For Jenny Andersson, being in Canada for the $730,000 Maple Leaf Trot, July 25, is exciting – but maybe not as exciting as Wal-Mart

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The career caretaker, who looks after every need of her six-year-old charge, Glen Kronos, one of four Swedish trotters now installed in the quarantine barn at Mohawk Racetrack, says that although the horses are the focus, she and her three compatriots are doing their best to take in some of the sights while they’re here. Andersson is looking forward to a day-trip to Niagara Falls and a Blue Jays game – but admits that Thursday’s foray to the local deep-discount big-box store felt like “something out of a movie”.

Andersson, Mikaela Svard (who grooms Amour Ami), Lisa Aspman (whose charge is Triton Sund), and Camilla Hansen (who attends to the sole mare in the group, Maid For Tag) arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Tuesday, July 14. “He (Glen Kronos) travelled really well,” she says. “He’s been eating and drinking, and everything looks fine. The flight was good, (but) it was a very long trip and we didn’t arrive (at Mohawk) until 9 o’clock in the evening.

“They felt really good yesterday (jogging), all of them. They were a little stiff the first day (Wednesday) but that’s normal, really. Now it seems okay for them.”

Adapting to North American racing conditions is part of the challenge for these Scandinavian champions.

“This track is really, really hard (compared with what the horses are used to),” Andersson says. “It’s almost worse than some of the tracks in Italy. Their feet are stinging a bit I think. Normally we go without shoes in front, but here it is impossible, so we will skip that part and race with shoes.”

The conditions at Mohawk shouldn’t be entirely foreign to Amour Ami, who actually began his career under the tutelage of Norwood, Ontario-based trainer, Per Henriksen. Nor should Maid For Tag struggle to adapt in her elimination for the Armbro Flight; she was foaled in Pennsylania and earned her early lessons at the Meadowlands.

“I know this one (Amour Ami) used to cope with most of the (North American) tracks,” Andersson says. “He started out racing here, and Maid For Tag did too, but Glen and Triton Sund have not (raced outside of Europe).

“They all drew into different eliminations (on July 18), so they don’t have to face each other tomorrow night. But they face each other all the time in Sweden, and hopefully they will on the (following) weekend (in the Maple Leaf Trot final).”

The trip to Canada is one that Andersson thought she might have taken a year ago, when the Woodbine Entertainment Group extended an invitation for Glen Kronos to compete in the 2008 edition of the Maple Leaf Trot.

“He was invited last year, and we were going to come, but he was not in shape. He’s so much better this year. This will be the first time he has raced in North America.

“We – myself and the other grooms -- have not travelled together like this before. We have met on the racetracks, but we didn’t know each other well before. It has worked really well; it’s no problem for us. It’s nice to have someone else to hang out with, and none of us have been here before, so we will try to experience as much as possible.

“We will also go to see Niagara Falls next week, and one baseball match. I really want to go to see that. It’s quite an adventure for us, being here.”

As for the Swedish contingent’s plans after the Maple Leaf Trot, Andersson says, “Glen Kronos is invited to the Meadowlands after this. Triton is going home after the final for sure, and Ami, it depends on how it goes, and the same for Maid For Tag. If she is trotting well she will stay for a while. She is a really nice mare who has been trotting with the top elite in the north of Europe and doing really. But for now, the focus is qualifying for their respective finals, which will require a top three finish in their Saturday night eliminations.

“I hope it’s going to go really well tomorrow night – that’s why we are here!,” Andersson says. “We will do our best.”

To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click here.

(WEG)