bye Steve Oldford
Our Finnish hosts were concerned last week about this week,s weather as it
snowed just days before our arrival to Findland. The weather continues to
cooperate with temperatures around 27° C (around 80° F) and brilliantly blue
skys.
On the two hour trip to Tampere, our gracious hosts took us to the
YPAJA Equine College which is the leading facility in Finland for breeding,
training, and equine education. The proud heritage of the Finnish
Coldblood breed is evident in the museum on the grounds and in the over 100
Coldbloods in training at the facility. Coldbloods are Finnish cart
and work horses that were bred over the years to trot (hopefully fast!).
One third of the races are the Coldblood breed.
After a beautiful parade of drivers, complete with a limousine ride to and
from the paddock, gifts were presented in the winners circle and interviews
given with the previous night’s winners.
The three World Cup races tonight were dominated by youth as young
drivers from The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland came away
with the wins. Along with the young Finnish overall point leader Janne
Raisanen who won yesterday, this group makes up the top four point leaders.
They are 57, 55, 54, and 51 points respectively. I remained in the
middle of the pack with 35 points.
My evening of racing was highlighted by a scratch (we do get points for
this), a breaker, and a sixth place finish with a long odds horse.
The group travels together by bus and has been
enjoying each other’s stories of home, family, and of course racing
