Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009

[King Theoden]

First, is it okay that i'll put some trotting/harness tips on this ATR-board? I guess most of readers don't know much about harness racing in Scandinavia, so I'll put some basic info about it. The races are run mostly at distances between 1609 meters to 3100 meters having a 500 meter intervals. So distances are usually 1600-1640, 2100-2160, 2600-2640 and 3100-3140. The are two starting types, autostart and "voltstar". In autostart horses are behind the starting car numbers 1 to 8 starting in front row and numbers 9 to 12 starting in back row. Voltstart is a handicap race where the is usually horses running two distances. For example first group runs 2140 meters and second group goes 2160 meters. Usual volt start lines up having numbers 1 to 7 in front row(2140), numbers 8 to 12(2140) in back row and numbers 13 to 16 in "back-distance" at 2160 meters. The are two horse breeds in Scandanavia, the warmblood and the coldblood. Warmbloods are faster. A typical autostart http://tototv.maxinetti.fi/player/archive/1463/5 A typical volt start http://tototv.maxinetti.fi/player/archive/2954/5 Tactics and pace play a major role in Scandinavian harness racing. Roughly 50% of races are to be won by the raceleader. The races are usually run in paired que. The typical race can be divided in three phases. First phase is accleration phase where horses will take their positions(100 to 500 meters in 2100 meters). This is usually fast paced phase. The second phase is middle phase when pace goes down(500-1400 meters). The last phase could be called the sprint phase where horses come the the final 700 meters as fast as they can. The slower the pace is at two first phases, the more advantage the raceleader and horses near to it have. Sometimes the first phase and the second phase are too fast(speed duels, horses pulling too hard) and the back horses have the advantage. Horses can be divided roughly in three categories, the frontrunners, closers and all-round horses. Frontrunners are at their best when leading, closers on trail and quite rare all-rouders go everywhere. Mares are in general better on trail than leading. The first tip goes on Oslo Grand Prix, a autorace run on 2100 meters today at Oslo. I'll skip the outsiders and concentrate on favourites. My favourite to win this race is number 10 Triton Sund. Triton Sund is an all-round horse with very good stamina. It ran 2100 meter world record on it's last run at Ã…by. Triton Sund's all-round ability seperates it from it's main competitors in this race. If the race seems to go so called tactical race where the pace drops after the first 500 meters it can go outside the leading horse(probably Finders Keepers) and prevail from there. If the race is fast paced Triton Sund has the stamina to prevail in the end as the world record shows. So every possible pace goes for Triton Sund. The main competitor for TS is two time Prix D'Amerique(the biggest trotting race in the world) winner Offshore Dream. Even though OD has showed it's class in the Prix D'Ameqique it last win is backing to january 2008. OD is a closer who's at it's best in fast paced races. This is the first time OD races outside the France and sometimes the French horses have hard time to adjust to different surface on the nordic tracks. One of the favourites, Igor Font is in my opinion a fade in this race. It's very fast closer horse with exploding short sprint, but it's in the back row and in tactical run it may simple too far away from the leaders. And in high tempo run I simply don't believe it has the stamina to compete with Triton Sund and Offshore Dream. So first tip goes on Triton Sund. Winning odds are 4,50 at Ladbrokes and top 3 odds are 1,50. Both are too high.

[Charlie Wong]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 never even heard of it:eek but good luck.:ok

[stewartd14]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 Nice post King Theoden - very informative :ok

[jtw1]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 Very informative KT , will be keeping a close eye on this . Good luck today :hope

[Samba_SamPa]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 Great stuff KT, very best of luck

[NIGEL2611]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 I've seen harness racing at Woodbine but could never get my head around it! If only I had read a thread like yours back then, nice one King Theoden & the best of luck to you! :ok

[King Theoden]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 The results 1st Russel November 2nd Triton Sund 3rd Igor Font It was a really slow tempo race Finders Keepers leading and Triton Sund on the outside. I think Triton Sund's driver tried to have a little too easy run for his horse and the faster horse suprised him. If race comes to youtube, I'll put on link on it.

[King Theoden]

Re: Harness racing - Oslo Grand Prix 2009 Quality on of a video isn't very high. Usually Oslo Grand Prix has been a fairly good test for horses planning to start in Elitloppet(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitloppet), but this years race was so slow paced, that I think it's not a good indicator of horses current form. Elitloppet is usually raced in high tempo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbH1xEdTHhs