Denmark has lost one of its most successful owners from the roughly 10-year period from the middle of the 1990s into the new millennium. After a long period of illness, Erik Olesen, who achieved four Derby wins and great international experiences with Dano-Mast, has passed away at the age of 85.
“Erik Olesen was bitten by the racing bug in the first half of the 1990s and in the period that followed came to mean everything to my business and my career”, says Flemming Poulsen, who for many years trained Erik’s horses with a base in both Denmark and France.
The really big breakthrough came in 1996, when the Lyphard’s Wish son Palatal won both the Danish Derby at Klampenborg and Svenskt Derby at Jägersro. On both occasions with Fredrik Johansson in the saddle.
In the following years Erik Olesen was a frequent guest at both the Danish and the international sales, and one star followed the other into the stable with Poulsen at Enghavelyst in Klampenborg.
“Erik’s approach to the sport was that the horses he bought abroad must not cost more than the most expensive one at the Danish sale. He wanted to make sure that nobody could accuse him of buying his way to success”, says Flemming Poulsen and continues:
“Erik often owned horses in a 50% partnership with others, notably Kim Elsass and Kristian Andersen. Erik had his condition about the price of the horses, but otherwise I had a free hand at the sales, and it was a fantastic way to work. And it certainly produced a great many fantastic horses”.
The next big star after Palatal was Dano-Mast (Unfuwain), whom Erik Olesen and Kim Elsass bought for just 12,000 guineas as a yearling in Newmarket in the autumn of 1997. And at the same sale the Mystiko son Woven Roving was bought as a travelling companion for 5,000 guineas.
Two horses which in the currency of the day cost less than 200,000 kroner together.
Woven Roving had a fine career with big-race wins and classic placings, but Dano-Mast became the really big star for Erik Olesen, Kim Elsass and Flemming Poulsen.
In Scandinavia he won the Scandinavian Open Championship (Gr.3), Stockholm Cup International (Gr.3), Pokalløb (L) and Danish Jockey Club Cup (L), but he also managed to put Denmark on the world map with his international triumphs in the Prix Dollar (Gr.2) and Prix Jean de Chaudenay (Gr.2), as well as third places in the Hong Kong Cup (Gr.1) and Grosser Preis von Baden (Gr.1).
At the Danish yearling sale in 1998 at Egholm Gods, Erik Olesen together with Kristian Andersen bought the yearling colt Vetrotex (Richard Of York).
Like Dano-Mast and Woven Roving, Vetrotex was late developing, but as a 3-year-old he won both Jydsk Derby and the Danish Derby in the hands of Poulsen’s then first jockey Mark Larsen.
And it was Mark Larsen who was also in the irons at Erik Olesen’s fourth Derby win, when Albany Hall (Turtle Island) went round the course on his own in Svenskt Derby in 2005. Albany Hall was trained in Chantilly, where Flemming Poulsen – with Erik’s strong backing – had set up as a trainer a couple of years earlier.
His great passion for racing also meant that Erik Olesen was part of the board of Klampenborg Galopbane for a number of years, and he quietly helped to steer the racecourse through difficult times around the turn of the millennium.
Erik Olesen’s influence – and importance – for Danish racing as a whole has been enormous, and much would not be the same today if it were not for Erik’s vision, ability and burning passion.
Erik is survived by his wife Jeanette, as well as four grown-up children and grandchildren.
Honoured be the memory of Erik Olesen.
