Five times Søren Jensen has saddled the winner of the Danish Derby, but Norsk Derby – a race his younger sister Hanne Bechmann has won three times – remains high on the wish list. On Sunday, Jensen sends his Danish Derby winner Cosmopolitan into the coveted contest at Øvrevoll.
Cosmopolitan has never run at Øvrevoll before, and only one of the son of Make Believe’s eight starts has come away from his home track at Klampenborg.
There he was third past the post in the Jockeyklubbens Grand Prix at Bro Park, five lengths behind Lord Of The Moon (Sea The Moon).
In the Danish Derby he won by half a length from Stald Klampenborg’s King To Be (Moohaajim), and the success fulfilled a dream the Lauritzen family had carried with them for more than a hundred years.
Jens Ditlev Lauritzen’s grandmother, Lilian Lauritzen, had horses in training as far back as the 1920s, and not until 2026 did Stald Shaker’s blue riband come home.
It was also Jules Mobian’s first Derby ride and first Derby win. The 26-year-old Frenchman was himself brought to Scandinavia by Søren Jensen this year, and he partners both Cosmopolitan and Sunday Fudge at Øvrevoll on Sunday.
“Jules took a knock to the knee last week and has sat out a couple of race days – at Klampenborg on Saturday and, most recently, last night at Bro Park – but he is fit and in the car on the way to Oslo”, Søren says on Saturday morning.
Like many others, the trainer is taking no chances with the ongoing air traffic controllers’ strike in Norway, which is set to cause delays and cancellations throughout the weekend.
On the subject of Cosmopolitan, Søren says: “We decided fairly quickly after the Danish Derby to go for a start in Norsk Derby as well. He was trained quite lightly in the period between the Jockeyklubbens Grand Prix and the Danish Derby, so we have simply followed the same plan this time”.
“Jules has cantered him on the track a couple of times over the past week or so, and his verdict is that Cosmopolitan feels better now than he did before the Danish Derby. So we are in good heart and believe we can win tomorrow”.
Cosmopolitan is out of Amorine (Montjeu), whom Stutteri Hjortebo bought for €21,000 at Arqana in 2022. He was bred in partnership between Stutteri Hjortebo and Stald Shaker, and with the Danish Derby success Hjortebo registered its eighth Derby winner — and had both the winner and the runner-up.
A win for Cosmopolitan on Sunday would also mean that Stutteri Hjortebo, for the second time in three years, stands as the breeder of all three Scandinavian Derby winners in the same season.
In 2024 Schamyl (Appel Au Maitre) won both the Svenskt Derby and Norsk Derby, while Brigadier (Moohaajim) triumphed in the Danish Derby.
This year, alongside Cosmopolitan, Hjortebo is also behind the Swedish Derby winner Doc Holliday (Appel Au Maitre), and in Norsk Derby they are the breeders not only of Cosmopolitan but also of Lord Of The Moon (Sea The Moon) and Desert King (Moohaajim).
Øvrevoll’s programme tipster makes Cosmopolitan third pick behind Gina Mathisen’s Super Smooth (Quarterback) and Niels Petersen’s Phantom Bling (New Bay), and the programme also points out that Søren Jensen could become the first male Danish trainer to win Norsk Derby since 1962.
And that figure stands up. With the addition that Niels Petersen is Danish too, born in Gentofte. He simply holds his licence in Norway — and he has won the race eight times, more than any other trainer in its history.
On Sunday he saddles five of the 13 horses in the field, among them Phantom Bling and Lord Of The Moon. That is the wall Cosmopolitan has to get through.
In 1962 Tinto (Orthodox) won Norsk Derby for Hans Bech-Holm, who both trained and rode him, and who that same year took all three Scandinavian Derbys — something only Valley Chapel (Selkirk) has repeated since – in 1999.
The Danish trainers who have won the race in the 64 years since have all been women.
Søren Jensen’s younger sister Hanne Bechmann won it three times in five years — with La Isleta (Alias Smith) in 1988, Icecolt (Mas Media) in 1991 and Reflection (Starry Night) in 1992, all three in Bechmann Racing’s colours — and Rikke Rohbach Bonde triumphed with Stroxx Carlras (Footstepsinthesand) in 2021.
Cosmopolitan is not alone in defending Søren Jensen’s honour in Norway. A good two hours before the Derby, in the Lanwades Stud Fillies and Mares Stakes (L) over 1600 metres, the trainer saddles two mares who between them have won more than one and a half million kroner this season alone.
Taifuu (Japan) won the Mawj Stakes at Meydan during the winter and was fifth in the Jumeirah 1000 Guineas, but picked up a strain out in the paddock shortly after coming home from Dubai and had to miss both the Mowerinaløb and the Svenskt 1000 Guineas.
The comeback proved quite something. On Danish Derby day she beat the favourite Bruce Almighty (Appel Au Maitre) by three quarters of a length in the Bet25 Larch Ærespræmie, and her total earnings now stand at DKK 1,664,829 from eight starts — a good million of that in 2026.
“Taifuu now gets her baptism of fire against older horses, and we shall see how she copes. Judging purely on the handicap she ought not to be far away, and she has also been put up further after the Larch Ærespræmie. She had had a long injury and racing break before that, and she has come out of the Derby-day race really well”, Søren says.
Taifuu is bred by Stutteri Hjortebo and owned by Michael Jakobsen and Peter Rasmussen.
And she has a line back to the yard itself: her dam Beaufort Twelve (Academy Award) won the Jockeyklubbens 2000 Guineas in 2016 among others, and her granddam Lady Clementine won the Vinterfavoritternes Ærespræmie and the Jydsk Derby – also for Søren Jensen.
Alongside Taifuu stands Lulu Tøpholm’s Sunday Fudge (Reliable Man). The six-year-old mare won the Bloomers’ Vase (L) earlier in the summer and has three wins from six starts this year after a quiet 2025.
Sunday Fudge was last seen filling second in the Elkær Stutteri Fawzia Stakes on Klampenborg’s Derby day, beaten only by Easywithme (El Kabeir), whom she meets again on Sunday.
“Sunday Fudge has been a dream to be involved with this year. The plan went slightly wrong in the Fawzia Stakes, where she ended up in front, but even so she battled bravely to the line. She is still holding her fine form”, Søren reckons.
Three horses, two races, and a coincidence that says something about the season: Søren Jensen’s three biggest wins of 2026 — the Danish Derby, the Bet25 Larch Ærespræmie and the Bloomers’ Vase (L) — have been taken by precisely the three horses he now takes with him to Norway.
Søren Jensen’s training career is – happily – a long way from over, but if a single figure is to be put on it here and now, it must be this one: Søren won his first Danish Derby with Ascot (Ides Of March) in 1977 as a 21-year-old, and his fifth with Cosmopolitan this year.
There are 49 years between them.
No other trainer has a longer span between a first and a most recent Derby success — Axel Thorngren is closest with 40 years, from 1915 to 1955.
