u/Billy5545

So, “Il Capitano” Varenne from Italy had passed away from old age on 18 August at 31. He was one of the best trotters in harness racing ever, starting as the underdog who was predicted to never be able to race and sold for just $6000, before winning 62 races from 73 starts. He conquered many top races across various European nations and set track records for many, including one that was set even though the wheel of his sulky got broken. He also became the first European trotter to win a harness race in America when he claimed the Breeders Crown, which got him the Horse of the Year award.

I hope his descendants can keep inheriting his stellar performance

So a thing that annoys me when trying to find info on many older international races, like in Europe, outside of particularly well-documented ones like the Arc is that the info on the full roster usually can't be found through searching, as none of the links lead to them, and the only info that might be gleanable is the size of the field. If the rosters are available, they are usually available only starting from the late 80s. That's not to mention races from more obscure horse racing nations. In general you have to dig through many individual horses to even know if they were entered to the specific race in their digitized racing forms, instead of being able to see who raced in a specific race outside of the winner or runner-up.

Also I'm asking it here because r/horseracing feels a bit too America-centric and the vibes are a bit off, while r/HorseRacingUK is mainly filled with gambling help instead of news or other informative posts asking about the sport