New championship for Swedish trotters at Marsa racetrack

The Malta Racing Club will be launching a new competition this weekend when the Swedish U*Bet Championship will get underway in the first Sunday afternoon meeting after the summer break.

Matthew Brincat, the new Malta Racing Club chairman, gave details of the event at the Marsa headquarters. He said Swedish trotters have become very popular among Maltese owners and that spurred the MRC to take up this initiative.

"The number of trotters from Sweden has increased considerably in recent years," Brincat said.

"According to our records over 250 were registered at the Malta Racing Club in the past three years. Today, Maltese trainers are looking at the Swedish market more often than in the past and that prompted us to organise such a competition."

The championship is open to all categories, namely, Premier, Gold, Silver and Bronze with the opening heats being penciled for Sunday's meeting. The competition will come to a close on November 9.

The championship has a total prize-fund of 20,650 euros.

Mario Cassar, general director at Maltco Lotteries, said that horse racing in Sweden is very popular in Malta and that is reflected in the response the company gets by means of bets.

"We have no doubt that the Swedish U*Bet Championship will create a lot of interest and hopefully this will be the first of several competitions sponsored by Maltco Lotteries," he said.

At the end of the conference Brincat revealed the names of the other members serving in the committee for the new term. These are Boris Scerri, vice-chairman, Roderick Vella, secretary, and Mark Vella, who is responsible for marketing. Marco Millo and Claudio Drago are members of the council.