The Spain v NAADA Competition ended on September 9 on the three-eighths-mile track in Manacor with the Spanish team racing one-two with Joe Faraldo in the pocket all the way until the wire.

The Spanish prevailed, as they finished first and second. The visitors' Alan Schwartz finished third, Joe Lee fourth and Joe Faraldo fifth. Paul Minore trailed the field.

The distance was 2,350 metres or three and a half times around the well-banked oval which sports an iron-pipe-crafted running horse rail (“There is no way you wanna (sic) touch that thing,” Faraldo remarked). The sand-based track provided a really good surface for the all-French trotting horse field.

Once again, NAADA ended-up on the short end. The final points: Spain 86, USA 67.

During the afternoon, the Americans had a tour of the largest Cathedral in Europe and a special delightful lunch of Majorcan cuisine at Celler Sa Premsa in Palma.

The evening highlight was the performance of the six-to-eight-year-old children in their colours driving a variety of ponies without a starting gate, with the best ponies handicapped by metres.

Afterwards, there was festive dinner in a setting of about 400 in attendance, mostly to support the children, “and not the American amateur drivers,” Faraldo added.

(With files from Joe Faraldo and John Manzi)