Season finale at Klampenborg: the Winter Favourite returns in the Basnæsløb

The two trainers at the top of Klampenborg’s championship are separated by 1,790 kroner going into Saturday’s season finale. And if you work out how much each of them can earn at most across the day’s eight races, it becomes almost uncannily close: Lea Olsen can reach 202,260 kroner, Niels Petersen 201,500. There are 760 kroner between the two ceilings.

Lea Olsen has nine runners, Niels Petersen six. Even so they end up almost level, because their horses are spread across different races. Lea Olsen’s extra runners are in the day’s lesser-paying contests — three in the two-year-old maiden series worth 48,000 kroner and two in Handicap class 2 worth 60,000 — while Niels Petersen has the day’s other 100,000-kroner race entirely to himself.

In the Tortue Efterårshandicap, Niels Petersen has Lord Greystoke, winner of the 100th running of the Swedish St. Leger, and Lea Olsen has no runner. The first prize is 50,000 kroner. Lea Olsen, by contrast, has Handicap class 4 to herself with Zavannah, but there the first prize is 18,000.

In the other four races they meet: the Basnæsløb, the two-year-old maiden series, Handicap class 2 and Handicap class 3.

Huntington carries the maximum penalty in the Basnæsløb

The day’s feature is the Basnæsløb, the longest race for two-year-olds in Scandinavia. 1800 metres and 100,000 kroner to race for.

Eight horses have been declared, and the one the others have to get past is Huntington (Hunter’s Light). Niels Petersen’s two-year-old won Vinterfavoritternes Ærespræmie on 10 October after leading from start to finish by two lengths from Azisol — and from there a further seven lengths back to Chacaya, whom Lea Olsen sends out again on Saturday.

Huntington carries 60.5 kilos. The race’s base weight is 57.5, and the conditions add one kilo for every 50,000 kroner earned in total, up to three. He is therefore carrying the maximum. He is a brown gelding out of Edallora by Refuse To Bend, foaled in France but bred by Stutteri Stork and owned by JWC Bloodstock Ltd.

Carlos Lopez rides him again.

Niels Petersen also has Centurion Bling, who won the two-year-old race at Klampenborg on 17 October, while Lea Olsen, besides Chacaya, turns out Bianca Torkdahl.

And the rest of the day

The Tortue Efterårshandicap is more than a piece in the championship. Bettina Andersen turns out both My Fortune, who defended his title in the Skandinavisk Grand Prix on 17 October, and Silver Legend — both on 63 kilos. And Lord Greystoke is ridden by Evelina Rönnlund, who has just ridden herself to the championship at Aalborg with three wins on the final day.

In all, 67 horses have been declared in the eight races, which between them are worth 447,000 kroner.

The first race on finals day is at 12.45.