by Steve Oldford
On the final day of racing we were treated to a daylong tour of Helsinki,
Finland's largest city. It is a beautiful city with fabulous world history.
We arrived at Helsinki's Vermo race course and were escorted to the track
winners circle introductions in a wagon pulled by a local Coldblood breed horse.
In the end it was the Finland native son to win the World Cup of Amateur
Racing. Janne Raisanen, with two wins, and several placing on the board
in the nine race series won by one point over Switzerland's Joey Vignoni who
finished second. Wim Brouwer from The Netherlands was third. The
nine race series was contested over three different race tracks during the
three day event.
In spite of my second win of the series in the final night, I collected only
enough points for a seventh place point finish overall. My good friend
Jeff Darby from New Zealand finished fifth.
After the races concluded a wonderful banquet was held hosted by our new
friends from Finland. All the race stories were told as new friendships
solidified.
Special thanks go out to our Finnish hosts Mitja Nummenmaa who is General
Secretary of the Association of Finnish Horse Owners, board member Markku
Jaaskelainen, and their staff.
It was an event of a lifetime. I look forward to sharing more
stories from our trip. We are now off to Estonia before departing for
home.
