THE VIKINGS raiding parties may not have been sighted off the coast for a few centuries but the sporting Norsemen can still wreak havoc.
Just ask the England football team still coming to terms with their defeat to Iceland in Euro 2016.
Three weeks ago Cathrine Erichsen broke new ground for Norwegian racing when the trainer brought Coprah to win a Listed race at Ascot, not bad from a nation that has only the one racecourse, and Rune Haugen will be trying to follow up at Newbury today.
Haugen runs Quarterback in the Group Three Worthington's OCSL St Simon Stakes Stakes who will be ridden by Dane O’Neill and while his four victories have all come within Scandinavia, including the Norwegian Derby, the horse has more passport stamps than Alan Whicker.
Quarterback has made two appearances so far in Britain, faring best when runner-up in the Listed James Seymour Stakes at Newmarket last October, and Haugen, who is based at Drammen in the Fjord region of Norway, said: "I have trained some very good horses over the years but it looks like with Quarterback that I have an international star.
"I have run him in six different countries in the last nine months so he is a real globetrotter. He started off his international campaign in Qatar in December, when Jamie Spencer rode him. The trip was only nine furlongs there which was a bit short for him.
"Saturday's race is over a mile and a half and I think Newbury will suit him perfectly as he is a really big galloping horse. The ground doesn't seem to matter to him. He ran a cracking race on fast ground in Dubai and won in Stockholm on good ground while he was second at Newmarket last year on soft ground.
"My horse has won two of his last three starts, both of which have come at Group Three level. You can forget his run in between at Ovrevoll [in Norway] as it was only nine furlongs and everything went wrong for him that day. His win at Stockholm last time came in a very fast time and he beat some good horses.
"He is still improving and I think he can make the frame at Newbury. I have had one runner at Newbury before, Miyasaki, who was third in a Listed race in 2007."
The Flat season may have reached the stage of fading embers but Cheltenham burst into life for its new season yesterday as Paul Nicholls kept up his impressive run for the season.
The champion trainer can sometimes been slow to get into full swing but this season his horses are running at a strike-rate of 34 per cent and he took his total to 49 winners with a double led by Marracudja in the squareintheair.com Novices’ Chase.
Marracudja only had a neck to spare over the strong-finishing Presenting Arms and Nicholls sees the horse’s future away from Cheltenham and a possible run in the Arkle Trophy in March. “It’s probably not the perfect track for him,” he said. “He’ll be much better around Sandown or Kempton.
“I might go for the Henry VIII [at Sandown on December 3rd], Kempton [over Christmas] then come back for Aintree and Punchestown. The race I have in my mind is the Tingle Creek in 2017.”
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