A rare crash was seen in the royal trots – as a result, the three-time trot king Evartti was left without a million euro border laundry

Evartti and Vixeli crashed in the third and last start of Kouvola’s Kuninkuustrot. According to Evart’s trainer Antti Ojanperä, the horses are fine.

Kouvola’s King’s Trot ended dramatically on Sunday, when Evartti, who dominated the king’s race, froze in the last lap of the last start.

The situation had the potential for a big accident, because Vixeli, who came from behind Evart, drove towards the crab and got caught in his leg. The collision was just outside of the Kuninkuustravie video image.

For the first time, Parvelan’s Retu, who was guided, won the King’s Trot competition Hannu Torvinen.

It would have been a win Santtu Raitalan fourth in a row for Evart, who steers. Evartti had overwhelmingly won the first two legs, but in the last 3,100 meter start, the lactic acids took the horse’s muscles, the trainer Antti Ojanperän according to power.

– Santtu thought that the second place would have come anyway in the overall race, but now it turned out like this. A miserable situation, Ojanperä said.

With the crash, Evartti and Vixeli were disqualified from the last start. However, according to Ojanperä, without the crash, the situation would have been more usual, and the sudden freezing of the horse did not actually ring alarm bells.

Vixel rider Topi Perttunen told Ojanperä that he looked back on the situation.

– He paid more attention to the back and couldn’t think about anything like that. He said that there was such a “weak moment”.

According to Ojanperä, the royal trots are the absolute highlight of the year. Winning the kingdoms has been by far the greatest gift for him.

In addition to the King title, the complete failure of the last leg will result in a financial loss. Evartti had received 17,000 euros per start from the wins in the two races. Winning the overall competition would also have resulted in an additional bonus of 40,000 euros.

If Evartti had also won the last race, it would have exceeded the magical one million euro mark in its winnings. Due to the rejection of the final leg, Kuninkuusravei lost a pot of 34,850 euros.

“After something like this, you’re not in the best of spirits”

The horses and reins survived the collision without major injuries. The horses’ health is naturally monitored for a long time after the collision.

– The horse recovered well and the heart rates came down as usual, and there was nothing abnormal. The Vixel had some surface scratches, the leg went into the cart’s fork and missed, but we survived that too with minor bruises, Ojanperä said.

There were no indications of Evart freezing before the last start and the entire race weekend had gone according to plan.

– After the mile race, Santtu was very satisfied and the horse recovered really well compared to previous years. But these are really hard to predict.

According to Ojanperä, a possible reason for getting tired could be that Evartti was left alone at the beginning of the competition. After Mikkeli’s Grandmaster races, the horse was also in pain, but according to Ojanperä, the blood values ​​were completely perfect before Friday’s opening trip.

– After something like this, the mood is not at its best. We are happy that everything is okay. I was already mentally prepared for the fact that success will not continue indefinitely.

This summer, Evart’s victory account has accumulated, among other things, with Mikkeli’s Trot Grand Championship and the Elitkampen of the Elitloppet competition in May in Sweden.

A rare occurrence

Ojanperä does not remember a similar situation in his career. However, crashes have happened from time to time.

– This was the sum of many unfortunate coincidences. However, there were only about 70 meters to the finish line.

With Evart, there is no rush to head to future competitions. Ojanperä says that the 12-year-old Finnish horse has a maximum of five starts ahead of him.

– Let’s examine the horse in peace, let it recover and then see. Among other things, the Nordic Championship is coming up there.

Ojanperä gives all the credit to Parvelan Retu, who went wild in the last race.

– Parvelan’s Retu did great performances and was absolutely brilliant in the final leg. It truly deserved royalty. An absolutely brilliant horse. Let’s hope that we will still be able to challenge Retu in the future.