The Finnish autumn weather played tricks.
Mikkeli’s Saturday 75 trot was cancelled. Illustration picture. Jussi Eskola
Mikkeli’s 75 trots had to be cancelled. CEO of Ravirada Kari Tiainen tells Iltalehte that the track was a safety threat for the horses.
Zero weather played tricks on the trotting track, which is partially in the shade. The back straight, left without sunlight, did not melt like the front straight.
– We start from the fact that it would be safe for horses to play sports. The back straight was frozen, while the front straight was very soft. The horses couldn’t exercise in it safely, says Tiainen.
The competition, which was supposed to start at 1 p.m., was first postponed by a couple of hours. The hope was that the track would have melted and thus its conditions would have leveled out. However, that didn’t happen, so in the end the organizers had to cancel the 75th start of the day.
According to Tiainen, the unfortunate situation is very rare, but not unusual in Finnish autumn weather.
– Yes, this surprised us a bit. Yesterday the track was in good condition, but not today.