Solvalla bans top trotter

Roger Hammer confirmed to harnessracing.com Thursday that he has been told by an official at Solvalla racetrack in Sweden that he would not be permitted to race Vivid Photo in this year’s Elitlopp due to Hammer’s admission to giving the 2005 Hambletonian winner anabolic steroids last year. Sweden's rules preclude any horse that has been given anabolic steroids from competing in that country.

Hammer said he gave Vivid Photo, who has career earnings of more than $2.1 million, a single shot of anabolic steroids following the trotter’s seventh-place finish in the American National at Balmoral Park in late August to help relieve the stress of tying up. Solvalla announced the decision to forever ban Vivid Photo from competing in that country in a press release issued Wednesday.

“He had one shot last year when he got sick from tying up, and their rule over there (in Sweden) says that anything that had steroids since 1996 can’t race,” Hammer explained. “They sent me all their rules. I could have just lied to them, but I just told them the truth. They asked me, I told them, and that’s it. They were gentlemen about it.”

Hammer said he is no longer considering any sort of European campaign for Vivid Photo, and he is now preparing the 5-year-old gelding for his 2007 debut in the opening round of the Classic Series April 9 at Dover Downs.

“(The Elitlopp) was the only race I’d go over there for; now I’ll just stay around here,” said Hammer. “He will make his first start in the Classic Series.”

« Back