V75®: Wäjersten chasing gold and silver
From a newcomer to the elite in five years.
Daniel Wäjersten has had a meteoric rise to his career.
On Saturday he chases new victories on V75.
"I would say Badman and Immanuel are the hottest chances" says the 32-year old who has won in every fourth start so far in his career.
In his first year 2018, his earnings were a little over SEK 1 million.
A good but not spectacular result for a new, ambitious trainer.
What stood out was the win percentage, every fourth start ended with a trip to the winner's circle.
That was no fluke, Wäjersten has had a win percentage of around 25 every year.
On the contrary, he has had an exponential growth when it comes to the number of wins and especially earnings.
SEK 1 million turned into SEK 3 million in 2019, SEK 6 million the following year, and SEK 11 million last year.
Last Saturday, Wäjersten surpassed SEK 19 million in earnings in 2022.
A growth that places him fourth in the standings among all trainers in Sweden.
If you look at wins in STL (Swedish Trotting League), which makes up the foundation for V75, he sits third. Still pretty far behind leading trainer Daniel Redén, but close to Timo Nurmos who is in second place.
An almost incredibly quick journey to the top.
"Of course, it feels very good. Going into this year, we upped the quality substantially, we got many new horses in training. Horses who were good racehorses. Then you also have to deliver, but I think we have succeeded pretty well. We have also had good depth, with many horses who have made good money and contributed. Then there are peaks like Great Skills" says Wäjersten in the podcast 'V75 - lördag hela veckan' and adds:
"I have always dreamt of running a stable like this. Deep down inside I thought that it might be hard so of course, it feels great. It's a lot of work with many people involved but the way it feels now, it's just inspiring".
"I have learned that things are up and down in this business. When I was an apprentice and drove at Bergsåker on a Friday night, a bad drive meant that the entire weekend was ruined. If things go badly now, I just look ahead instead".
"Feels good overall"
Right now, Wäjersten looks ahead to Saturday when he has three starters on V75 at Romme in Dalarna, a track where he only has made 45 starts in his career and hasn't had the best of luck with three wins and nine second places, but he still seems to like the track.
"I think they have a very nice surface there. I like Romme".
First to race is 7 Trumpie (V75-1) who comes with two straight wins. Especially the most recent one was impressive when he sat in the pocket behind stable mate Mellby Ironman, who Wäjersten drove himself and easily surged passed him down the stretch.
"I was well aware of who was on my back and I thought that he should be able to challenge me down the stretch. But it only took him a couple of strides to get passed us, and he won in a very good time too. He feels good overall right now" says Wäjersten and explains how he got the five-year-old to wake up.
"We have cut down on his training a bit. He trained as usual in the spring, then we upped the training a bit and made him train harder. I think he got worse from that. So we backed off a bit and trained him a bit easier than what we usually do with a normal horse and then it felt like he found his old self again".
The training reports going into the Saturday start are still strong, but the post position far out behind the gate holds the hopes down a bit.
"I'm sure he will be just as good as he was in his most recent start, but we got a tricky post position now. If I try to find a good spot in the race, it will cost a lot and if I take him off the gate, it means I will be at the rear end of the field. It's too bad we drew that post".
Last start of the year
A horse coming from a not-so-good effort is the gold division horse 6 Global Badman (V75-3) who made an unexpected break in the lead as the favorite in V75 at Solänget, October 15.
"He knuckled over with the right hind leg and made a break, but it felt more like he didn't have the right focus and that was why he knuckled over. You can come up with a lot of different theories. We don't have a good explanation as to why it happened, but the horse felt good in training last week. We have had a plan that he would make his last start of the year here at Romme and we are sticking to that plan. He feels like he always does" says Wäjersten who makes a shoeing change for this start, meaning that Global Badman will race with shoes behind.
"That he will race with hind shoes this time is because he has raced many times like that and you can't pull all four shoes in every start. It's not that big of a deal to me. I wouldn't have entered the horse if I didn't think he would race well".
Will he be at the same level as he was before that miscue in his last start?
"I hope and think so".
"Will do well in the silver division"
Perhaps the most interesting horse is 2 Immanuel K. (V75-7). A four-year-old who has raced in many stake races and who now will try his luck in the second-highest class. He will do so from a much better post position than usual, as he has started from post position six or higher behind the gate in his last six starts.
"He is very good, but he must have made SEK 850,000 from post eight. You shouldn't whine over bad post positions, but he has been incredibly unlucky. It feels like he has had post eight every time, so it was nice to see him draw well now" says Wäjersten, who is optimistic.
"He feels very good now. He had some problems with his blood count this past spring and needed some time to get better, but now he has come back very well and he feels really good. He is used to racing against tough horses".
"I think he is a horse who will do well in the silver division, to sum it up".
Which horse do you have the best feeling about?
"Trumpie drew bad, so I guess it will be tough for him to win. So Badman and Immanuel are the two who feel hot. I say that without having really studied the races. You are always optimistic early in the week and then, come Thursday, Friday you start to hesitate" says the up-and-coming trainer of this decade.