Harness: Dijon stuns favorites in Elitloppet

Another Elitloppet full of intrigue and unexpected twists and turns has come and gone today in Sweden, and there was a big upset in the final as 27-1 offering Dijon, representing France for trainer/driver Romain Derieux, made all the pace and held sway. The final time was 1'10"3 (mile rate of 1:53 1/5) over a Solvalla track dulled by persistent rain.

The two elimination heats were won by pre-race favorite Readly Express (Björn Goop) and Aubrion du Gers (Jos Verbeeck). Also moving on to the final from the first elimination were Makethemark (Ulf Ohlsson), Looking Superb (Ake Svanstedt), and Next Direction (Iikka Nurmonen), and Propulsion (Örjan Kihlström), Dijon, and Milliondollarrhyme (Fredrik B. Larsson) qualified from the second elimination.

The complexion of the final changed dramatically prior to the start when Readly Express was noticeably off warming up, and the decision was made to scratch him. That left seven to contest the race, and Dijon and Derieux, who had post eight in the elimination, fired right out to the top from post four, with Aubrion du Gers only able to get into the pocket and Propulsion left two-wide. Next Direction also blasted from post eight, but he was parked and unable to make the front, so Kihlström wheeled Propulsion out three-wide to get around him and assume the first-over position going to the half. Verbeeck also came out in tight quarters with Aubrion du Gers and was able to get into the second-over slot.

All the while Dijon was able to control the proceedings, though, and he got a gap on the field late on the far turn and into upper stretch. He needed most of it, as Aubrion du Gers rallied strongly off the cover, but he ran out of racetrack, with Dijon finding the wire in time. Makethemark was the third-place finisher, and Propulsion could only manage fourth.

There was more drama after the race as inquiries were called against both the winner and the runner-up. They looked to see if Dijon had begun to pace at some point, but he was deemed not to have violated racing rules, and then they viewed the action where Aubrion du Gers had pushed out to get into the second-over slot heading to the half, but he was also left up.

Dijon, a 6-year-old stallion by Ganymede, is owned by Mauricette de Sousa. This was his 13th career win, and with the victory, he went over the one million euros mark in career earnings. He had yet to win this season, but captured the European Championship for 5-year-old horses last year and had finished second to Readly Express in the Grand Critérium de Vitesse in France back in March.