Some horses make a race look like their own. Aphelios (Kodiac) has now won the Polar Cup (L) over 1370 metres three years in a row for Annike Bye Hansen and Väsby Häst AB, and the first prize of 250,000 Norwegian kroner has gradually become a fixed item in the accounts.
This time it was Sandro De Paiva in the saddle. The time was 1.17,0 – faster than the track record of 1.17,6 that stablemate Youonlyliveonce set over the same distance on 9 July this year. The record holder was in fact in the field himself in Väsby Häst AB’s colours, and finished ninth.
There was a good length back to Elkær Stutteri’s Ides Of March (Wootton Bassett), ridden by Carlos Lopez for Niels Petersen.
Stall Perlen’s Crystal Love (Oasis Dream) and the Roy Arne Kvisla-trained Aurinko (Karakontie) crossed the line with the smallest possible margin between them, but after a stewards’ inquiry Aurinko was moved down to fourth and Crystal Love placed third.
Niels Petersen had four horses in the race and got them all home within a second of each other: after Ides Of March came Hunters Lullaby (Footstepsinthesand) in fifth, Wassim (Zarak) in sixth and Soulofchess (Gutaifan) in seventh.
For Aphelios the season is settling into a pattern that says something about the horse. Earlier this year he won the Pramms Memorial (L) on Jägersro’s dirt track for the second year in a row, and now he has taken Øvrevoll’s sprint classic on turf as well – three years running.
He has thereby emulated Duca Di Como’s treble in the very same contest between 2019 and 2021.
