French 11-year-old trotter Power Of Love, under the guidance of owner Michael Ellul, won yesterday’s main event at the Marsa Racetrack.
This was a Premier Class race on a long distance of 2,640 metres and was part of the fourth meeting of the season, made up of 10 races for trotters.
Sixteen horses lined up for the Premier race. It was Oran (Carmelo Farrugia) which stormed ahead midway through the distance. This horse opened a slight lead from Sultan November (Shawn Portelli) and Ourasi Diams (Emmanuel Fenech).
Oran was unable to sustain the pace and, with some 300 metres to go, ran out of steam. It was outsmarted by Power Of Love (Michael Ellul) which claimed its first win in Malta with Poulot Des Cinty (Clint Vassallo) and Plastic (Charles Farrugia) ending third and fourth respectively.
The winner clocked an average time of 1.15.8” per kilometre.
In the first Gold Class race, Noble d’Ete (Jeffrey Pace) started to falter around 300m from the end and was reeled in by Prince Gaillard (Charles Camilleri).
This 11-year-old French trotter secured its first win of the year by half length from Presidential (Brian Hili).
Noble d’Ete was third with Pan Des Couperies (Charles Degiorgio) settling for fourth.
Danish horse Obelix Cream (Paul Galea) dashed strongly from the outside in the last 400m of the second Gold race to secure victory.
Obelix Cream passed the post first easily by a length-and-a-half from Means Nothing (Noel Baldacchino) and Quattro Du Gite (Julian Farrugia).
Pissaro (Clint Vassallo) completed the top-four order.
Yesterday’s card also included four races for Silver Class trotters. The first two were won by Sir Malouin (Kurt Saliba) and Milano du Gite (Alex Cortis), both having led all the way.
Quaid Tejy (Carl Caruana) and Rocky De Jervi (Jeffrey Said) triumphed in the other two Silver Class races after increasing their speed in the final straight.
Another meeting at Marsa will be held next Sunday with the first race starting at 1.30pm.
The winners
Race 1: Copper, Parce Que (Noel Baldacchino) – 1.18.5”.
Race 2: Silver, Sir Malouin (Kurt Saliba) – 1.18.2”.
Race 3: Copper, Stormy Sand (Jeffrey Pace) – 1.19.5”.
Race 4: Silver, Milano du Gite (Alex Cortis) – 1.17”.
Race 5: Bronze, Kaki de Peyrahout (Charles Farrugia) – 1.17.3”.
Race 6: Gold, Prince Gaillard (Charles Camilleri) – 1.16.5”.
Race 7: Silver, Quaid Tejy (Carl Caruana) – 1.16.3”.
Race 8: Premier, Power Of Love (Michael Ellul) – 1.15.8”.
Race 9: Silver, Rocky De Jervi (Jeffrey Said) – 1.16.5”.
Race 10: Gold, Obelix Cream (Paul Galea) – 1.17.1”.