Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Young Frilen gets to steer local champ

David Thiselton
Sofia Frilen, an eighteen-year-old amateur driver from Sweden, will steer one of South Africa’s best harness horses, Quickness Brew, in a race at Scottsville on Sunday. Sofia has been in South Africa for four weeks as part of a Swedish Harness Racing tour. She is part of a harness racing family that hails from Sundsvall, a town situated on Sweden’s East coast. She has driven in 100 races there and has an excellent strike rate, having brought home 20 winners. Sofia has thoroughly enjoyed her stay in South Africa and appreciated the weather having come out of one of Sweden’s harshest ever winters where temperatures were as low as 25 degrees celcius below zero. She has found it difficult to compare Quickness Brew to the horses she has driven in Sweden, due to the grass tracks the horses race on here. However she pronounced the mare fit and ready for Sunday, although she has a tough task having been given a 20 metre handicap. Sophia’s ambition is to become a professional trainer and, after completing school in June, will try and find work in a big yard to gain further experience. She will later do a 10 week university course that is open to aspiring harness racing enthusiasts. Individuals who have completed this course must be recommended by experts in the field before being allowed onto a three week course that will allow them to get their licence. Vanessa Beets, former assistant trainer to Eileen Bestel, currently trains all of the Summerveld-based harness racing horses. The only racer outside of this group is the Bart Rice-trained Romance Gelj, who vies with Quickness Brew for the title of best horse. Beets has been able to glean advice from the Swedish licensed professional trainer, Johan Nilsson, over the past few weeks. “I have learnt so much from him and will be in regular contact from now on,” she said. Nilsson advised a new program for the horses after noticing they were not as full of life as they had been on his last visit. Yesterday the horses were given a gentle 4km warm up before doing a timed trot at a steady pace for 1 600m. Nilsson explained the importance of monitoring the horses’ heart rates after every workout, which prevents the lactic acid build up which occurs to an individual that is worked too hard. Harness horses are generally sounder than thoroughbreds so can take more work. They are also of calmer temperament, which Nilsson said is aided by them being introduced to the sport when they are as young as one-year-old. The equipment used is sophisticated and aids the horses in subtle ways. A check-rein, attached from the wither to the top of the head, supports a horse when it is tiring. The only nervous horse in the group, Operett Swing, has a two pieced bit that goes under and over the tongue, helping keep her calm. All the horses have adjustable blinkers as well as ear plugs. The driver can pull a chord at a certain part of the race and this moves the blinkers forward over the horse’s eyes, encouraging it to quicken.
The driver is also able to pull the earplugs out. This is normally done in the home straight and can result in a sudden burst of speed.
One of the other members of the tour was professional farrier Robert Skogland, and he and Nilsson, also a skilled farrier, gave demonstrations to the apprentices at the Jockeys Academy. Skogland returned home earlier this week as he is due to drive his horse, Vildvitter, in a Group 2 race in France on Sunday.
Niclas Westerholm also left the tour earlier this week as he is due to drive in a big race in Sweden. Niclas’s father is the top ten trainer, Robert Bergh, whose yard earned the equivalent of about R18 million last season.
Also involved in the race on Sunday apart from Quickness Brew and Romance Gelj, will be Fearless Ayla, driven by Beets, Olivia Dayla, driven by Mauritian Apprentice, Nicolas Ithier, Operett Swing, driven by Nilsson and Aces Karamel, driven by Nkululeko Bhayisi. South African Harness Racing is funded entirely by a 3% margin gleaned from the television coverage of the sport that Sweden sells to Tellytrack.

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