Lazy Dust triumphs in Dansk Trav Derby at Charlottenlund

Lazy Dust won the J. Jensen Dansk Trav Derby yesterday at Charlottenlund Travbane in Kopenhagen. The Swedish stallion, trained and driven by Johan Untersteiner from Halmstad, stayed ahead of Lee Marvin and Ludvig Cash in Denmark's premier trotting event. The winning time was 1.16,4a over 3000 meters.

The victory marks the first Dansk Trav Derby win for the Untersteiner family, who previously claimed the Dansk Kriterium three times and the Dansk Hoppe Derby in 2015 with Ultimate Wine. Father Peter Untersteiner drove Lazy Dust in the qualifier, but son Johan took the lines in the final and led the favorite to victory from post five. The winner's prize was approximately 590,000 Danish kroner, pushing Lazy Dust past the one million kroner mark in career earnings. The total prize fund for the race was around 1.18 million kroner, or approximately 158,500 euros.

Lee Marvin (Jan Friis), driven by two-time Derby winner Birger Jorgensen, finished second from post four. Ludvig Cash (Magnus Ladegaard), driven by Rene Kjaer, finished third from post seven. The 5-4-7 trifecta paid 155.14 euros. Lazy Dust started as the favorite with odds of 2.28, confirming his status.

The day's big disappointment was Lust for Life (Paul Hagoort), last year's Kriterium winner and the early market favorite. The mare, trained by Dutchman Paul Hagoort and driven by Robin Bakker, was assigned the disadvantageous post twelve after a disappointing qualifier and could not make an impact in the final. The combination of a poor starting position and a tactical 3000-meter race made it impossible to move forward.

The winning time of 1.16,4a indicates a tactical race without high speed in the opening stages, which gave no advantage to the closers in the field. Lazy Dust, bred by Danish breeder Thomas Lind-Holm, proved with this performance that his 1.12,9a qualifying win over 2500 meters was no coincidence. The stallion has recorded four wins in his last five starts and confirmed his status as the strongest 4-year-old of the Danish crop.

For 71-year-old Steen Juul, who has won the Dansk Trav Derby ten times as a trainer, the 2026 edition was disappointing. His Lucky Mom, driven by Magnus A Djuse and winner of a qualifier in 1.13,3a, was unable to join the battle for the podium. Juul, who grabbed the win last year, must wait to break the record of eleven Derby victories.

The 2026 edition once again underlines the international character of the Danish Derby. With a winner trained in Sweden, a favorite trained in the Netherlands, and participants from Norway and Switzerland, what was once a local breeding event has grown into a Scandinavian meeting of European stature. However, the Danish breeding industry can take pleasure in the fact that the winner was bred on Danish soil.