Inför V86® (jackpot): Donners Am means a lot to Per Linderoth – "He's very important"
Donner Am is a horse who means a lot to Per Linderoth.
The 11-year-old gelding kicks off his ninth racing season for the Östersund licensed trainer.
He does it in a V86 race at Bergsåker this Wednesday.
"Donners Am is very important to our stable. He has not only been a good racehorse but also important to other horses in the stable. I always look forward to racing him and he enjoys life every time he races" says Linderoth.
Bergsåker and Solvalla co-host the jackpot-infused V86 card this Wednesday. There is SEK 15 million in the pool for all eight winners picked and in the last leg, several of Norrland's best-known horses square off. One of them is Donners Am, the horse who has been in Per Linderoth's training since he was purchased as a yearling for SEK 800,000. He has won 27 times in 95 starts which gives him a winning percentage of 28. He has finished top three in 61 starts. His lifetime earnings are up to SEK 2,5 million, equaling over SEK 25,000 per start.
We reach Per Linderoth as he is at home making dinner and get a chance to chat about his poster boy.
"7 Donners Am (V86-1) is very important to our stable and besides having been a good racehorse, he is also important to the other horses in the stable. He is a very intelligent horse and the other horses he gets turned out with feel very safe around him. Donners Am has a calm aura around himself and he's just a wonderful horse" says Per Linderoth.
"We bought him at a yearling sale and he has been with me since the day he started training. He started racing as a 3-year-old but left my training for a while when I left for France, but then he came back and has stayed with me ever since".
"There is a lot of history there too, with the owners who have been with me since day one when I started as a trainer and they also had horses with my dad. So, we go way back and after we found Donners Am everything has just been very special around that horse" says Linderoth.
Won in his return after myocarditis
In the fall of 2022, Donners Am got sick with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, that forced him to a six-month-long layoff. When he won his return in Norway, it was a happy and relieved trainer/driver who raised his arm as he crossed the finish line.
"We had lots of problems with mold inside the walls of the stable in 2022. There was nothing visible on the exterior, it was inside the walls, so it took us a while to find the problem. It was hard on the horses who couldn't deliver and it caused Donners Am to be sick with myocarditis. But he fought through that and was able to make it back, which was very delightful" says Per, who finally got all the mold removed and was able to sanitize the stables, and the horses started delivering again".
Last year, the Per Linderoth stable had a winning percentage of 25.
"It was a pretty good year and considering how bad the year before was, it was a huge improvement. There are always horses you think could have done more and horses who have positively surprised you. Now in the winter, we have great training conditions and with lots of snow, it's pretty easy, because you know what awaits you out there".
"Something happened in the last turn – made me worried"
Back to Donners Am, who at age eleven starts his ninth racing season but is still going strong. He has made two starts after a three-month-long layoff and has closed well to finish second in both starts.
"He has raced well both times, but he acted a bit strange last time when he felt good down the backside, but then something happened in the last turn. I suddenly lost contact with him and it made me worried, but then he was all heart down the stretch and came back to finish second".
"After the race, we saw that he had a quarter crack so it was strong of him to keep going the way he did. The crack was easy to fix and he was fine again after a couple of days and has felt good in training after that" says Linderoth.
"Always tries his best – don't count him out"
The first start of the new year for Donners Am comes in the first leg of V86. He starts with a 40-meter handicap, but it is a small field of eight horses. Among his opponents we find horses like Global Above All, Huddlestone, and Even's Cool Boy.
"It helps that it's a short field but it's always tough chasing horses from back there. We need a perfect pace upfront so that we can get into the race. Huddlestone is an established gold division horse and also a few years younger, so Donners Am will have to work hard here".
"But I am very satisfied with how he feels now and if he can get a covered-up trip the last kilometer, you can’t count him out. He usually delivers a strong last kilometer and he never lets me down, he always tries his best in every start. He races well with shoes and corks and has won like that in previous years".
"I always look forward to racing Donners Am and I have to take the opportunity to enjoy every moment. He is eleven years old now so we know the countdown for him has started. So, I really have to seize every moment with him" says Per Linderoth.