After countless appearances in winner's circles over the past decade, trainer Per Engblom finally has his first official North American training win in a year that many expect to be the Swede's coming out party.
If Engblom's name doesn't register, that's because he's been an assistant trainer for the recently-retired Hall of Famer Jimmy Takter. Engblom has been handed the lines (so to speak) along with Nancy Johansson on those horses formerly under the care of Takter, but his first win came with a horse that was new to the stable and new to harness racing in North America -- Australian-bred trotter La Grange A, who was a winner at first asking on Thursday at Yonkers.
"It's special, of course," Engblom told Trot Insider. "I was working for Jimmy first and then I went back to Sweden and I had a public stable in Sweden for seven years, so I've been in this situation before. Of course, this is a whole new deal and you're kind of expected to do good. And when we come out swinging with one that was never in Jimmy's barn, the horse came from Australia straight away to me...it's nice to win one right off the bat."
Engblom's first year as the trainer of record comes after two stints as a second trainer with Takter, considered by many to be one of the best conditioners in the sport.
"I was with Jimmy from 2000 to the end of 2004, two years as a groom and three years as a trainer. Then my visa ran out and to get your trainer's license in Sweden you have to go to school so I wanted to finish that up," Engblom noted. "And then I got an offer to train for a big stable in Sweden...and I kind of got stuck there but I was always dreaming about coming back [to North America]. We had some decent success but I kind of always wanted to come back here. Our son was four years old at the time and either we had to wait and let him go to school in Sweden, or make a move. So we said 'ok, let's try it'."
Engblom and wife Helene returned to North America, but he didn't rejoin Team Takter immediately but he did catch on with another successful outfit.
"When I returned to the U.S. in 2012, I actually didn't return to Jimmy, I worked for Tony Alagna...Tony was fairly new, I think he was going into his third year and his stable was growing. He offered me a job and I thought it was pretty exciting to work with him and see his stable and also get a little more experience on the pacing side. And that was the year Captaintreacherous was two so that was a very fun year to be around there. And then I got an offer from Jimmy that was too good to say no to."
Much like Alagna, who had worked for Erv Miller prior to opening his own stable, Engblom of course had thought about going solo before Takter's retirement announcement.
"Of course for every year it felt like it was getting closer, but at the same token I wanted to stay loyal to Jimmy. And we had so many good horses...it's hard to go away from training good horses," admitted the 39-year-old. "Being self-employed certainly has its benefits, but we're all racing nerds, you know? All we want to do is be around great horses. And in my years with Jimmy it's been fantastic that way...a number of world champions and Dan Patch honourees and O'Brien Award winners, I can't even count them."
One of those horses that satisfies all three of the above is 2015 Hambletonian winner Pinkman, who will now be conditioned by Engblom. Other notable names in his 42-horse stable include 2017 Dan Patch Award winner Lost In Time, back in training after surgery derailed his 2018 season, and multiple stakes winner Grand Teton.
Of the 42 horses, 24 are two-year-olds and 13 are three-year-olds. There are some horses that were with him under Takter's care that will now be trained by Johansson but Engblom has no complaints.
"Well, let's put it this way: I'm very happy to be training the horses I have!" said Engblom with a laugh. "You always want to have all the good ones...me and Nancy, we're very good friends and there's certainly no hard feelings between us. I'm sure we had enough good horses in the barn that we're both going to have a good year."
Engblom (L) with Manchego following her Casual Breeze win at Mohawk
A 'good year' can definitely mean different things to different people. Given the resume of his mentor, Engblom knows that he'll be expected to maintain a high level of success but his approach to his work will not affected by the lofty accolades achieved by his former boss.
"I think my expectations are similar to everyone else's...I'm going to try to do the best I can to keep my customers happy and win races and make sure their horses are performing well and make money and move on in their careers. I'm a pretty laid-back guy, I don't stress too much about those things. I try to organize my work and work from that, and if something doesn't work out we have to change....I don't get too hyped when we win and I don't get too down when we lose.
"Of course I feel we have expectations on us but I also feel that the owners I have -- the ones I got from Jimmy and a couple of new owners -- I feel confident and feel like I have a lot of support from them. I hope I can perform for them and I think we're going to have great success for many years to come."