Welcome to GalopSport in English — news and features from Scandinavian horse racing, translated from Denmark’s leading racing news site.
Since 2000, GalopSport.dk has covered thoroughbred racing in Denmark, Sweden and Norway every single day: race reports, big-race previews and bloodstock news. On this page we publish English versions of our stories — Classic winners, Scandinavian form, yearling sales and more. Browse the archive through the main menu, or use the search bar to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Sweden’s Derby and Oaks series will be run on turf in 2028. That much is now certain, as racing at Jägersro comes to an end during 2028. Skånska Fältrittklubben, which owns the Svenskt Derby ‘trademark’, wants the entire series to move to Gothenburg – and the board of Svensk Galopp will now take that wish further.
Two of Scandinavia’s leading sprinters of the moment, the Bent Olsen-trained Great Wish and the Fredrik Reuterskiöld-trained Lamborghini BF, each face their own international assignment on Sunday. Great Wish lines up in the Prix de Meautry (Gr.3) at Deauville, while Lamborghini BF takes on Germany’s biggest sprint, the Goldene Peitsche (Gr.2) at Baden-Baden.
The Norsk Derby 2026 produced a winner history will remember. Super Smooth gave amateur trainer Gina Mathisen the win with her own breeding, and in the saddle was Willa Synøve M. Schou, who became only the second female jockey ever to win a Scandinavian Derby. The first prize was NOK 651,250.
Derby day at Øvrevoll turned into two. Ten races shared out 4,615,000 Norwegian kroner between 92 runners – and Niels Petersen took almost half of them. Here is the whole meeting in numbers.
War Socks keeps making Øvrevoll his own. Last year’s Derby winner took Marit Sveaas Minneløp (Gr.3) and the 750,000 Norwegian kroner in a time faster than the track record, and with stablemate Mount Kilimanjaro second he gave Niels Petersen a one-two in the race.
Aphelios did it again. Väsby Häst AB’s 7-year-old gelding won the Polar Cup (L) for the third year in a row, this time with Sandro De Paiva in the irons, and he did it in a new track record.
Karin Salling’s unbeaten Lord Of The Moon will not line up in the rescheduled running of the Norsk Derby on Tuesday evening. “Everything had been fine with him until this morning, when his hoof again reacted slightly to the bruising he picked up in the week before the Danish Derby,” Niels Petersen told GalopSport on Tuesday morning.
Bro Park stages this year’s Breeders’ Trophy day on Sunday 30 August with four big races and a shade over SEK 3.7 million in the pot. Danish horses are central to all of them – from two Danish-owned two-year-old fillies in the ITM Amacitalöpning to Swedish Derby winner Doc Holliday, who in the Breeders’ Trophy Classic meets Bruce Almighty and King To Be among others.
We are more than halfway through the big-race season, and that gives a far more reliable picture of the various statistics. As before, I have worked out the five best stallions in each of the three youngest crops.
Øvrevoll rolls Derby day out again on Tuesday 25 August with five races from 16.50, and the Range Rover Norsk Derby is now the closing contest of the day. The ground staff spent Monday getting the turf track ready, and Niels Petersen has secured German champion jockey Thore Hammer-Hansen for three rides.
Former trainer Desmond Scarlett, who passed away on 19 August, will be laid to rest on Friday 28 August at 12.00 at Sankt Knud Lavard Kirke in Kgs. Lyngby.
Norway’s Derby day began as a Niels Petersen show. The trainer took the first three races in a row with Carlos Lopez in the saddle every time, and the biggest of them was Romanov, who won the Norsk Kriterium in a dominant display and is now unbeaten in three starts.