V75®: The handballers' red hot chance
Handball players Magnys Jernemyr and Johan Sjöstrand have enjoyed nice success with their trotters.
On Saturday they can win on V75 with Harvard Student, a horse they own and have bred together.
"She just jogged when she won her last start and Linda never even asked her. With a good trip she definitely has a chance to win again" says Magnus Jernemyr, who trains the horse together with girlfriend and driver Linda Sedström.
It's been almost four year since ex handball player Magnus Jernemyr called it a career. He played at the top level for 21 years and the achievements make a long list for the ex star of the Swedish national team. But the victory in the 2011 Champions League and the Olympic silver medal from London 2012 are the two highlights of the career for the defensive star player. Nowadays it's all trotters for Jernemyr. He owns horses together with another handball player, Johan Sjöstrand, who still is active and plays in Denmark. Together they have had a good amount of success and they are the breeders of the Italian star trotter Axl Rose. They are putting a lot of focus on the breeding part of the game and they currently own three brood mares together, among them is Neona Princess - currently in foal to Face Time Bourbon. Another well known horse they co-own is Vagabond Bi, known from V75. But Man of Steel and Polycrates Face (six wins in the last seven starts in monté) are also two very capable horses they own who are currently racing.
Became a horse trainer a little more than a year ago
A little more than a year ago Magnus Jernemyr started his training stable together with his girlfriend Linda Sedström in Askersund, not far from Örebro. The couple train 12 horses and last year the stable earned SEK 1.2 million. The new year has started very well with several wins and a nice win percentage.
"It has gone well and the stable looks exciting. We have a couple of three year olds and several four year olds that we have high hopes for this year" says Jernemyr, who is licenced as an amateur trainer.
Will be bred to Face Time Bourbon
Another horse currently racing and who is attracting a lot of interest this week is Harvard Student. The five year old mare is bred by Jernemyr/Sjöstrand who also own her. After having been with Hans-Owe Sundberg on a lease, she is now back with her breeders and owners.
"Sjöstrand and I bought her dam Prowess Kronos when she was carrying her first foal Yuppie Gal, who we sold. She aborted the second time and then we bred her to Muscle Hill and that is Harvard Student, which we only sold the right to race with, since we wanted to keep her for breeding.
"She went to Svante Båth right away and he really liked her, but it took her a long time to grow into her large body. She then went to Hans-Owe Sundberg where she did well and raced in several tough four year old races last year. She won in 1:12 parked out and was very good”.
"When the lease expired at the end of the year, we initially talked about breedinhg her already now to Face Time Bourbon. She is big and flat gaited and he is a smaller type of horse with a round gait so we think that would be a good fit. But then we have Neona Princess in France and she is carrying a Face Time Bourbon foal, so we decided to wait a year. We will race her this year and breed her to Face Time Bourbon next year" says Jernemyr.
"Just jogged in her last start - feels good after that"
Harvard Student came to Jernemyr and Sedström after Christmas and had trained well before her seasonal debut on Grand Slam 75 at Axevalla a couple of weeks ago. It turned out to be a very easy and impressive victory.
"She had trained well and had felt very good but since she had been in many tough races last year we decided to start her off a bit easier. Linda said she just jogged and when she gave her the reins down the back stretch she just accelerated. She let her stride out down the home stretch and Linda was just a passenger".
"She came out of that start well and she has felt very good in training after that. Normally she would only get better with that start and since she was so good we decided to try some tougher competition. This looked like a fitting class so we decided to give it a try on V75" says Magnus.
"She will race in the lead if she gets there"
Harvard Student comes out in the sixth leg of V75 on Saturday. She will be driven by Linda Sedström again and they drew a perfect post position three in volt start.
"3 Harvard Student (V75-6) is a big mare so post position three in 'volt' is very good for her. She has mostly started behind the gate but I have talked to Hans-Owe and we don't think volt start would be a problem. We think she will step out of there pretty well but we don't know how fast she can leave. She is quick behind the gate even if Linda took a bit of a safe start last time. The track wasn't good and she had corks in her shoes so she didn't want to take any chances.
But now Linda knows her and I think they could get a pretty good start. It's hard to say if she could take the lead and I haven't studied the opponents yet and how fast they can leave. But if she gets to the lead Linda will race her there and she is tough to pass there. She gets better and better with every start".
“It’s alway tough on V75 and the trip is often the deciding factor. The way I see it it’s much tougher and more even fields on V75 now than it was 3-4 years ago. There are more good horse who can win in each race. But I definitely think she has a chance to win the race with a good trip. We are optimistic” says Jernemyr who also says there won’t be any changes on Harvard Student. She will race with a can’t see that bridle, a regular sulky and pull out earplugs again.