North Karelia colts celebrate in Tampere – The winners multiplied their winnings

Jani Ruotsalainen’s brilliant fall continued as Paavola Hurmos took the Kriterium’s first place. Maisa Hyttinen / Finnish Hippos

The Kriteriums, one of the biggest classic competitions of the year for young horses, were this year a celebration of the second favourites. Won the Kriterium for three-year-old warmbloods Timo Korvenheimon trained by God Hyperion. The Kriterium for four-year-old Finnish horses was Jani Ruotsalainen Paavola’s Hurmos festival in the stable.

The winners had more in common than the second favorite position in the games, because both owners are from Joensuu. Paavolan’s Hurmos is owned by Paavo’s Team, which is divided into nine parts, God Hyperion is also owned by Protiimi Oy from Joensuu.

However, the winners train elsewhere in Finland: Paavolan Hurmos Jani Ruotsalainen Juvalla and God Hyperion At Timo Korvenheim In Orimat mode.

No more favorites

Both God Hyperion and Paavolan Hurmos were second favorites in their races. On the side of the Finnish horses, Vale-Eli was a huge favorite after collecting no less than 81 percent of the game share, but it had to settle for second place, when Paavolan Hurmos, who got a perfect run behind it, took the lead at the end.

– Even though the run was easy for us, I didn’t believe in victory on the way. I consider Vale-Ell to be such a good horse that such horses are not even born every year, Jani Ruotsalainen described to Iltalehte after the victory.

– The horse felt really good the whole time and the run really went perfectly for us. I didn’t think beforehand that we would get behind Vale-Elli, but we got there smoothly. Although we went at a good pace on the way, the horse went of its own accord all the time, and there was no need to ask it at all on the way.

For Jani Ruotsalainen, who piloted Paavolan’s Hurmos Kriterium to first place, the end of summer and autumn have been a time of great success, because a month ago Ruotsalainen drove Wert, the Finnish horses he trains, to first place in the Derby. The Derby is the number one competition for five-year-old Finnish horses.

The Finnish Horse Kriterium and the Derby have only been able to win in the same year before the Swede, who keeps his stable in Juva Seppo Suuronen. In 2005, his team won the Kriterium with Cordiita and won the Derby with Artture.

– It seems incredible that such a double could be realized. The level is incredibly hard and a lot of things have to go right to even participate in these games, let alone win, emphasized Jani Ruotsalainen.

– It has to be lucky that there are horses of such a level in the same year that something like this could possibly be possible.

Compensation for loss

The warm-blooded Kriterium’s biggest favorite was Lightning Stride, who came to the race from Sweden, and finished third. The pace of the race was quite moderate, but despite that, God Hyperio won in the end after running in the third pair on the outside.

– I was a little afraid that we would have enough speed, when the traveling speed was quite slow. Fortunately, that was enough, director Henri Bollström stated in the winner’s interview.

Henri Bollström under the reins of God Hyperion got credit for the second place in the Finnish horse race under the reins of the great favorite Vale-Elli.

– I left here with the idea that this will be a good place and that we are closer to victory in the race for Finnish horses. We were close in that too, that is, sometimes, but this luckily fixed the day.

Prize winnings multiplied the winning sums of Kriterium’s heroes. Paavolan’s Hurmos earned 46,000 euros, while its winning amount before the final was 11,650 euros. God Hyperion earned 90,000 euros from the warmblood final, while its winning amount was 13,460 euros before.

God Hyperion’s winning time was 14.6a and Paavolan Hurmos’s winning time was 26.3a.