![BORN in 1935 in the idyllic Stockholm suburb of Djursholm, Björn Zachrisson still lives in the same family home where he was raised with his two younger brothers and two younger sisters. “From early on we were exposed to various sports endeavours by our dad,” he recalls. “About half a mile from where I live is the riding academy, where I was first hoisted onto a horse, at the age of six.” Small ponies, he says, were not “â la mode” in 1941, so it’s safe to say he started big. “I was the first paying pupil and I just went around a lunging ring with the old Sergeant Ek, the owner of the establishment, hollering to me from where he stood in the middle. We soon became a group of students, in those days nearly all boys. Nowadays 95% of young riders are girls and there are practically no boys riding,” he points out. Horses have opened many doors for Zachrisson, but the first and most cherished was when introducing him, at a tender age, to one of his three idols: “Count Clarence von Rosen, who died in 1953, aged 88,” he reveals. “He was the father of the Swedish Derby and the Swedish Criterion (Svenskt Kriterium) in 1918. He put up most of the money himself to get the races off the ground. He was also the main force responsible for getting the equestrian games included in the Olympics programme from 1912 (Stockholm) and onwards. He was elected to the board of directors on the International Olympic Committee as a result of this and remained there for life. I admired his work and consider him the greatest innovator of sports in Swedish history. “He lived right across the street from where I lived and where we actually still live. When I was seven my father suggested one day it was time I rode a big horse around the block, alone, for the first time. When Uarda, with me onboard, walked by his house, he was just returning on foot with his dogs on his daily tour. ‘Ho ho my boy, this looks very nice and I think you’re worth a little penny,’ he exclaimed and came up with a krona that he gave me, and patted the mare’s neck. I have come to cherish that moment very much.” It wasn’t long before Zachrisson moved up a level again when it came to horses. “There was a racecourse in Stockholm at that time, Ulriksdal (1919-1959), not Margareta Wettermark became Kirsten Rausing’s (of Lanwades Stud fame) mentor after having annexed all five Classics in Sweden and trained the two most famous Swedish-bred racehorses of last century, Hurricane (by Husson) and Stratos (by Darbhanga), also establishing the prominent Vasaholm Stud. “Nothing of this was known to me as being of such great importance to my own sort of zig-zag and haphazard ‘education’ in one of the historically most important and great sports the world has seen,” admits Zachrisson, “when I ‘helped’ with the riding out during weekends at her stable in 1950.” Two years later, in August 1952, he got his first ride in public, as an amateur rider. “I had to waste extremely hard to make 58kg, only to finish dead last! My equine companion was Faruk, bred by Allan Wettermark, out of the 1945 Swedish Derby winner Fatima, who had been ridden by Danish-born multiple champion jockey in Sweden, Kay E. Jensen. “To add an ironic twist to this humble beginning, it so turned out that after my 15-year amateur race-riding career, that saw three national championship titles (including one over jumps) and 54 winners in all, old man Faruk (having been sold in 1953 soon after his short and unsuccessful racing career to the Djursholm Riding Academy) could still look me in the eye, ears flopped backwards, from his stall up there in the same riding school where it all started. It happened every time I was up there with two of our children, Carl-Fredrik and Lalla, close to some three decades later! Faruk had outstayed my race-riding career by a comfortable margin!” “I had to waste extremely hard to make 58kg, only to finish dead last! ” 26 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 53 quite near, but one could cycle there in just under one hour. A friend of mine from the riding school said one day, ‘Come with me, I’m allowed to ride out in a training stable there,’ so I did and that’s how I started in racing, in the chilly winter of 1950.” The training establishment was run by the up-and-coming Margareta Cronhielm, one of Sweden’s first lady trainers. She soon became immensely successful, both as a trainer and later, with husband Allan Wettermark, a thoroughbred breeder. Faruk’s career may have taken a downward turn, but Zachrisson’s was very much on the rise and following National Service with the cavalry he won his first Amateur Riding Championship, gaining the double title in 1959, for both Flat and National Hunt. “When I notched my first riding championship, the Jockey Club of Sweden awarded a travel scholarship to successful apprentice jockeys to enable them to go and practise in racing stables in England during the winter months,” he says. “Good intentions, but what a waste, I thought! What can you learn by just mucking out in a stable in the winter, with no actual Flat racing at all going on around you? “I was the first amateur rider to receive the travel scholarship and as I was going over anyway to America, to practise in the printing and publishing trade, I hoped to maybe also improve the scholarship set-up, to benefit Swedish apprentices. So I went to the New York Jockey Club and introduced myself to the executive secretary, Marshall Cassidy, who is another of my three idols. He took an interest in this young Swedish guy asking lots of questions and he wrote a letter of introduction for me. “Marshall Cassidy was a fantastic person and very much liked, respected, and admired. He had much to say and was later invited to Europe by Jean Romanet – my other remaining idol, father of Louis, who followed in his father’s footsteps as a leader in French racing – to make a speech on what he thought of French racing after having visited some racecourses, training grounds, the PMU, and Paris-Turf, etc., and spoken to many important personalities. “I remember him saying to me several years later, ‘You could hear a pin drop after my speech and I actually changed my ticket for an earlier return to the States than planned when I returned to my hotel, but Jean Romanet called me later in the evening and asked me to come back the next day to give my speech a second time.’ The audience was tripled, so they really took on board what he had to say and made them think about racing in a different way.” While in the States Zachrisson met with former Swedish champion jockey Kay Jensen, then training successfully in New York and Florida, and discussed the Swedish Travel Award with him. “Kay liked the idea of giving a hand, and the first young Swedish professional rider who benefited from these attempts was Sten Bugge, who later enjoyed successes back home at the new Stockholm racecourse, Taby Galopp, both as a rider and then as a trainer. “During the following decades I don’t think it’s an overstatement to give a figure of at least 50 Scandinavians who have enjoyed both schooling, actual race riding, and a lot of wonderful adventures and memories on the US racing scene.” Zachrisson credits such international exchanges of jockeys for the development of modern technical and practical race-riding skills throughout the world. “Generally speaking, the pure technical and practical way of race-riding all over Europe as a whole has developed accordingly,” he says. “This is not due to any singular effort on the part of any specific individual, but rather on the fact that the exchange of top riders in the North and South Americas on the one hand, and in Europe (particularly Great Britain, Ireland, and France) on the other, started to spread.” He cites a number of reasons for this welcome development. “The initiative of John Schapiro in 1952 to launch the Washington DC International over the classic European distance – 2400m – on turf at his Laurel Park Racecourse in Maryland, USA, and then for the next On the occasion of the Jockey Club of Sweden’s 125th anniversary last year, Bjorn presented HM King Carl XVI Gustaf with a record of his father’s (HRH Prins Gustaf Adolf) steeplechase rides between 1929 and 1932 couple of decades staging the modern world’s first truly international race of the highest calibre, later to be followed by the suggestion of the far-sighted John R Gaines of Gainesway Farm fame, to get the majority of North American thoroughbred breeders together and launch the Breeders’ Cup idea, that saw first light in 1984 at Hollywood Park. From this corner there is no claim to see these as a breakthrough joint-effort to promote American race-riding techniques, but consider some important ‘side-effects’ that have resulted!” he points out. The advent of televised racing of international appeal broadcasted by major channels, as well as the popping up of one top class international jockey tournament after another around the world, have all helped to introduce jockeys to improved techniques and styles, Björn Zachrisson feels. “The background for the positive development of the sport of horseracing in the public eye conveyed here, may or may not be possible to substantiate academically,” he admits. “Neither will they hold up as true motives when it comes down to being the main reasons to the powers that be, from the responsible management side of the various Jockey Clubs and other corporate bodies running the racing game in their respective home countries. Regular readers of this magazine, for instance, may very well have other views on the matter. “One thing, though, that I am very biased to hold forth about, regards the technical and practical side of race-riding itself on the Flat. The American way of putting your foot in the stirrup iron, with or without angling it outer side forward, out on the foot-blade, instead of on the instep, makes for a more comfortable riding seat, being able to ride shorter, crouching lower with your upper body, enabling decreased wind resistance, is, in short, the best way of race-riding. It also makes, due to the extra joint and being able to rest in dipping your heels, for more comfortable riding. “This is not the place to elaborate further on this minute detail in the thousand-fold fantastic horseracing garden of details,” he continues, “but I will point to the most dramatic result of the American influx regarding race-riding in Europe: Germany. Remembering, if you were born in the ’30s or ’40s, or, better still, having old photos or films of German races from the ’50s to compare with the present standard of raceriding in that country, you will no doubt agree that there has been a tremendous improvement quality-wise in race-riding. It is a song to watch riders like Andrasch Starke and his countrymen perform on German racecourses, and elsewhere, nowadays.” But it wasn’t only riding techniques Zachrisson fetched home from America. “The way I could go up to anybody in America and introduce myself and ask questions was very different to what we did in Sweden, and is how I came to study profoundly the way Americans publish form for the general public,” he reveals. “As I was based in Chicago during my 18-month period in the USA and the popular Daily Racing Form headquarters was located there, I turned to the managing director, Mel Schreier, who was very cooperative, and put forth questions on many technical aspects of the production.” He also met the editor of Triangle Publications, J Samuel Perlman, and the emerging legendary scribe, Joe Hirsch, “who helped me quite a bit and also bought me many a good dinner through the ensuing years.” Another racing personality to cross over into the printing world was Pierre Bellocq, a former French gentleman rider also known as the formidable cartoonist Peb. “The number one of his profession and skill in the world of racing on the planet,” insists Zachrisson. “When I first met with Joe and Peb in the offices of Perlman, Peb had just come over from France and got the job as artist and cartoonist for Triangle Publications and his regular vignette ‘Equine Comedy’ had begun to appear in both papers. “Peb was an instrumental force in bringing the American Riders Club into the FEGENTRI family, then headed by the French club with Pierre Devort as president, later by ‘The Baron,’ as he was popularly called when we ran the Swedish Grand National meeting at Strömsholm: Henry de Montesquieu. Henry always made his popular speech at the Strömsholm Royal Castle before races, never forgetting the quote: ‘A magnum a day, keeps the doctor away!’ After which followed the opening, with a sword, of a Moët & Chandon magnum! Unforgettable moments – every time!” Björn Zachrisson’s inquisitiveness and keen eye for doing things in a new and better way led to the birth of the first racing form in Sweden, and Europe in fact, borrowing on the USA’s use of horizontal “The main idea of racing form is to give the general public a fairly sure idea of quality and the chances of horses ” PROFILE Björn was presented with a commemorative plaque from the international consortium Pride Racing Club, for his 80th birthday at Täby Galopp lines for showing past performances, making it much easier to follow than the traditional European vertical method of display, of non-tabular one-column width, which had made it infinitely harder to grasp for the reader and horseplayer. “The main idea of racing form is to give the general public a fairly sure idea of quality and the chances of horses. The most important thing was that it was truthful, so the accurate taking of time was vital, and so it was important to know, where did you start the timing?” By introducing racecards, on his return home from America, Zachrisson had now created another opportunity for innovation. He was introduced to the newlybuilt Taby racecourse. “The president at Taby showed me the track and the finishing post and the photo finish camera. ‘What do you do about the start?’ I asked him.” There were no starting stalls in Europe at that time. As Zachrisson points out, “The starting stall system was imperative in order to have any level of correct start. Sweden became the first country in Europe to introduce stalls. It so happened a New Zealand fellow, Edwin Wood, was on vacation here and he had a starting gate to sell. A major owner and racecourse board member, Erik Soderberg, who provided me with my fi rst French FEGENTRI winner in Paris in 1966, owned a small mechanical factory, and he said we could manufacture Edwin Wood’s starting gates here. But there are not many racecourses in Sweden and we only needed two or three gates, so Wood suggested I go to a couple of other countries and try to sell it, so I did. The fi rst country to take it immediately was France, they came and saw the start at Taby and bought a couple of sets.” Björn Zachrisson may have three idols, but he appears to be a one-man, one-stop shop for idolisation in Scandinavia! His involvement with the levelling of betting taxes would make a feature in itself and for many years now he has established and run the database supplied to Weatherbys providing synchronised results from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. “Most worrisome is the birth rate of foals in Sweden – 249 in 2012, 224 in 2013, 178 in 2014 and in 2014 the number of mares in Sweden had declined to 220, so the next foal crop is likely to decrease again [via the latest International Federation of Horseracing Authorities fi gures],” he says with obvious concern. “We’ve just completed a publication here, the Stallion Catalogue. In 2000, it contained 56 Swedish-based stallions. In 2005 it contained 38 stallions and in 2016 it has just 14 stallions. If you see a downward trend it’s black on white. I haven’t been asked, but I’ve voiced it anyway, what we should do, I think it’s stupid to base a sport like racing in a country where the sun shines, where they can breed terrifi c trotters and equitation horses, and not do the same with thoroughbreds. “Of the total population of thoroughbreds racing we are now down to four Swedishbred horses out of every 10. Wealthy people spend lots of money to buy their Derby winners/horses-to-be abroad and with personal travel expenses for themselves and their trainers to boot, budgets have to be in six fi gures at least. Why needlessly pay for shipment when you can do it like the trotting people do in Sweden and breed here?” He feels the opening up of the Swedish Derby in 1995 has been a mistake and detrimental to the breeding industry in the long run. “My advice would be to say, ‘Sorry, we made a miscalculation and we must have the Swedish Derby for Swedish horses only.’ We should continue to use the owners’ bonus system, as they have in France, to alleviate the problem of Great British- and Irish-bred horses winning prizes too easily, with an extra 40% of the prize going to the owner if the winner is Swedish-bred, for example.” It’s good to know that Zachrisson hasn’t lost any passion and foresight and is still battling for the horseracing game he so loves. “When I returned to Sweden in 1961, the new track, Täby Galopp, had opened and was six months away from bankruptcy. We were also some 20 years away from going digital regarding the documentation and production of such vital publications as racing calendars; results; racecards; studbooks; foal, mares’ and sires’ statistics; and all individual human registrations. As of this moment,” he refl ects, “we are only four months away from leaving the racetrack that was built during my fi rst visit to the USA and looking to a hopeful future at the new Swedish ‘home of racing,’ the Bro Park Racecourse. May it fare well and steer the racing game in the right direction. “The saying ‘There’s more to it than meets the eye’ comes to mind. Another follows, half a length behind, ‘You can’t win them all.’ They are both true.” Uncannily appropriate from a man whose efforts listed here are the mere tip of an iceberg, although when it comes to winning them all, Björn Zachrisson hasn’t done too bad a job at all. ■](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/t/570280951bbee0d825353185/1459782250579/)
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Björn Zachrisson - Swedish racing’s great innovator