Hans Enggren, well known in recent years as the owner of Yonkers International Trot winner Resolve and also the co-owner of 1985 Hambletonian winner Prakas, has passed. He was 91.

A native of Sweden, Mr. Enggren settled in the Gettysburg, Pa., area and was a successful breeder under the banner of Meadowbranch Farm, building a broodmare band that included the great trotting females Peace Corps, Davidia Hanover and Delmonica Hanover. He passionately lobbied the United States Trotting Association to approve the registration of horses conceived by the interstate transportation of semen, testifying that he worried every time he put a mare and her young foal on a trailer so the mare could be bred.

Mr. Enggren came to the United States via service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When he left that position, he settled in the Gettysburg, Pa., area and became an entrepreneur and achieved great success in the tourism industry (hotels and motels). This gave him the opportunity to seriously invest in trotting horses, and many are the successful trotters who started their trotting life with Hans and Christina Enggren at Meadowbranch Farm.

Mr. Enggren helped Soren Nordin when he first came to the U.S. to set up a stable and was also one of the first clients of the young horseman Per Eriksson, who trained Mr. Enggren's Hambletonian winner Prakas.

In more recent times, Mr. Enggren loved watching and sometimes travelling to see his trotter Resolve compete in the sport’s top races. Mr. Enggren was unfamiliar with Resolve the first time he saw the trotter during the winter between the horse’s two- and three-year-old seasons. But he immediately knew he wanted to buy the colt and, months later, got the deal done.

In an interview with Ken Weingartner of the USTA, Mr. Enggren recalled first seeing Resolve while walking around the South Florida Training Center in November 2013. The horse, who in his rookie season equalled the track record for two-year-old trotters at Tioga Downs with a 1:55.2 win in a division of the Kindergarten Classic Series, was then in the care of trainer Roman Lopez.

“I happened to go by just as he was being washed,” said Enggren, a native of Sweden who moved to the U.S. in 1952. “He caught my eye. I couldn’t take my eye off of him. He had charisma. He looked absolutely gorgeous to me in every way. I tried to buy him right then. I tried many times. It took until July last year until they finally said yes. I ran like crazy to the bank to finish the papers. I just fell in love with him.

“I know Roman, how he brings on a horse very carefully. He wants to know the horse is ready. It’s worked out very well. He’s an unbelievably nice horse; nice to be around, nice to drive evidently.”

Resolve took a mark of 1:50.4 and earned $2,621,086 before he was retired to stud duty at Tara Hills in Ontario. In addition to the Yonkers International, Resolve won the John Cashman Jr. Memorial on Hambletonian Day at The Meadowlands. He won 18 of 61 races and finished on the board in 40 of his starts. Resolve also took Mr. Enggren back home to Sweden for the 2016 and 2017 editions of the Elitlopp, finishing second in both races.

Meadowbranch Farm was closed down a few years ago, but Hans and Christina built a new home very close by. They have remained there even though they spent the winters down in Florida. He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren and countless friends around the trotting world.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the friends and family of Hans Enggren.

(harnessracing.com)