With wins in the Danish Oaks and the Breeders’ Trophy Classic at the weekend, trainer Bent Olsen came close to three million kroner in earnings this year. That makes him by far the most successful Danish trainer this season. And his daughter Lea Olsen, as well as Rikke Rohbach Bonde, Søren Jensen and Bettina Andersen, all have earnings of more than one million kroner. It was a fine weekend with Danish racing people at the centre – and a fantastic build-up to the Scandinavian Open Yearling Sale.
THE CHAMPAGNE CORKS POPPED.
There was a lot of money on the table in the weekend’s feature races. In the Danish Criterium and the Danish Oaks at Klampenborg, and in the three Breeders’ races at Bro Park.
Stutteri Hjortebo, Oliver Wilson and Bent Olsen helped themselves generously.
Stutteri Hjortebo won the Danish Criterium at Klampenborg and was at the same time the breeder of the winners of all the main Breeders’ races at Bro Park. Horses bred at Hjortebo earned almost 1.5 million Danish kroner over the weekend.
Stutteri Hjortebo could hardly imagine a better build-up to the Scandinavian Open Yearling Sale.
The stud now tops not only the Danish breeders’ list, but also the Swedish list of leading breeders with almost 5 million Swedish kronor. More than twice as much as second-placed Rävdansens Stutteri.
And Appel Au Maitre, who stands at Stutteri Hjortebo, tops the list of the best stallions in Sweden ahead of Juniper Tree and Giant Sandman.
OLIVER WILSON IN TOP FORM.
Carlos Lopez looks to be on his way to another jockeys’ championship at Klampenborg. With 26 wins so far – twice as many as Oliver Wilson – it will be very hard for Oliver to catch Carlos.
But Oliver can console himself with an extremely fine weekend.
At Klampenborg the weekend brought a win with Cosmopolitan (Make Believe) in the Danish Criterium, where trainer Søren Jensen and Stutteri Hjortebo could both celebrate a one-two, as Taifuu (Japan) was second.
At Klampenborg Oliver also won with the runner-up in the Danish 2000 Guineas, Golden Dreams (Girolamo), who is in training with his mother Bettina Andersen.
The following day at Bro Park Oliver Wilson was in the groove again with wins in two feature races, and over the weekend Oliver rode home more than one million Danish kroner for his owners.
Oliver used the same tactics in his two big wins, both of which were won from start to finish.
The first came in the Breeders’ Trophy Mile, where My Fortune (Appel Au Maitre) won commandingly.
With the win My Fortune, who earlier this year won the Dansk Breeders’ Cup at Klampenborg, confirmed his position as Scandinavia’s best 4-year-old over a distance.
Last season’s Danish Derby winner, Brigadier (Moohaajim), sadly passed away last year, and last year’s dual Derby winner, Schamyl (Appel Au Maitre), we have not seen this year. He is recovering from an injury and is not expected to run again until 2026.
The weekend’s biggest win came when Oliver won the Breeders’ Trophy Classic with the Bent Olsen-trained No Surrender (Giant Sandman).
After the race the Scandinavian general handicapper Nicholas Cordrey has raised No Surrender to 86 in the handicap, one kilo less than Wassim (Zarak), who won the Larch Ærespræmie on Danish Derby day ahead of that same No Surrender.
No Surrender, who earlier this year won the Svenskt 2000 Guineas, is now the most successful horse in Sweden this year with 1,392,900 kronor in earnings. Second is the Swedish Derby winner Celtic Lullaby (Juniper Tree).
BENT OLSEN IS STILL GOING STRONG.
Champion trainer Bent Olsen continues to have great success, even though he has slightly fewer horses in training this year than before.
On Saturday Bent Olsen won surprisingly with the Rock Of Gibraltar daughter Happy Legend in the Danish Oaks, and on Sunday at Bro Park came the year’s most lucrative win, when No Surrender won the Breeders’ Trophy Classic.
With that win Bent Olsen put further distance between himself and the best of his Danish training colleagues.
Besides the weekend’s wins with No Surrender and Happy Legend, Bent Olsen has this year won feature races with No Surrender, who also won the Svenskt 2000 Guineas at Bro Park, and with Cool Magic (Moohaajim), who won the Produce Stakes at Klampenborg.
The weekend also brought a win in the Racing Club Klampenborgs Racing Bowl for Great Wish (Night Of Thunder), who impressed again. He is now up to a handicap of 93. 10 kilos more than at the start of the year, and he has already earned more than 300,000 kroner this year.
His daughter Lea Olsen has won two classic races this year. The Svenskt 1000 Guineas with Zarina (Appel Au Maitre) and the Danish 1000 Guineas with Wiggle Wine (Go Go Gadget).
Lea’s three 3-year-old fillies Zarina, Wiggle Wine and Sov Gott (Appel au Maitre) have won more than 800,000 kroner this year, Zarina more than half of it.
There have been no big wins this year for Rikke Rohbach Bonde, but several of her horses have gone close in many feature races and contributed well to the coffers.
That applies especially to the Derby runner-up and third Firstof All (Juniper Tree) and Go Go Flame (Go Go Gadget), Chappel (Appel au Maitre), the now retired King David (Elusive City) and Lady Macallan (Al Shemali).
The ”Criterium king” Søren Jensen did it again and won the Danish Criterium once more. And this time it even became a one-two.
Søren Jensen has an interesting team of 2-year-olds in the stable. Besides the unbeaten Cosmopolitan, who has also won the Goffs Futurity Stakes this year, and Taifuu, Søren Jensen has three very well-bred, unraced 2-year-olds of whom he expects a lot.
Cosmopolitan’s Criterium win was not Søren Jensen’s only win of the weekend.
On Sunday I Can Do It (Hurricane Red) won the Breeders’ Trophy Classic Consolation at Bro Park.
After a longer spell on the sidelines with injury, I Can Do It, who last year won Dansk Galops Auktionsløb ahead of No Surrender, returned to the turf with a comfortable win.
Bettina Andersen’s really big earner this year has been My Fortune with wins in the Dansk Breeders’ Cup and the Breeders’ Trophy Mile.
But Lucien (Hurricane Red) has also done well, and at the weekend, as already mentioned, it also became the year’s second win for Golden Dreams.
It was a fine weekend’s racing, and as a Dane you naturally cannot help taking pleasure in the many fine wins produced by the people of Danish racing.
