During the short but sunny Nordic summer, many high class races take place in Finland. Many of the races attract horses and drivers from all over Scandinavia and even from France and Italy.

The first Grand Cirquit race of the year to take place in Finland is Finlandia-ajo in the Helsinki race track, Vermo, in the end of April. This year the victory went to Sweden, to Opal Viking and trainer Nils Enqvist with Jorma Kontio in the sulky. End of April is however not yet summer and this year the race took place in chilly and windy weather.

The next Grand Cirquit race in Finland is Kymi Grand Prix, taking place in mid-June. Kouvola race track is not one of the biggest ones in Finland, but nevertheless the track has for the past ten years managed to attract top European horses to participate and is now granted a Grand Cirquit status.

The Kouvola 1000 meter track is not considered to be one of the fastest ones, so last year the race was rather sensational with Jag de Bellouet setting a new world record at 11,1a.

This year the main attraction of the race on 16th June was supposed to be the recent Elitloppet winner L’Amiral Mauzun, who unfortunately got ill with colic the previous week and couldn’t participate. Among nine horses from Finland, Sweden, France and Italy the winner became the only mare of the group, Camilla Highness. This was the first time a Swedish horse won the race – despite the fact that both the driver Peter Ingves, the trainer Petri Puro and the groom of the mare are all of Finnish descent.


 

This year Kouvola is hosting another major event in Finnish trotting summer – “Kuninkuusravit”, the two day cold blood Finn horse race that culminates in the “coronation” of the “king” and the “queen” of the Finn horses. This event takes place the first weekend of August and is expected to attract a crowd of at least 20 000 people each day. The accommodation in the town has been sold out since last year and the track is spreading its public area to nearby streets.

Suur-Hollola –ajo is a two day event in Lahti, Jokimaa race track, this year taking place 30th June to 1st July. Saturday was the final for the cold blood Suur-Hollola, where the winner was for the fourth time in a row Saran Salama. The stallion is also the reigning “King” of Finn horses and is expected to perform well in this year’s race, too.

Warm bloods had their day on Sunday, first with three heats of 2140 meters, and then a final with the same distance. Favourite Mr Nice Guy didn’t impress in the heat and five-year old Gold Strike soon became a new favourite. With Jorma Kontio in the sulky she led the final from start to finish and more than tripled her earnings, with the first price being 100 000 euros. And this only in the 12th race of her career!

St Michel is the last one of the big international summer races. Mikkeli race track is known to be one of the fastest in the world – it is here that Varenne set his amazing world record of 09,3a/1609m in 2002. This year St Michel races are spread over two days, with the main event taking place on Sunday 15th July, and with speculations running high on the participants these first days of July.

Trotting summer in Finland ends with Derby, for four year old warmbloods and five year old cold blood horses born in Finland. Derby races take place in the end of August to beginning of September in Helsinki and Jyväskylä.