He's conquered some of the world's best trotters in his career, but trotting horse Trebol has now etched his place in harness racing history in a country many would not likely affiliate with Standardbreds.
The 12-year-old trotter has won 42 consecutive starts. He last tasted defeat in a Group 3 trotting event in France almost two years ago. His owners, based in Spain, brought him back to race at Spanish racetracks and he's run roughshod over the competition. His 2018 season was a perfect 28 wins from 28 outings. But the earnings were extremely modest as the son of Hot Blues - Sally Can Wait made just 3,516 Euros (roughly $5,300) over that 2018 campaign.
On Sunday (April 28) the 12-year-old stallion was handicapped 25 metres of the start of his race against just two rivals (one scratched) at the Hipòdrom Torre del Ram, located on the Spanish island of Minorca. That handicap was not a factor in the 2,100 metre race as Trebol disposed of his foes for the record-setting victory, his sixth of the year.
In his career, Trebol has won 74 of his 136 starts with earnings exceeding $1.03 milllion. The bulk of his earnings came from his seasons of racing at ages six through nine when he competed frequently in European Grand Circuit trotting events. In 2015, he knocked off some of the best trotters in the Kymi Grand Prix in Finland, becoming the first Spanish-bred trotter to win a Group 1 race in Europe while defeating the likes of Timoko, Maven and Oasis Bi. He showed it was no fluke a year later, again defeating Timoko and Oasis Bi in the 2016 Kymi Grand Prix.
Trebol has now eclipsed the Standardbred record of 41 straight wins established by Carty Nagle over 1937 and 1938 and equalled the win streak of Swedish coldblooded trotting legend Järvsöfaks. The streak could extend to 43 this week as Trebol is listed among the entries on May 1 at Hipòdrom Municipal de Maó.