V75: Seeks revenge after the flat effort in Paris
He won his elimination in splendid isolation.
Then, he came up flat in the final.
On Saturday, Nugget Zon seeks revenge for the flat effort in the Grand Prix de l'UET final when he comes out in Axel Jensens Minneslöp in Oslo.
Bjerkebanen in the Norwegian capital is hosting V75 this weekend. Among several high class fields, Axel Jensens Minneslöp for four-year-olds is the icing on the cake. Representing Sweden is the Halmstad horse 4 Nugget Zon (V75-6) who was very impressive when he two starts ago completely demolished his opponents in an elimination to the Grand Prix de l'UET at Solvalla. But in the final at Vincennes in Paris, his effort was nowhere near the same level.
"Both Örjan (Kihlström) and I thought he felt even better at Vincennes, but it was a long and different journey for him to get there. He had to spend one night on the boat and two more nights in Paris. The alternative was to go down there very close to the race and that didn't feel like a good option either. In hindsight we should have made the trip down much earlier" says trainer Marcus Lindgreen in the podcast 'V75 - lördag hela veckan'.
Nugget Zon came in eight and had to return home to Sweden without having made any money. The question is how his form is going into this start.
"He is definitely not like he was at Vincennes, because there he was all out already with 600 meters left of the race. Normally he toys with the horses he was in against there, because they were not good and he lost to horses that he beat by 20-30 meters just a couple weeks earlier. But I don't think you can expect him to be as good as he was at Solvalla either, because that was the first time I had trained him tougher to have him extra sharp before a start".
Pulls the shoes and drives himself
Nugget Zon usually races barefoot behind. The plan for this start is to also pull the front shoes for the very first time in his career.
"Since he came back after having been sick, he hasn't been pacy at all so this is something we have planned since he returned" says Marcus Lindgren, who chooses to drive the horse himself this time.
"I usually put down the driver that I think can do the best for the horse, both in the short and the long perspective. That's why I normally don't drive in the bigger races, then it's easier to put down a younger and hungrier catch driver. But Nugget Zon is a bit special, he and I and have connected well, so I don't feel that another driver would be better for the horse, quite the opposite actually".
The winner of Axel Jensens Minneslöp receives NOK 300,000. If Nugget Zon wins, it would be his biggest prize check ever and his trainer and driver is optimistic.
"My horse has shown that we get along very well, he can both leave and close fast. If he has a good day I think he should have a chance to win".