Having never been to the Elitlopp or even Sweden, any impressions I have of the festivities and fanfare during the day has to come from the broadcast coverage. While in the past I would watch the eliminations and final only on Sunday only, this year I tuned in for some of the racing on Saturday and most of the Sunday card, picking up many topics to write about. The most interesting Saturday topic was clearly the postponement of the Harper Hanover about 700 meters from the finish of the 3,140 meter (1.951 miles) race. As the favored Izoard Vedaquais appeared to be on his way to victory, despite a first-over journey, a horse at the back of the pack took a bad step and dumped his driver. As it took place on the backstretch, it was the type of incident that wouldn't raise an eyebrow from North American judges in terms of stopping the race, but Swedish officials took swift action, immediately sounded the alarms and stopped the action. That is when things got really interesting… In North America, when a race includes an on-track incident the result is typically to split the purse money among all of the horses if the race can't be completed or if it is allowed to conclude, distribute the purse money to the top finishers and perhaps declare the race a non-betting affair. Not in Sweden! The decision was made to contest the race again – from the start – an hour after the postponement. A few of the horses did not come back for the second trial but most did. Though I imagine you could cancel your tickets if you didn't want to be involved in the second contest, wagers from the first attempt remained in place (with the exception of scratched horses). The broadcast team did an excellent job discussing whether the horses should come back for a second run and even interviewed connections of some of the horses to ask their opinions. Some were in favor of doing it again in an hour. Others thought maybe the race should occur the following day, which seemed to present too many logistical issues. The key takeaways from a North American perspective are the thought that these horses who trotted about a mile-and-a-half were even being considered to race almost another two miles and whether races in North America should be immediately halted when any accident occurs. Given the shrinking number of heat races now offered on this continent, the thought of horses racing twice in the same day because of an in-race incident seems unlikely. But what about the possibility of immediately cancelling a race when an accident occurs? This idea deserves more consideration. For me, the idea that a race should be stopped if an accident occurs depends on when and where it happens. I would be in favor of cancelling any race where the incident occurs within a quarter-mile after the finish point or if horses must travel past the area of the accident at any point during the race. So, on a mile track, if an accident occurs in the first quarter of the race the action is stopped. On a half-mile, any accident would result in a stoppage unless it occurs near the final turn or stretch during the last quarter-mile of the race. The logic behind the above is to prevent any worry that those horses still competing could come into any contact with injured or loose horses. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, like when a horse gets loose and is running the opposite direction, but that is just common sense. Certainly such a rule would've eliminated the second incident in this race from May 29 at Monticello. For the Harper Hanover, in the end Izoard Vedaquais won in a record time during the second attempt, so all's well that ends well. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Broadcasting focus As someone who has been on the set a number of times for in-house racing broadcasts I tend to watch these shows with a more critical eye than perhaps the average racing fan. The English feed of the Swedish Horse Racing broadcast from ATG does so much right in terms of presentation. There is much more effort put into getting actionable information to the public via interviews with drivers and trainers. A major effort is also made to show horses warming up before any major betting sequence, like the various "V" wagers, which are basically our Pick 4/5/6/7 bets with much, much larger pools. As more of a novice when it comes to betting races from Sweden and Europe in general, these warm-ups and interviews played a vital role in my having a successful weekend of wagering. Quite frankly, even if I was an experienced player, the warm-ups and interviews would be helpful. While it may be costly, I'd advise tracks that care about handle to consider incorporating these features. Pivoting closer to home but on the same topic of in-house broadcasts, I want to take a moment to commend Jessica Otten from the Meadowlands for her in-depth commentary on eventual 9-2 winner Pick Pocket. While I liked the horse prior to her comments, she provided information on equipment and his journey to this point that couldn't be found within the program and was only available to someone who did some homework. Going back to the Swedish points above, that is the type of actionable information which makes people more confident to bet. Great job, Jessica! Visually the Elitlopp weekend broadcast presentation was mostly pleasing. There were a number of features on the Elitlopp participants which played to the human element and gave even the casual watcher something to entertain them. If I had one major criticism it is the lack of a constant display of the pari-mutuel odds and exotics. If betting is at the heart of everything, certainly the odds need to be shown at all times. Being a bit nitpicky on terminology during the broadcast, I really don't care for the term "death seat" as it relates to a horse racing first-over. First of all, it simply doesn't sound good. More importantly, I watched a number of horses win from first-over, and in today's racing world it really isn't as bad of a trip as it was a generation or two ago. The on-track action In terms of the racing, I found the on-track action on both Saturday and Sunday to be both exciting and enjoyable. Most of the events had more going on during the race in terms of horse movement than the typical North American race (perhaps outside of Ohio where the action is seemingly constant) and there were a number of exceptional performances, perhaps topped by Elitloppet winner Horsy Dream setting a European record mile time of 1:49 2/5. That clocking comes in just two-fifths-of-a-second behind Sebastian K's 1:49 winning time at Pocono Downs a decade ago and maybe indicates that European trotters, in addition to having perhaps more stamina than those in North America, are coming closer to us in terms of raw speed. Hopefully a couple of the top horses from there will take a shot here in a race like the MGM Yonkers International Trot. Certainly Denver Gio, with his blazing early speed, would be a good fit on the half-mile track.