Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Trainer of the Month
for November 2008

Soren Nordin

Born September 15, 1917, in Forsa, Hälsingland, Sweden, legendary trainer Soren Nordin had no less than a glorious career in Sweden, where he won the Swedish Trotting Derby a record 11 times, the Elitlopp in 1953, and no less than 21 times he was the leading driver at Solvalla, Stockholm.

Soren Nordin

He captured, among others the 1950 Prix d'Amerique--one of France's most prestigious events.
In 1980 Soren moved to United States and formed the highly successful Team Nordin stable together with his son, Jan.

The blue, gold and white colors of Team Nordin were a familiar sight across North American racetracks in the '80s. Patriarch Soren and sons Jan and Ulf were at the forefront of the Swedish "invasion" of North American trotting and produced scores of champions that stocked trophy cases on both sides of the Atlantic for an elite group of owners.

Soren Nordin drove in the inaugural Breeders Crown event at Lexington in 1984, finishing third with freshman colt Ron B. By the end of the year, Team Nordin led all stables in Crown earnings with $765,355, a record that stood until 2004. Their two Breeders Crown champions included the pacing filly Amneris and trotting colt Baltic Speed.

In 1985, Soren Nordin competed against his son, Jan Nordin, in the Hambletonian. Soren finished second with Ron B Hanover and Jan Nordin was tenth with Master Willie in the final heat, which was won by Prakas.

The Nordins went on to earn $1,955,574 over the next decade in the Breeders Crown series alone, a subset of the millions taken in by a stellar group of horses that included such names of trotters as Sandy Bowl, Stage Entrance, Mark Six, Traffic Jam S and Spotlite Lobell.

Aside from Amneris and Baltic Speed, they won Crown trophies with Sandy Bowl, Jean Bi and Nalda Hanover, the latter two for the Biasuzzi Stable, one of the largest racing operations in Italy. Biasuzzi purchased Personal Banner from Yankee owner George Steinbrenner in 1996 and won another Crown trophy with her, defeating the previously unbeaten Moni Maker at her home track of Vernon Downs.

In the 1990s the Nordin Stable moved to Italy as private trainer for the powerful Biasuzzi Stable. They accepted it, campaigning primarily in Europe from that point on with limited forays to the U.S. for yearling sales and to race the occasional trotter.

In 1992 Nordin won a heat of the Hambletonian with Valley Boss Bi, a full brother to Valley Victory that Biasuzzi paid $320,000 for as a yearling.

"We were one of the favorites for the Hambletonian that year," remembered Jan Nordin. "But Valley Boss Bi made a break in the final and we didn't know at the time, but he had fractured a bone in a front foot. He raced once more [finishing second in the Zweig] but he was always a little lame after that. He was done as a racehorse but we brought him back to Italy and he has produced well as a stallion."

The mating of Valley Boss Bi and Personal Banner produced Equinox Bi, whom Nordin believed "may be on of the best horses Italy has ever produced, with the potential to be as good as Varenne. He had enormous capacity as a three-year-old."

Trotters in Europe are raised and developed to race for several years as opposed to the North America system that weights all the purses toward a horse's two- and three-year-old campaigns. So Nordin treated his charge carefully and had Equinox Bi ready for the winter race meet at Vincennes, where only the best compete.

"In January when he was four we went to Vincennes, not for the Prix d'Amerique but for another big race on the card. He raced very well, finishing second very close to the winner but he came out of that race dead lame with a big chip in his knee. When we took it out he was just dead lame for a year and we had no chance to do anything else with him.

"We used him as a stallion for a few mares but there was not a lot of interest in him. I am hoping that this trip will make a better reputation for him," Nordin continued.

Nordin and Biasuzzi began to think about a North American tour for Equinox Bi when he began to jog sound, two year years after his initial injury.

"After a year he started to race again but then was not so good so we would stop," recalled Nordin. "We alternated between being happy and disappointed with him."

Soren Nordin won 3,221 races in 10 different countries as a driver, and in 2007 was inducted into the Swedish Harness Racing's Hall of Fame. Nordin passed away on September 6, 2008 in Sweden at age 91, surrounded by his two sons, Jan and Ulf Nordin.