V75® (double jackpot): Lighter Derby winner in Berth Johansson Memorial
Despite the loss as the mega favorite Robert Bergh was satisfied with Hail Mary last Saturday.
This weekend the Derby winner is back at it again in Berth Johansson Memorial - with much lighter shoes on his front hooves.
"He will race with 50-60 percent of the weight this time" says Bergh.
Umåker racetrack has put together a high class racing card for Saturday. Both Guldbjörken for the older elite as well as Berth Johansson Memorial for five year olds are both being raced on V75. Both fields are of very high class and above all the race honoring maybe the best trainer of all time at Umåker has attracted a few mega stars. For the first time since finishing first and second in the Swedish Trotting Derby in September last year, Don Fanucci Zet and Hail Mary will face each other. The former comes off a win, while Hail Mary got his seven race win streak broken last Saturday. From the front end he got defeated by Rotate in a speedy finish.
"But I was very happy with him, in many ways" says Robert in the podcast 'V75 - Lördag hela veckan' and explains the loss with the fact that Hail Mary raced with too heavy front shoes.
"I made a change and put heavier shoes on him, because I thought his gait would be smoother when he didn't have to wear two pairs of bell boots".
"That was almost a mistake by me, to have that much weight on him. He couldn't defend himself, it was basically like trotting with two giant moon boots on when he tried to go full speed. But I was satisfied. He had a much better bounce to his stride, he was quicker and more alert. So everything was the way I wanted it to be, except for the shoeing. This week he will race with 50-60 percent of that weighs, so maybe 500 grams on each hoof instead of over a kilo".
Got the right vibes
That the top trotter now will race back to back Saturdays is nothing that bothers his trainer.
"The thing is that he is getting much better now, he likes getting ready and to start racing. So this is perfect and it's been a part of my plan. I just wanted to feel that he had improved off of that first start and I got good vibes from him. But I had thought about racing at Umåker for a while".
Hail Mary starts from post position nine in the second tier behind the gate and the distance is 2,140 meters.
"Starting from the second tier is no problem, but of course you are left out to what happens in the race a bit more. I could very well be a happy second again, to put it that way. It's a race with good horses and a tricky post position, but sometimes you can slip right through from the start and then post position nine is great. So it's hard to say. But it wouldn't be fun to be sitting fourth over or something like that".
"Will be better on Saturday"
V75 this week comes with a double jackpot and according to ATG's calculations the pool for seven winners picked will be SEK 58 million. Robert Bergh has two more starters on V75, but from post position twelve in Guldbjörken (V75-3) Mindyourvalue W.F. is hardly something for the bettors this time. Navona (V75-1) has a much better chance on paper. She has post position three in volt start in a leg of diamantstoet and she comes off a second place finish.
"She had been off for a bit and will be improved on Saturday. She feels so big and heavy when she's been off for a while so even if she didn't look so sharp she actually felt better than I had thought she would. She raced with an open bridle, but now we're going back to the blinds, so she gets sharper. I think that will be a considerable difference".