Steve Oldford, the U.S. representative for the World Cup of Amateur Racing in Finland, has given his account of the third and final day of the three-day event.
Final night of racing in 2014 Amateur World Cup
On the final day of racing we were treated to a day-long tour of Helsinki, Finland's largest city. It is a beautiful city with fabulous world history.
We arrived at Helsinki's Vermo race course and were escorted to the track winner’s circle introductions in a wagon pulled by a local Coldblood breed horse.
In the end it was the Finnish native son to win the World Cup of Amateur Racing. Janne Raisanen – with two wins, and several placing on the board in the nine-race series – won by one point over Switzerland's Joey Vignoni, who finished second. Wim Brouwer from The Netherlands was third. The nine-race series was contested over three different race tracks during the three-day event.
In spite of my second win of the series in the final night, I collected only enough points for a seventh-place point finish overall. My good friend Jeff Darby from New Zealand finished fifth.
After the races concluded a wonderful banquet was held, hosted by our new friends from Finland. All the race stories were told as new friendships solidified.
Special thanks go out to our Finnish hosts Mitja Nummenmaa, who is general secretary of the Association of Finnish Horse Owners, board member Markku Jaaskelainen, and their staff.
It was an event of a lifetime. I look forward to sharing more stories from our trip. We are now off to Estonia before departing for home.
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