With three elimination heats and a final, the $120,000 Sweden Cup turned into one of the highlights of Saturday’s (May 30) racing card at Solvalla.

Defending champion Double Deceiver, bred in the U.S. by Steve Stewart and Oakwood Farms, captured the first elimination in impressive front-running fashion for Örjan Kihlström, while the second division produced an upset as Dutch raider Novato led every step of the way for Dion Tesselaar. The third elimination also went gate-to-wire, this time courtesy of Finnish-trained Need’Em.

In the Sweden Cup final, Double Deceiver (Cantab Hall—Sarcy) was forced to work considerably harder than in his elimination to defend the lead, and the pace never relented after the opening quarter. The field reached the half-mile in a blistering :54.2.

The fierce tempo was largely due to Hades de Vandel, who was parked three-wide after being challenged by the aggressive Savastano, whom Adrian Kolgjini had sent first-over already in the opening turn. Hades de Vandel remained stranded on the outside while Antonio Di Nardo searched for racing room behind Working Class Hero, launching his move entering the final turn.

Savastano was spent turning for home, and at that point Dion Tesselaar elected to pull Novato (Maharajah) from the pocket in an attempt to overhaul the leader. The move cost him dearly.

Meanwhile, Dexter Dunn demonstrated exactly why he is considered one of the world’s premier drivers. Starting from post 8 with Crown (Chapter Seven), he secured a trip in third along the rail and simply waited for the stretch. With racing room finally appearing, Crown surged late for second in the final strides. Novato faded to fourth, while Working Class Hero (Village Mystic) held well for third.

The winning time of 1:50.3 established a new Sweden Cup final record. The previous mark of 1:51.2 had been shared by Bengurion Jet and Volstead, while Always Ek won an elimination in 1:50.2 in 2024.

“He was like a tiger today,” said Kihlström. “It’s not easy to open in 1:08 for the first kilometer, but he was incredibly eager. This was a tremendous performance. Had the pace remained strong all the way, he would have gone even faster. I actually slowed things down quite a bit in the final turn because I only feared the horse sitting in behind us. He’s extremely quick.”

Double Deceiver was purchased by Stall Zet for $500,000 at the 2022 Harrisburg Sale.

At the time, he had compiled a record of 25 starts, 11 wins, eight seconds, and one third, including victories in the Matron Stakes ($143,950), three legs of the Kentucky Championship Series ($80,000), a division of the Tompkins-Geers Stakes ($43,000), a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes division ($66,544), and a Breeders Crown elimination (C$33,750). He was also runner-up in the Yonkers Trot behind Joviality. One of his Kentucky Championship Series victories came in 1:50.2, just one-fifth- of-a-second off the world record for 3-year-old geldings.

As a yearling, Double Deceiver sold for just $17,000 in Lexington. He is out of Sarcy (Donato Hanover), 1:10.3 ($261,333), who was trained by Jimmy Takter. Sarcy is also the dam of Hambletonian winner Tactical Approach (Tactical Landing), 1:08.4 ($1,544,489), winner of the Hambletonian, Breeders Crown, and Kentucky Futurity. The family also includes Menhammar-owned Dutiful (Trixton), 1:10.3 ($96,796).

Second dam Southwind Allaire (Valley Victory), 1:10.7 ($876,199), was also trained by Jimmy Takter and captured both the Hambletonian Oaks and the Elegantimage Stakes.