World class hockey player Peter Forsberg has won Olympic medals, played on two Stanley Cup winning hockey teams and now he’s taking a shot at another big silver bowl – the Hambletonian trophy on August 4 at The Meadowlands.

Forsberg, a native of Sweden, and now a free agent, is the owner of Adrian Chip, a three-year-old trotting colt with his sights set on the Hambletonian. Adrian Chip raced in the US as a two-year-old, and was exported to Sweden late in 2006, when he was bought by Forsberg and sent to trainer Robert Bergh, who is based Sundsvall, Sweden. The son of Andover Hall was a runner up in both the Matron Stake and Breeders Crown last year.

He has won three of his four starts in Scandinavia this year and will make his next start in the July 28 elimination races for the Hambletonian. This is a similar path taken by 2001 Hambletonian winner Scarlet Knight, who was bred and raised in the US, and returned to his home country triumphant in trotting’s biggest race. In fact, Scarlet Knight’s last stakes win in Norway was the Thoresen Memorial, a race won yesterday by Adrian Chip, in a time slightly faster than Scarlet Knight.

Though Adrian Chip will be the toast of two countries if he can win the Hambletonian, he started life modestly, one of just a few horses owned by Junior Yutzy of West Union, Ohio, who sold the colt as a weanling through a trade magazine ad. “I was kind of short on money, guess I still am,” laughed Yutzy. “I prefer to sell them as weanlings still, it saves the buyer some money, saves me some money, that’s the way I like to do it.”

Yutzy declined to disclose the sales price but says it was less than $100,000 for the sale to Ernst Gerbaulet of Recklinhausen, Germany. Adrian Chip was an acceptable, but not exceptional looking yearling, says Yutzy, “He looked pretty good, he was pretty lean and maybe toed out a little bit, but other than that he was fine.”

Yutzy has a small broodmare band of three mares, and though he’s has had four foals from the dam of Adrian Chip, My Favorite Chip, only one has made it to the races. A filly by Master Lavec died after she was sold by Yutzy and a 2005 foal by Tom Ridge died as a newborn. “The Tom Ridge, that was a big loss for me,” says Yutzy. “He died when he was three days old. I took them down to Rood and Riddle [a Kentucky veterinary clinic], they were thinking it might have been an infection in the blood when it was born.”

But Yutzy’s small band increased by one this spring with the birth on May 9 of a colt by Classic Photo, named Erni’s Chip. Yutzy has no plans to sell the mare, but says, “Me and Ernie are trying to strike up a deal” for the Classic Photo foal.

Yutzy’s life is a world away from the racetrack, “I make wooden pallets at Cedar Hill Pallet in West Union,” he says. “My dad’s name is Aden Yutzy and I’m Aden Junior. I put my name down as Junior Yutzy, that avoids some confusion. Ernie keeps me informed about what’s going on [with Adrian Chip].” Yutzy has no regrets that he sold a colt that could win the Hambletionian. “No, not at all,” he said. “I’m Amish and we don’t own any racehorses, this community doesn’t. I know there are some that do, but we don’t.” Though Yutzy will ride in a car driven by others, he doesn’t watch TV or use the Internet and will not be traveling to New Jersey for the Hambletonian. He counts on Gerbaulet to keep him posted on the horse.

For a man with three mares, Yutzy took a calculated risk to put up the $10,000 stud fee for Andover Hall in his first season as a stud in 2003. “[My Favorite Chip is] pretty good bred and she’s a young mare. I knew the system but you still need luck,” he says. “I’m not going to even let on like this is a skill for me,” says Yutzy. “I started in 2003 and I call it dumb luck. I went to the sales and I’d studied this business for two or three years before I went in. I know if you mess with the $2,000 and $3,000 stud fees, you probably won’t get out what you’ve got in it.”

The “Adrian” part of the colt’s name came from Yutzy’s wife, Edna. “My wife and I had a baby boy right at that time and she wanted to call him Adrian, but I didn’t, so I just called him [the colt]Adrian. She kind of laughed, she said it didn’t really make up for it.”