Carlos Lopez defended the Tandari Classic with seven classic wins

The classic season in Scandinavia ended at Klampenborg on 17 October, and with it the Tandari Classic has been settled for the year. Carlos Lopez defended his title with seven wins in the 15 classics and more than twice as many points as the runner-up, Per-Anders Gråberg.

Carlitos scored in 14 of the 15 races. Only the Bucherer Danish Derby gave him nothing, as his ride on the ante-post favourite Lord Of The Moon was called off. The rest brought seven wins, two seconds, three thirds, a fourth and a fifth — 113 points, where Gråberg gathered 53 and Oliver Wilson 42.

That is one win more than last year, when Lopez won six classics and the tournament with 128 points. On the other hand, you have to go back to the tournament’s very first year to find a bigger classic haul: in 2002 Fredrik Johansson won eight of the 15 and was in the money in the other six.

Three Oaks with the same filly

The season’s biggest story was Lady Irene (Study Of Man). The Niels Petersen-trained filly won the Swedish Oaks at Jägersro on 2 August, the Danish Oaks at Klampenborg on 5 September and the Erik O. Steen Norwegian Oaks at Øvrevoll on 11 October — and so became the first horse in the history of Scandinavian racing to win all three.

Twenty-one fillies have won two of them. None had taken all three before Lady Irene did it on heavy turf at Øvrevoll by three-quarters of a length. The victory came eight days after her owner, Morten Aspelund, passed away.

The three Oaks alone gave Lopez 30 of his 113 points.

Six of the seven for Niels Petersen

Take Lopez’s seven classic wins one by one, and Niels Petersen is behind six of them. Besides the Oaks treble with Lady Irene, the pair won the Swedish Derby with Glæsner Racing’s Doc Holliday (Appel Au Maitre) on 12 July, the Norwegian St. Leger with Bling Enterprise’s Galactico Bling (Galileo) on 10 September and the Swedish St. Leger with another Glæsner Racing horse, Lord Greystoke (Ulysses), on 3 October — in the 100th running of the race.

The seventh came early. On 23 May Lopez won the Danish 2000 Guineas on the Lea Olsen-trained Albarella (Toronado) for Lars Jakobsen and Chris L. Petersen.

Gråberg took the Guineas races

Per-Anders Gråberg’s 53 points were put together in a different way. The Swede won three classics, and all three were Guineas: Jockeyklubbens 2000 Guineas with Mme Fernande’s Beethoven (Goken) on 14 June, and on one and the same day, 2 July, both the Norwegian 1000 Guineas with Mehmas Air Force (Mehmas) and the Norwegian 2000 Guineas with Antonov (Sergei Prokofiev).

The other classic winners

The last five classics were shared between four riders. Valmir de Azeredo won both 1000 Guineas races in Denmark and Sweden on Veronika Jandová’s Sweet Sunshine (Iffraaj) — Mowerinaløb on 2 May and the Swedish 1000 Guineas on 14 June.

Jules Mobian won the Bucherer Danish Derby with Stald Shaker’s Cosmopolitan (Make Believe), Willa Synøve M. Schou took the Norwegian Derby with Gina Mathisen’s Super Smooth (Quarterback), and Oliver Wilson closed the season with the Danish St. Leger on Stald Klampenborg’s King To Be (Moohaajim).

Fifteen classics thus produced twelve different winners and six different riders. Last year there were fifteen different winners.

Jacob Johansen finished fifth on 30 points without a win — four seconds and three fourths. Behind the top five in the final standings, a further 16 jockeys took part during the season.

About the tournament

The Tandari Classic was instituted in 2002 as the «Janos Tandari Classic Challenge». The perpetual trophy is given by Larissa Tandari, a former jockey and the daughter of Janos Tandari, the most successful jockey in Scandinavian history.

The prize goes to the rider who does best overall across the 15 classic races in Denmark, Norway and Sweden — the 1000 Guineas, 2000 Guineas, Derby, Oaks and St. Leger in each country.

Points go to the first five in each race on a 10-6-4-2-1 scale. The Derbies count double, that is 20-12-8-4-2, and that is why Jules Mobian, with one classic win, finished ahead of Jacob Johansen, who had seven placings.

Earlier winners include Kim Andersen in 2003, Lennart Hammer in 2006, Per-Anders Gråberg in 2012, Oliver Wilson in 2019 and 2022, Nicolaj Stott in 2021 and Elione Chaves in 2024.