 at the Meadowlands. “When I started with her last year (in late June), she was good, but she seems a lot mentally stronger and physically stronger.”

Last year, Giant Diablo won three of seven races in North America, all against the boys, and earned $239,226. In addition to the Allerage, she won the Prestige Invitational in a track record 1:53.3 at Hippodrome de Montreal. For her career, Giant Diablo has won 28 races and $1.8 million.

“We didn’t know for sure if she wanted to go one more year, but she proved to us now that she really wants to go,” said Giant Diablo’s caretaker, Malin Boman, adding she was surprised by Miller’s comments following the qualifier. “She’s 8 years old and that’s not the first thing you expect a driver to say to you at that age. That’s really nice to hear from him.”

Giant Diablo, who is owned by Sweden’s Tommy Jacobson under the stable name Stall Zenith Handelsbolag and is trained by Roger Walmann, received a hero’s welcome when she returned home last year. She was honored as Sweden’s best mare trotter and best older trotter while Boman got an award for her work with the horse.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Giant Diablo spends a moment in the barn with caretaker Malin Boman.

Boman, interestingly, had no idea Giant Diablo entered her name into harness racing’s record book with her mile in Lexington; at least not for a while. Driven in that start by Sweden’s Johan Untersteiner, Giant Diablo won by 2-3/4 lengths over Corleone Kosmos while Vivid Photo was third.

“I didn’t realize until a half-hour after the race what happened,” Boman said, laughing. “I kept asking the driver, ‘What record?’ and didn’t get it through my head. I was just so happy she won the race because we’d been hunting Vivid Photo and that group the last two races.”

Giant Diablo was fourth in her previous start, the Maple Leaf Trot, but made up seven lengths on the leaders in the stretch.

“That was some mile she went last year at Lexington,” Miller said. “I don’t think it was a fluke; she seems to have that type of talent and they’ve taken good care of her.”

Boman said Giant Diablo, who returned to the U.S. in mid-March and spent two weeks quarantined in Maryland, would compete in many of the same races as last year, such as the Nat Ray, Breeders Crown and Maple Leaf Trot. The connections are hoping for an invitation to the Elitlopp in Sweden; Giant Diablo finished third in the prestigious event in 2005.

“I don’t have any expectations at all,” Boman said. “She has already proved everything to me. Sure, I’m going to be the happiest groom in the world if she races good this year, but she has been so awesome her whole career. If she stops racing now, I’m not going to be sad or disappointed. It’s a really true fairy tale for me.”