GS75®: Hats on for the Swedish Derby!
Jägersro doubles the purse for the 100th Swedish Derby this Sunday.
An anniversary year when also the amounts of hats are expected to increase in the parade in the crowd.
- It definitely feels like there will be more hats this year - there should be hats at the Derby says Jacqueline Henriksson, president of Skånska Fältrittklubben.
Hats in the grandstands of horse racing events is an English tradition where the sport was developed in the 18th century.
Sweden wanted to be like England and 1918 the first Swedish Derby was ridden. The hats joined the concept regarding the race where Skånska Fältrittklubben and the jockey club were key players.
Jacqueline Henriksson is the president of Skånska Fältrittklubben who are holding the thoroughbred races at Jägersro. For the anniversary this Sunday there's an extra twist to everything. The question is if the different hat parades will also feel the atmosphere.
- It feels a bit special around the 100th Derby and I think we'll see even more hats this year.
Doubling the gold
The Derby on Sunday will be ridden as V75®-6 in the Grand Slam 75®, around 5 pm.
This year the 15 Derby horses will race for a purse of SEK 3 millions, half of which goes to the winner.
SEK 1 500 000 for the winner this year, twice as much as last year's winner Duke of Burden received.
- This is something we will try hard to keep. Svensk Galopp is making this possible for the Derby down here in skåne and we are very grateful for that. For 2018 it looks like we will be able to keep this purse and hopefully for the coming years too. The efforts made by the sport with the Derby series has been a great injection to get the breeding and owning of race horses going again, says Jacqueline Henriksson.
No given favorite
So which horse will be victorious in the 100th Swedish derby? Everyone seems to agree that this year's Derby is a wide open affair.
Stefan Jönsson, the track program's handicapper has three horses on his ticket. The hometown trainer Fransisco Castro's horse Stricker is picked to win in the program, followed by Lennart Reuterskiöld Jr's Gold Tyrrany and Fredrik Reuterskiöld's Plata o Plomo.
Jacqueline Henriksson:
Those are the three that have the best past performances but I want to add that there are two or three more horses who can win the race. There's no given favorite, the Derby is wide open this year.