by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

Du Quoin, IL — Adrian Chip, runner-up in the Hambletonian, was out standing in his field at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds this morning, literally.

The 3-year-old colt, though born and raised in the United States, was sold to a group of Swedish owners, including hockey player Peter Forsberg, who is a two-time Olympic gold medalist for the Swedish national team and a two-time Stanley Cup winner for the Colorado Avalanche.

USTA/Ellen Harvey photo

Adrian Chip gets some fresh air with groom Katarina Ihrsen, with the Du Quoin grandstand in the background.

In late 2006, the horse was shipped to Sweden to be trained by Robert Bergh. He returned to the U.S. in late July to compete in the Hambletonian and has been under quarantine restrictions from the Federal Department of Agriculture since then. Adrian Chip must be stabled in a barn with no other horses and under the watchful eye of a security guard 24 hours a day. He made the trip from New Jersey’s Showplace Farm over Monday evening and Tuesday, arriving in Du Quoin at 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday.

“It was 18 hours,” said Katarina Ihrsen, caretaker of Adrian Chip, “almost 18 and a half. The last three or four hours it was warm, but it was cool in the night. He was in the truck by himself, they made up a little stall in there for him and there was a bed for me.”

Adrian Chip has a stall constructed inside a storage shed at the edge of the fairgrounds, about a quarter of a mile from the rest of the horses. He’s sharing the space with Christmas decorations used for the fair’s holiday display and has a large fan blowing right on him. There’s also a small paddock constructed outside the shed in a wheat field, with the fairgrounds to the north and an expanse of open prairie to the south.

For the last month, Ihrsen has been the horse’s sole company and has cared for him since he arrived in Bergh’s stable late in 2006.

“He doesn’t like nice sweet talk,” she laughs. “He’ll bite you anyway. I have had some bruises (from bites) when I wasn’t quick enough. He likes it when you do this (pinches) his lower lip.”

Adrian Chip has a long, flowing mane, atypical for North American horses, who usually have their mane trimmed evenly down their neck.

“Yes, he’s got a Swedish mane.”

Ihrsen made a trip to the local Wal-Mart for water for Adrian Chip and brought along the hay he grew used to while stabled in New Jersey.

Trainer/driver Bergh is due in Du Quoin today.

“He is flying into St. Louis at 4 o’clock, from Belgium,” said Ihrsen. “He won a big race there yesterday. He will train Adrian tonight.”

Ihrsen is getting a flavor of the Midwest, as she had her first “fiddlestick” yesterday, an ice cream cone dipped in chocolate and covered with nuts.

“It was soooooo good,” she said.

Dobbins writes a big check

“I’m either game or crazy or maybe both,” laughed Roy Dobbins, owner and breeder of Prayer I Am, of the $30,000 check he wrote to supplement Prayer I Am to the World Trotting Derby. “But I wrote the check out of his account, so I’m putting his money ($327,174 in career earnings) back on him.”

Dobbins, who owns a grocery store in Bryant, Alabama and carpet stores in both Georgia and Tennessee, has 28 broodmares on about 300 acres and bred and raised Prayer I Am and also gave him his first training lessons before sending him to current trainer Kevin Thomas.

Prayer I Am has won three of his last four starts and won both the 2006 and 2007 American-National Stakes at Balmoral Park. He took a record of 1:53 in a qualifier at The Meadowlands on July 12.

Dobbins and his brother were introduced to Standardbreds through a family friend, the late John Cobin from Tennessee.

“My brother likes the pacers, but I like the trotters. The competition is less for the trotters. If you’ve got a pacer, there’s about 10,000 horses you have to beat; if you’ve got a trotter, there’s about 1,000 horses you have to beat, so I went with the odds. Plus, I like to fool around with them myself. I have a half-mile track at the farm and we break them and train them and get them ready to qualify.

“When we trained him (as a young horse) he just showed a world of talent. Kevin got him at the tail end of the year, only had him about a month or six weeks when he won the American-National (in early November).”

Prayer I Am was back at Dobbins’ farm in northeast Alabama after his 2-year-old season, which he closed out by winning two of his last three starts and nearly $200,000 in purses.

“We brought him home for about three months and he stayed until early spring. We just turned him out, didn’t work him at all, gave him time to mend.”

Dobbins usually travels to Prayer I Am’s races with a cheering section and this race is no exception.

“Oh yes, there will be about eight of us all together,” he laughed. “It’s only about a five hour drive there from Alabama.”

Prayer I Am’s trainer, Kevin Thomas, who bases his stable at Lexington, Kentucky’s Red Mile is optimistic about his horse’s chance in the Trotting Derby.

“He has a lot of ‘go’ in him. That (qualifying) mile at The Meadowlands in 1:53 was on a hot morning and he was well within himself, under wraps. If Donato (favorite Donato Hanover) is going to try to go sub-1:50, we’ll try to tag along with him and we’ll hope something goes our way.”

Derby Day Doings

Post time for World Trotting Derby Day is 12:00 noon (CDT). The filly division will go as the 10th race and the colts will go as the 11th. The track will offer a daily double on those races, called the “Derby Double.” The race will be simulcast throughout North America, to about 600 outlets.

The Southern Illinois University “Saluki” marching band will perform on the stage in front of the grandstand starting at 11:00 a.m. and will play the national anthem at 11:45 a.m.