Hirveä vääryys – mä lähden himaan (Hevosurheilu.fi 24.9.2011)

Hallsta Lotus pohjoismaiden mestari (Hevosurheilu.fi 24.9.2011)

Myllarfaks put up quite a show. Photo: Harri Lind

The first attempt on Nordic Champioship race was about to bring blue-white colours and the singing horseman Pertti Puikkonen to the winner’s circle, as I.P. Vipotiina had ruled the race with queen’s attitude. Then one of the horses. Myllarfaks, crashed with Tähti-Optio, dropped his driver off the sulky and ran away. Usually the race would not been cancelled in the last 500m, but this situation seemed to be evolving into a catastrophe. The renewing race was moved to be the last race of the day, so the horses would get enough rest in between. Hallsta Lotus’s driver Ulf Ohlsson was not concerned about his horse, and saw this as advantage for them.

In the second attempt Marimin and I.P. Vipotiina fought for the first 500m in 18,5 km-time, before Hallsta Lotus took the first place and forced the Finns to back off keeping it that way until the finish line. Silver medalist was a great surprise, Köppinen with good spurt. Bronze Medal went to Norway’s steady Åsajerven, who would have also been third at the first time.

Final results

Oulu Express Classical Duolle ja Tähen Topeliukselle (Hevosurheilu.fi 10.9.2011)

Tähen Topelius has reached a lot on early age. This photo was taken in Kiuruvesi last March, when he was inspected for J-studbook. Photo from Hippos photo bank

The four-year-old sensation Tähen Topelius was an expected winner in Saturday’s Umesläp Oulu Express race.

Besides the first prize of 10 000 euro, Tähen Topelius earned his owners a brand new Umesläp horse trailer, worth 13 000 euro.

Umesläp Oulu Express is one of the big age class races for four-year-old finnhorses and three-year-old warmblood trotters.

These four-year-olds are going to compete for 10 000€ prize on Saturday 10th 2011.

1    Ekoloki  /  Heikki Mikkonen
2    Tähen Topelius  /  Pauli Raivio
3    Virin Camilla  /  Veikko Asikainen
4    Tärpätti  /  Eero Laitinen
5    Miikkulainen  /  Jouni Hallikas
6    Novan Villiruusu  /  Mika Forss
7     scratched (Lumi-Hessu  /  Niko Jokela)
8    Gilmor  /  Kaarlo Ahokas
9    Tuokkolan Tahvo  /  Ari Moilanen
10   Piispalan Santeri  /  Jani Ruotsalainen
11    scratched (Huvin Termiitti  /  Timo Toiviainen)
12     Ponnen Aatos  /  Veli-Erkki Paavola

HRP-blogi is a Finnish harness racing enthusiast’s blog where he writes about harness racing and its phenomenons in Finland and other countries. He also makes quite accurate statistics from young horses’ preliminaries.

This is called opetuslähtö, a “training race” strictly translated. The goal is to encourage the owners to bring their horses to professional training already at young age and the trainers to bring the horses to the tracks earlier. The time limits are 1.30-1.40 for the two-year old warmbloods, 1.50,0-2.00,0 for the three-year-old finnhorses and 2.00-2.20,0 for the two-year-olds from 1st of September 2011 onwards. The horse receives a prize for trotting between those time boundaries, no other prizes are paid and this does not count in the horse’s winnings and is not count as an official start.

Before attending to official races, the horse has to attend another preliminary race, koelähtö in Finnish (strictly translated “test race”), in which the speed is faster. In this the horse shows that it is fit enough to race and is schooled to behave on the track. One preliminary is valid for eight months and if there are no races in between, the horse has to perform another preliminary to qualify again. The age limits are the same as in all races, wb 2-14 yrs and finnhorses 3-16 yrs.

These are the brief statistics from 2010. You can see the full statistics here and follow the statitics of 2011 here (tip: mares are highlighted with red. It took me a while to figure that out…).

Sires Top 20 by amount

Sires Top 20 by percentage

Dam’s sires top 20 by amount

Kaksivuotiaat suomenhevoset opetuslähtöön (Hevosurheilu.fi 1.9.2011)

Vennelmon Voitto (Sipori – Voimariina – Ruutu-Poika) was the first two-year-old finnhorse ever to attend a preliminary.

Photo from the article (see the link above).

From the first of September onwards it is possible for the two-year-olds to attend a preliminary. Until now these preliminaries have been for the two-year-old warmbloods and three-year-old finnhorses. The purpose is to bring the horse breeding forward by encouraging horse owners and trainers to train their horses already at young age. The preliminary prizes do not count as horse’s winnings and this does not give the horse a license to race. There’s another preliminary race ahead before attending to the actual races. On this preliminary the horse earns it’s euro by trotting a 2100m between the time limits. For the two-year-old finnhorses it’s between 2.00,0 min and 2.20,0 min. Vennelmon Voitto’s time was 2.05,3.