Etonnant wrote himself into the history books in Sunday's Elitloppet when he became the first son of a previous winner to salute in the race.
Claiming the lion's share of the $US1.2 million prize at Sweden's Solvalla Raceway, the French-bred eight-year-old is owned and trained by Dutch-born Richard Westerink, who guided Etonnant’s legendary sire Timoko to Elitloppet successes in 2014 and 2017.
Near last on settling down, Etonnant went offstride briefly at the half-mile but recovered his gait and then let down with a withering finishing burst four and five wide to prevail by one length. The time for the mile was 1:51.3.
Hail Mary from Sweden finished second with the German bred and Belgian owned and trained Mister F Daag third.
Earlier in the day defending champion Don Fanucci Zet (1:51.1) and Mister F Daag (1:51.1) won the elimination races.
The frozen semen of Timoko, the leading stakes-winning French trotter of all-time and now sire of more than 500 winners, is available to Australasian breeders from Haras Des Trotteurs in Ballarat.
French stallions accounted for the winners of seven of the 25 races held on Saturday and Sunday.
Nine North American-bred stallions had 14 winners with Conway Hall, Father Patrick, Muscle Hill and Donato Hanover siring two each. Italian stallions had three winners and Sweden a single winner.
Other highlights of the weekend were the success of the French horse Florida Sport in the 1640-metre monte in 1:09.8, and the meeting high of five wins by the Italian reinsman Alessandro Gocciadoro, including the Sweden Cup with the Italian-bred Bepi Bi (by Donato Hanover).
The three-day carnival attracted 37,935 people with 19,591 attending Elitloppet and close to half a million viewers followed the race direct on national television channel, TV4 Sweden.
The Swedish betting operator ATG reported betting on Elitloppet meeting increased by 10.5 per cent compared to 2021. The overall handle came to $US39.9 million.