from the Breeders Crown

Campbellville, ON — The blue, gold and white colors of Team Nordin were a familiar sight across North American racetracks in the ‘80s. Patriarch Soren and sons Jan and Ulf were at the forefront of the Swedish “invasion” of North American trotting and produced scores of champions that stocked trophy cases on both sides of the Atlantic for an elite group of owners.

Soren Nordin drove in the inaugural Breeders Crown event at Lexington in 1984, finishing third with freshman colt Ron B. By the end of the year, Team Nordin led all stables in Crown earnings with $765,355, a record that stood until 2004. Their two Breeders Crown champions included the pacing filly Amneris and trotting colt Baltic Speed.

The Nordins went on to earn $1,955,574 over the next decade in the Breeders Crown series alone, a subset of the millions taken in by a stellar group of horses that included such trotters as Sandy Bowl, Stage Entrance, Mark Six, Traffic Jam S and Spotlite Lobell.

Aside from Amneris and Baltic Speed, they won Crown trophies with Sandy Bowl, Jean Bi and Nalda Hanover, the latter two for the Biasuzzi Stable, one of the largest racing operations in Italy. Biasuzzi purchased Personal Banner from New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in 1996 and won another Crown trophy with her, defeating the previously unbeaten Moni Maker at her home track of Vernon Downs.

In the early ‘90s the Nordins were offered a private training job with the Biasuzzi Stable and accepted it, campaigning primarily in Europe from that point on with limited forays to the U.S. for yearling sales and to race the occasional trotter.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Equinox Bi carries the hopes of Team Nordin in the Breeders Crown Trot.

It’s been seven years since Team Nordin had a Breeders Crown entrant, and the stable’s return to the championship series is due to a 6-year-old son of Personal Banner named Equinox Bi.

Flash back to 1992. Nordin won a heat of the Hambletonian with Valley Boss Bi, a full brother to Valley Victory that Biasuzzi paid $320,000 for as a yearling.

“We were one of the favorites for the Hambletonian that year,” remembered Jan Nordin. “But Valley Boss Bi made a break in the final and we didn’t know at the time, but he had fractured a bone in a front foot. He raced once more (finishing second in the Zweig) but he was always a little lame after that. He was done as a racehorse but we brought him back to Italy and he has produced well as a stallion.”

The mating of Valley Boss Bi and Personal Banner produced Equinox Bi, whom Nordin believes “may be on of the best horses Italy has ever produced, with the potential to be as good as Varenne. He had enormous capacity as a 3-year-old.”

Trotters in Europe are raised and developed to race for several years as opposed to the North America system that weights all the purses toward a horse’s 2- and 3-year-old campaigns. So Nordin treated his charge carefully and had Equinox Bi ready for the winter race meet at Vincennes, where only the best compete.

“In January when he was 4 we went to Vincennes, not for the Prix d’Amerique but for another big race on the card. He raced very well, finishing second very close to the winner, but he came out of that race dead lame with a big chip in his knee. When we took it out he was just dead lame for a year and we had no chance to do anything else with him.

“We used him as a stallion for a few mares but there was not a lot of interest in him. I am hoping that this trip will make a better reputation for him,” Nordin continued.

Nordin and Biasuzzi began to think about a North American tour for Equinox Bi when he began to jog sound, two years after his initial injury.

“After a year he started to race again but then was not so good so we would stop,” recalled Nordin. “We alternated between being happy and disappointed with him.”

This year was more of the same with Equinox Bi — winning in April, then waning in May. But then the stallion won a pair of races in Milan, the last one a Grade 1 event at 30-1 over far better trotters.

“That is when Mauro (Biasuzzi) had the idea that if we got an invitation to the Nat Ray we could go. It was falling at a time when we could go to the U.S. and race in three very good races with big purses and (have) a chance to show off the horse.”

Meadowlands race secretary Tad Stockman, did in fact, issue an invitation to the Nat Ray. The plans were made to ship him overseas and in due time Equinox Bi exited the quarantine facility in Newburgh, N.Y., and entered the Ron Gurfein stable at the Meadowlands.

Nordin and Biasuzzi came over for a week for the stakes-laden Hambletonian festival and the first good sign was Biasuzzi’s maiden filly Muscovite winning the $458,550 Merrie Annabelle. As Nordin jogged and trained Equinox Bi during the week he began to feel more and more validated about their decision.

“He just started to feel better and better and by the day of the race he warmed up fantastic.”

A wagering dark horse, Equinox Bi was sent off at 45-1 on Hambletonian Day in the Nat Ray, but closed strongly for catch-driver Mike Lachance to finish three-quarters of a length behind Corleone Kosmos in a world record 1:51.3.

“We had never touched him with the whip,” laughed Nordin, “but he really responded to it. He should have another gear the next time he sees Lachance.

“He raced so well from a bad position (post 12) that then we had a choice to either send him back to Italy and wait for the Maple Leaf Trot (in Canada) or maybe pay the price to put him in the Breeders Crown.”

Biasuzzi, whose family owns two racetracks in Italy, is an avid amateur driver and a sportsman. He ponied up the $75,000 and Equinox Bi was on his way to Canada.

“Since Mohawk had such an excellent set-up for a foreign horse and for quarantine it was an easy decision,” said Nordin. “I sent my assistant trainer Edwin Lagas to work him and he trained in 2:02, really good. Plus we had help from Trevor Ritchie when he needed to train again.

“We are very happy going into the race and are just hoping for a good trip.”

Though Mauro Biasuzzi will be in attendance at Mohawk Raceway on Saturday, September 1, for the $726,000 Breeders Crown Trot, Nordin won’t.

His father, Soren, an absolute wizard with trotters, is also known as the “father of modern Swedish trotting” and was inducted into the Swedish Trotting Hall of Fame this year. Soren turns 90 on September 5 and the family is throwing him a big party. Here’s hoping a win by Equinox Bi will be icing on the birthday cake.