Derby day at Øvrevoll turned into two. When the last five races had been run on Tuesday evening, ten races had shared out 4,615,000 Norwegian kroner between 92 runners – and almost half of the money had ended up with the same trainer.
Niels Petersen turned up with 19 horses across the two days. He won four of the ten races – Romanov in the Norsk Kriterium, Sign O’The Times in the Bristol Spa Sølvdivisjon Sprint and Sporty in the Drømmemilen on Sunday, War Socks in the Marit Sveaas Minneløp on Tuesday – and took 12 of the 50 prize-money placings in all. The 2,139,515 kroner amount to 46.4 per cent of everything that was handed out.
Carlos Lopez rode three of those four winners and finished as the meeting’s leading jockey with 1,162,875 kroner. Thore Hammer-Hansen came second on just two rides, but one of them was War Socks in a track record.
Behind Petersen stands a trainer who did not need many horses. Gina Mathisen sent out two and got 785,125 kroner out of them: Super Smooth won the Range Rover Norsk Derby, and Miss Hurricane was second in the Drømmemilen. Both are owned and bred by Stall GM, who therefore top the owners’ list and the breeders’ list alike. Their sire, Quarterback, was the meeting’s leading stallion.
Cathrine Erichsen took two races – Irish Lioness in the Lanwades Stud Fillies And Mares Stakes and Boaz in Tuesday’s opener. Jan-Erik Neuroth got six horses into the money without winning a single one of the ten races.
Bling Enterprise had the same problem on a smaller scale and still made it pay: four horses in the money, no winners, 440,125 kroner. Inzain Bling, Siouxperb Bling, Icon Bling and Phantom Bling, the last of them runner-up in the Derby.
Two track records went along the way. War Socks ran 1800 metres in 1.45,4 in the Marit Sveaas Minneløp, and Aphelios took the Polar Cup in 1.17,0.
