With most of the attention going to the Stephan Hultman-trained duo of Jaded and Triton Sund, Åke Svanstedt played spoiler and bested his rivals in the 2009 Elitlopp today at the Solvalla Racecourse
in Sweden.
As elimation winners Sahara Dynamite (Bjorn Goop) and Jaded (Örjan Kihlström) waged war on the front end, Svanstedt sat third over with his charge and tipped three wide at the head of the lane to best a dead game Jaded and another hard-closer, Offshore Dream (Pierre Levesque).
"This was the best thing that could happen to me right now, "said Svanstedt after the race.
James Witherite-Rieg of Harrah's Chester provided this call of the race in English.
The win with Torvald Palema (Alf Palema - Gina Roy) marks the second Elitlopp win for Svanstedt, who last won in 2004 with another son of Alf Palema, Gidde Palema.
Sahara Dynamite and Bjorn Goop set a new Swedish record in the first elimination, repelling the challenge of Enough Talk (Luc Ouellette) for the win in 1,09.8 (mile rate of 1:52.2).
The other US hopeful, Buck I St Pat took herself out of contention in the second elim with a early break and then tried valiantly to get back into the race but just had too much ground to make up on a gate-to-wire winning Jaded (Örjan Kihlström). The winning time of 1,09.7 (mile rate 1:52.1) broke the record set a half-hour earlier.