The favorites of the Great Finnish Derby to be run on Saturday will be replaced by smaller stables. In the challenger section, you can find long-term winners from Pekka Korves and Timo Nurmos.
Kenneth Danielsen’s Dusktodawn Boogie won the derby qualifier easily. Maisa Hyttinen / Finnish Hippos
In Vermo, there will be talk on Saturday about the first prize of 120,000 euros and also a place in the history of trotting. The race for four-year-old warmbloods born in Finland is one of the most prestigious and largest trotting competitions in Finland.
In the last two years, the win has gone Pekka Korven for horses driven and trained, while Korpi has celebrated first with Mascate Match and last year with Magical Princess. This year too, Korpi is on the line, but not as one of the favorites but in the challenger section with Magical Princess’s little sister Magic Madonna.
The biggest favorites come from different hands than are used to in these bars. There are two big early favorites in the race, the mare Dusktodawn Boogie and the gelding Shackhills Twister. Dusktodawn Boogie’s trainer and instructor is Norwegian Kenneth DanielsenShackhills Twister’s stroller has its coach Jari Kinnunen.
Both are trotting professionals, but not the most seasoned of trainers. Jari Kinnunen, 54, has driven 2,150 starts in his career, but this year he has only 27 starts. Kenneth Danielsen, 42, has driven 513 races in his career, including 30 this year.
Among the twelve drivers driving in the final, Danielsen and Kinnunen are rarities. Of the ten other drivers in the derby final, nine have had more wins than Danielsen and Kinnune’s starts this year. Of the opponents in the final, only Pekka Korpi has not had more wins than the favorite drivers’ starts: Korve has 132 starts and 23 wins this year.
Both Danielsen and Kinnunen have taken care of their parts in the buggy of their top horses. Kinnunen brings Shackhills Twister to the derby final on a streak of six wins, and Dusktodawn Boogie hasn’t lost in Finland even once this year.
Derby champions as challengers
Behind the triple favorite of the Derby, there is success in the main race of the age group. Timo Nurmos coached by and Jorma Kontion driven by El Jetpack, at least for the time being, is not as well-earned as the race’s favorite pair, but its background surely knows what it takes to win the Derby.
Jorma Kontio, 69, has won the Great Finnish Derby nine times and Timo Nurmos, 63, five times as a coach. Nurmos has won the Swedish Derby four times, most recently at the Calgary Games last year.
Nurmos has another finalist in the Finnish Derby, Iikka Nurmonen driven by Velvet Gold.
There are also big names in the Finnish Derby Markku Nieminen, who has six wins as a coach. Nieminen is also in this year’s Derby in the challenger section, his coached Time Match is starting Ari Moilanen driven to the final from the outermost place in the back row, i.e. track 12.