A large Australian contingent was on hand to watch Cruzado Dela Noche cause a 30/1 upset when landing the 40th running of the US$1,000,000 Yonkers International Trot from Lionel and Up and Quick.

It was the race that was supposed to be a field of dreams for Victorian trotter Sparkling Success before injury derailed his campaign when on the verge of flying out for the New York trot.

While disappointed their hope couldn't fulfill his invitation, trainer John Meade and reinsman Chris Svanosio still took a bite out of the Big Apple, with the latter on course for the big day at Yonkers.

“My trip has been terrific," Svanosio said. “We've been to the races at Yonkers, Delaware and Lexington, where we spent about two weeks while all the best horses and trainers were down there. The International Trot and its build-up week was great. There were lots of people from all the European countries and Australia attending events all week together, like press conferences, boat cruises and then we all travelled out together from Manhattan to Yonkers.

“I think Sparkling Success would have been very competitive in the race, but like all the horses, would have needed some luck. Lionel is a great horse, but the winner was just here a bit longer and was able to trial twice in the lead up, which would have been similar to the prep Sparkling Success would have had.

“John Meade (trainer) and I spoke to a lot of people and told them we would love to be back next year, or would encourage any Australian connections invited to come. There were also a lot of Europeans that would love to have Australian horses visit and said to contact them any time. I hope we are able to continue building up the Great Southern Star. Everyone here keeps saying they want to come to Australia, if we give them a reason to come."

On to the big race itself. Winner Cruzado Dela Noche began his career in the United States with Nancy Johansson and raced there as a younger horse, finishing third in the 2014 Group 1 Peter Haughton Memorial, America’s premier juvenile trotting race. He also competed in the 2015 Hambletonian and won three races before going to Scandinavia.

He joined the legendary Stéfan Melander stable in November 2015 and really matured, winning one of Norway’s premier four-year-old races before finishing third in the Group 1 Sprinting Masters in 2016.

Overall in Scandinavia he won one Group 2 race and two Group 1 races, which were Germany’s premier four-year-old race in 2016 and then the Copenhagen Cup, Denmark’s premier race, in 2017. He also competed in an Elitloppet heat behind Bold Eagle and the 2017 European Championship at Vincennes.

Taken back to America a couple of months ago to prepare for this race after he received an invite as a Swede back in May, he joined the local stables of Swedish born Marcus Melander, nephew to Stéfan.

Still raced by Swedish connections, he had two soft wins at the qualifiers (trials) at Pocono Downs in 1:55.2 and 1:54.2.

Despite this he went off at around odds of 30/1 and, after having the perfect run following Lionel into the race in the running line, he grabbed him on the post in his first race start since the Oslo Grand Prix in June.

There was a sensation early when the two Swedish trained runners Pastore Bob and favourite Ringostarr Treb, the Elitloppet champion, both galloped after duelling for the lead and therefore ruined their chances. For Ringostarr Treb that is now two starts in a row where he has galloped, having also gone off stride last time at Solvalla when running against Australia's Maori Time. He clearly isn’t racing as well as what he was earlier in the year. Wilhelm Paal, his driver, reported that his drive felt good before he galloped and then could never get back into a rhythm.

Going down the back with a lap and a half to go Ariana G retook the lead before handing up to the Canadian chance and second favourite Marion Marauder, who finished second 12 months earlier. Lionel had moved up to sit outside the leader with Cruzado Dela Noche one by one.

Brian Sears launched his drive with just on 400 metres to travel and fought it out with Lionel all the way down the straight before grabbing the Norwegian right on the line. Lionel was a mighty run in defeat whilst former Prix d'Amérique champion Up And Quick, the only French runner, enjoyed an economical run throughout to come through for third from Ariana G, a weakening Marion Marauder and Arazi Boko, who was followed in by Canada’s Will Take Charge and Denmark’s Slide So Easy, who were both never in it. Ringostarr Treb and Pastore Bob were the last pair home after losing all chance early.

The lead time for the 2011-metre trip was 28.4 followed by quarters of the final mile of 28.8, 29.9, 28.6 and 29 seconds in a mile rate of 1:55.7

In what has been a marvellous year for driver Brian Sears, he added this championship feature to his tally, which this year also includes reaching 10,000 driving wins.

Sears explained: “I couldn’t have drawn it up any better re: the trip we had, outside of maybe being three-deep a bit early when I was going around the final turn. When I did it initiated the pace, so Lionel had to trot a little quicker, so I think if I waited for the straight I might have been able to get to him quicker but the horse raced super. He got the trip that he needed and you have to have some luck to win these types of races and that’s what happened.

“It’s awesome to win the signature race here at Yonkers, you don’t get that many opportunities to get in it but to win it is quite a thrill."

“I am a little bit surprised,” admitted trainer Marcus Melander. “We had two qualifiers at Pocono and we weren’t really sure if he was 100 per cent in form for this race because, even if he was good in those two qualifiers, he hadn’t had a real race for three or four months, but he showed us he was good enough. We train our horses a lot with long miles and he is used to a mile and a quarter from Sweden, so the distance was never a problem today."

The other two features on the card were the $250,000 Harry Harvey Invitational Trot won by Warrawee Roo and the $250,000 Dan Rooney Invitational Pace won by superstar McWicked in 1:50.8, also driven by Brian Sears.

McWicked, who has turned out to be the arch rival of Lazarus, was able to sit third before leaving the inside with a circuit to go and powered away to bolt in.

That particular race saw the former Cran Dalgety prepared Bit Of A Legend finish second and of course Lazarus was a scratching on Friday due to coughing but should be ok before the Breeders Crown series, which kicks off this weekend at Pocono Downs, where once again he will meet McWicked.

Among other runners in action on the day with a Australasian connection was Christen Me, who saluted in the first race on the card, finishing ahead of former WA horse second-placed Mach Time.

Well-performed Victorian three-year-olds Stars Align and Our Little General also stepped out, finishing second (race three) and eighth (race six) in their respective races. Stars Align finished narrowly ahead of former Gary Hall Snr horse Soho Lonnon, who placed third.

In European news, Vincennes hosted a huge program on Friday night for the European Championship races for aged horses with all of the three Group 1s held over 2100 meters from behind the mobile on the inside course. These championships are held at different tracks around Europe each year, but the aged championships are held on different days to the open age feature, which was won by Propulsion in September in Sweden.

The three-year-old championship was won by the rapidly improving Face Time Bourbon, who made it six wins from seven starts for leading trainer Sébastien Guarato and Swedish champion Björn Goop.

The son of Ready Cash was able to power to an easy win despite being three wide to the spot outside the leader over Sweden’s Holy Water and local Fric du Chêne, with the second favourite Zidane Grif galloping with a circuit to go.

The feature of the night was the rich 400,000 Euro four-year-old championship, the classic age in European trotting, the Grand Prix de l'UET. Jorma Kontio and Timo Nurmos combined with the mighty Readly Express to win the race at Vincennes in 2016 and their charge was a 13/1 chance Villiam, who was able to storm around the outside in the back straight and get to the lead in the straight. He claimed victory from Mellby Free, the only filly in the race, in a Swedish quinella with Earl Simon the first of the locals home. Who’s Who, the Swedish Derby champion, went off a 1.6 favourite on the PMU in France but could only finish fourth after doing a lot of work outside the leader. Eridan was fifth after getting shunted out of it off the back and Chianti doing too much work in front weakening towards the rear.

The final G1 was the five year old championship, where 2.1 favourite Dijon went straight to the lead from gate two after crossing German star Orlando Jet and got away with very easy sectionals in front. Orlando Jet never got daylight in the straight but still finished a very unlucky second and Dijon never looked in doubt. Django Riff, 2016 3YO Championship winner, finished third in an on-pace and uneventful race.

And two of the stars of the sport were both able to win on Saturday and Sunday in Readly Express and Aubrion du Gers.

Readly Express made his first appearance since a huge third in the European Championship on Saturday at Åby in the G2 Swedish Championship over the 2640 meters from behind the mobile, a race he won in 2017.

He started a 1.2 favourite on the Swedish totalisator and despite the outside second row draw had charged forward to find the front after 500 meters which meant race over. He ran quarters of 30.6, 29.1 28.1 and 27.2 to win in a mile rate of 1:55.6 by around five metres over 2017 Derby winner Cyber Lane and Racing Mange.

Aubrion du Gers, who is the champion gelding in Europe, which unfortunately rules him out of races such as the Prix d'Amérique, was able to win his 43rd race at his 66th career start at Bordeaux on Sunday in the feature Group 2 race for the season held in the South West of France.

This particular race is held at Bordeaux once every four years along with Toulouse, Agen and Beaumont. After Aubrion du Gers won the race last year at Beaumont-de-Lomagne, he made it 10 wins in a row in a mile rate of 1:56.9 in the 41st running of the Grand Prix du Sud-Ouest.

He found the lead early before surrendering and ending up midfield in the running line. He made his move down the back to take the lead from Carat Williams and held him off by a comfortable half-length down the straight with Aribo Mix a top third from the back down the outside and second favourite Ranch Kelly fourth.