One of Sweden's best and most popular trotting horses ever will be celebrated in front of a large audience.
- I know that the Solvalla audience holds Nuncio dear and it will be an atmospheric moment," says Anders Malmrot, Sports Director at Solvalla.
Stefan Melander's eye candy Nuncio will be thanked at Solvalla in connection with Elitloppet this Sunday.
Melander found Nuncio in 2012 at an auction in Harrisburg, USA, and bought him for the bargain price of $7,000. As a two- and three-year-old, he raced in the US, winning major vintage races such as the Kentucky Futurity and the Yonkers Trot, as well as finishing second in the Peter Haughton Memorial and The Hambletonian. In 27 American starts, he won 16 times, was never worse than third and earned $14,532,726.
As a four-year-old, he was taken to Sweden where he continued to reap success. But the most memorable race came not from a victory, but from the unlikely feat of going first in third throughout the Elitlopp final and finishing a narrowly beaten third. The following year he got his revenge with a watertight Elitlopp victory.
- Nuncio was an absolute favorite horse for me. I am extremely impressed with him as an individual. To have survived tough young horse races in the US and then go on to deliver in Sweden at the highest level, not least in his Elitlopp starts, there are not many - maybe not even anyone - who can do that," says Anders Malmrot.
Nuncio's biggest European wins after Elitloppet are UET Trotting Masters, Oslo Grand Prix, Sundsvall Open Trot, Jubileumspokalen, Sprintermästaren, Breeders' Crown and Årjängs Stora Sprinterlopp. In 63 career starts he took 42 victories and earned 28,660,230 kroner.
In 2016 he was named Horse of the Year in Sweden.
In January this year, Stefan Melander announced that Nuncio would stop competing and instead become a breeding stallion at Menhammar Stuteri.
At 12.00 on Sunday, May 27, he will be back at Solvalla to be celebrated one last time by the Elitlopp audience.
Elitloppet is the highlight of the Elitlopp weekend, which will be held at Solvalla on May 25-27, 2018. Elitloppet is an invitational race where 16 horses compete in two different trials with eight horses in each. The top four in each trial meet in a final where the winner receives three million SEK. Last year, the Elitlopp weekend had over 60,000 visitors, around one million TV viewers on TV4 and TV12 and SEK 373 million in turnover on ATG's betting forms.
Press release from Solvalla May 23, 2018.
Photo: TR Media/Channel 75
