28 June 2012 -A filly purchased in Europe to be trained in Australia by our foremost squaregaiting trainer Chris Lang. It’s a match made in heaven.
Swede Dreams is set to make her local debut after being primed for her first Australian start with a trial at Bendigo's Lord's Raceway on Monday night. She will have her first race start at Shepparton tonight. In her trial Swede Dreams finished third behind the Mick Carbone pacer Sparken Up and the Ross Graham trained trotting mare Bohemian Queen. Trotting writer Blake Redden reports that a plan was hatched to buy Swede Dreams way back in 2009 when Lang was in Sweden with his mighty trotter Sundons Gift. It wasn’t long before the now three-year-old by Varenne was at the Lang’s door. She might not have been the sale topper at around $A25,000 but her breeding says she will be able to trot. Her father is widely renowned as the greatest trotter to ever grace the earth; he retired with 62 wins from 73 starts. He was also crowned the champion US, French and Italy horse of the year in 2001 after an extraordinary season in which he captured the Elitlopp, Prix d’Amerique and American Breeders Crown. Lang recounts how the original purchase came about. It may have seemed a fleeting thought at first but as time now tells that wasn’t the end of the story. Bryant and her father were determined to bring over a squaregaiter from Europe and they made their intentions clear almost a year later. “When we got back from the Elitlopp in 2009 a month or so later Janice Bryant rang me who is the daughter of Michael Bryant, and between the two of them they’re very well-known equine chiropractors,” he said. “Janice rang me and I spoke to her for about 40 minutes on the phone about buying a filly at the next years Elitlopp sale but to be quite honest I thought I’d never hear from her again. “About six weeks before the Elitlopp 2010 Janice phoned and says we’re booked, we’ll meet you over there. So I met up with Janice and her dad Michael in Stockholm and we went out to a couple of the studs,” he said. If the name Michael Bryant rings a bell it’s because he has been in the news as the chiropractor of Black Caviar throughout her career and particularly for her recent assault on Royal Ascot. After an exhaustive search the team had found their filly – by Varenne out of the Grand Lobell mare Reality As – named Swede Dreams. “She went into quarantine and it took about four months to get her her, then we broke her in. The thing to remember is she is about six months younger than our three-year-olds so she’s still maturing but I wanted to give her a run,” Lang said. The reason she is so much younger than her rivals tomorrow night is the fact that she was born and bred in Europe. They plan their mating’s, like us, around summer time which is effectively our winter in the southern hemisphere. Her immaturity may stop her from dominating as a young horse but as Lang points out when she grows and develops she has enough ability to win a few races in Victoria. “I believe she will win races – that’s all I’m saying – I’m not saying how many at this point in time,” he said. Lang knows he will have to win a few races with her just to keep the owners happy with a number of high profile horse people amongst them. Joining the Bryant’s are a financial planner, and Arabian horse importer, a thoroughbred trainer – Tony Noonan – a greyhound trainer, an eventing rider, an ex-Gold Coast Harness Club President and an owner of major media and racing website. “Tony Noonan dropped in here one day and we made an agreement – if I got her to trot I get a trotting trainers fee but if I get her to gallop I get paid what he gets paid.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2012
Categories |