“The joy of anticipation is the greatest of all.” That is the view of the current head of the Lauritzen dynasty and chairman of Klampenborg Galopselskab, Jens Ditlev Lauritzen. He knows what he is talking about, because he is one of Klampenborg’s biggest owners and has been a regular at Klampenborg Galopbane since the day he was born. RaceTime visited him on a glorious spring day at Enghavelyst, the yard of Hanne Bechmann, where Jens has his horses in training.
It is the best time of the year, Jens says, because right now every owner believes that theirs is the best horse. After a tour of the stables – and a small, unintended detour into the muck heap – we are invited upstairs above Hanne Bechmann’s barn for coffee and tea.
Stinger is the best of them all
Jens’ eyes light up with spring when we ask about Stinger. The winter favourite and winner of the Norsk Breeders’ Prize Classic is the best horse he has had – and we have yet to see how good he is, Jens believes.
The main targets in 2016 are the Dansk Breeders’ Cup and the Breeders’ Trophy Stayer, and Jens is convinced that Stinger stays well.
Just under a year ago Stinger had leg trouble, and the hope of winning the Danish Derby was gone with the wind – Jens’ greatest disappointment as an owner, because he is of the same mind as many other owners: a win in the Danish Derby stands above everything else. Now he has to wait until 2017, but then it is in the bag. Nothing can go wrong.
When Franz Nutz decided to give up training, the stable’s horses went into training with Ole Larsen, who among others trained Famous Grouse to finish second in the Danish Derby behind Parthe.
After that the choice fell on Hanne Bechmann, who in Jens’ view possesses many of the same qualities that made Franz Nutz one of the best trainers Scandinavia has ever seen.
The spring sun shines beautifully over Enghavelyst and the many enthusiastic young women who work in Hanne Bechmann’s yard.
Optimism has never been greater – and there is good reason for it. Jens owns two very promising two-year-olds: a half-sister to Stinger by Appel Au Maitre, whom she resembles, and Cloud Walker, a grey full brother to the two-year-old star Hongkong Paradigm.
Which of them is the better, Jens does not yet know, but should both of them go wrong, he is also part-owner of the Mingun son Sun Of A Gun – out of Zwicky Racing’s 2011 Derby winner Tigress Eleven, who was trained by Hanne Bechmann.
Born into racing
Jens is the great-grandson of Ditlev Lauritzen, who founded the shipping company J. Lauritzen in 1884. It was his grandmother, Lilian Lauritzen, who brought the family into racing in the early 1920s.
She was one of the participants in Denmark’s first race for female amateur riders, and she owned horses together with Enid Ingemann, mother of another great figure of the sport, Lone Kaj-Nielsen.
Racegoers with a few years behind them will remember the burgundy silks. And the story continues – today Jens has his box next to Lone Kaj-Nielsen’s.
Jens first visited Klampenborg Galopbane while he was still in a pram, and as a boy he went to the stables every Sunday with his father, Jørgen Ditlev Lauritzen – among other places to Franz Nutz at Hvidegården.
His first memory from Klampenborg is Pan‘s (Albert Klimscha jr.) Derby victory in 1964, in one of the most exciting Derby finishes for many years with a record field of 26 runners.
Also strong in the memory is the day his grandmother’s Ricorso beat his grandfather Ivar Lauritzen’s Flying Ward in Dansk Forårsløb (the Danish 2000 Guineas) in 1972. It was his father, Jørgen Ditlev, who came up with the name Stald Shaker – and with the idea that the horses should be named after cocktails. Jens has kept that tradition.
A chairman in limbo
Klampenborg Galopbane got a new ownership structure on 1 February 2014, when a new Danish/Norwegian syndicate took over with a view to relaunching the racecourse’s brand and identity.
In May of the same year Jens Lauritzen succeeded Peter Rolin as chairman of the board, and in the period that followed the racecourse was given a new public face with renovated buildings and a range of new spectator facilities. With hindsight, Jens believes that the focus was probably too much on spectator facilities rather than stables.
That is something he hopes to make amends for before long by building 20-30 new boxes on the racecourse grounds behind Bent Olsen’s stables. More horses are needed at Klampenborg, and more race days has always been the aim – not fewer, as we are seeing now.
Jens concedes that there are a great many class 4 and class 5 handicaps at Klampenborg, but points out that they help secure the tote turnover.
He would like to see more class horses at the racecourse, but he flatly disagrees with opening the Danish Derby to imports: the Swedish and Norwegian Derbys are already open, and it is only reasonable that we maintain a Derby that is open solely to Scandinavian-bred horses. The interests of Danish thoroughbred breeders also weigh heavily.
Cooperation on the board works well, Jens says, but the financial targets have not been met. There is quite simply not enough money. Klampenborg needs a larger share of the betting revenue – more has to be left for the racecourses, and the betting products have to be made more attractive, so that a domino effect is created to the benefit of the state and the racecourses alike.
“We are hove to, and we find ourselves in limbo for as long as we are waiting for a solution to the ongoing negotiations about the future of horse racing in Denmark.”
Because of the uncertainty, larger new investments are being held back for the time being. Jens also points out that four racecourses in Denmark is a challenge – compared with Norway, for example, which has only Øvrevoll. But he is certain that racing in Denmark will survive, and in the slightly longer term he foresees much greater and closer Scandinavian cooperation.
The king of Klampenborg
Many people identify Jens with The Kicker – “the king of Klampenborg”, as the stable staff call him. The Kicker, whom Jens owns together with Bechmann Racing, won five times at Klampenborg last year and has earned almost 2.5 million kroner in all.
Why is it exciting to be an owner, we ask. “It is the excitement, the adrenaline rush,” Jens says.
“The fascination of having to find the very best horse. Of dealing with living creatures that you can never be quite sure about.”
Jens speaks warmly of Hanne Bechmann, and she speaks warmly of Jens, whom she describes as a very loyal and patient owner.
“Hanne is perfect as a trainer,” Jens says. “She has the background, a great knowledge of horses and the right mental approach to horses and training. She does not rush them – they are not to run before they are ready – and from her you get honest answers about how your horses are and how good they are.”
Jens cannot understand why Hanne Bechmann does not have more than the 14 horses she currently has in training. And as Hanne says, when she happens to pass by and overhears the conversation: “There is always room for one more.”
Carlos Lopez is most often in the saddle on Jens’ horses, and he too gets a positive word along the way: he always tells you what he experienced after the races or in training, Jens says – and he is not afraid to admit it if he has made a mistake in a race himself.
The man behind the stable
As a person Jens describes himself as reflective and strategic, especially on the business side. He goes straight to the point, he is impatient, and he has a temper.
He spends a great deal of time on the chairmanship of Klampenborg Galopselskab, but his main activity is and always has been the shipping business.
As chairman of the Lauritzen Foundation, Jens is also a contributor to and involved in many social projects, and in addition he is a board member of fødevareBanken, an organisation that helps reduce food waste in the food sector while at the same time helping to fight food poverty among socially vulnerable citizens.
Jens’ father had three interests: shipping, racehorses and hunting. Jens has been shooting, but it is golf in particular that has occupied him – he plays off a handicap of 6.9, although in recent years there has been less time for golf than he would have liked.
Jens Lauritzen turns 60 this summer and has many good memories from Scandinavian racecourses. Among the best horses he has seen he immediately mentions Long John, Algarve, Flying Drummer and Clarion King, who were trained by Franz Nutz, with whom Jens still has a close connection.
Jens recently underwent major heart surgery, but he was quickly back on his feet, and now, only a good month later, he seems in surprisingly good shape – ready to take on his many commitments.
And to look forward to things: because the joy of anticipation is, as we know, the greatest of all.
This article is from RaceTime, 23 March 2016, and is republished here as part of the GalopSport archive.
