Although the dust has barely settled on the brilliant end-of-year meeting held on 30 December, the new racing season opens with meetings next Saturday and Sunday, 14 and 15 January. Each meeting starts at 1.45pm and consists of seven trot races.

An interesting Premier class race features in each programme. Both include trotters which were extremely popular last season, such as Energy Launcher, Master Lupin, Naja In Blue, Anguz R.C and others in Saturday’s race and Fire, Lou Petiot, Madis Boy, Arnie Sensation and others on Sunday.

Two French newcomers will also debut in this class, i.e. Orion d’Ostal and Nabor Star.

The three Gold class races also include a number of quality horses, some of which used to race in the Premier class until recently, whilst others will be promoted to that class with a win. Some trotters have had optimal performances in the championships held last month and racegoers will be on the lookout to see whether they will continue with their progress this year.

Irrespective of their class, all trainers and owners will be keen to see their horses improving their form with an eye on the forthcoming championships starting in early February. Racegoers will also follow the performance of the seven newcomers (hailing from France, Germany, Sweden and Holland) making their debut this weekend.

All horse-racing enthusiasts seem to have two exciting meetings to kick-off the new season.