by Murray Brown

There was never any doubt that Lucas Wallin’s was destined to become a horseman. The 30-year-old native of Sweden has been around and working with horses all of his life. His parents and grandparents owned and trained horses in Sweden. He recalls working with horses as an 8- and 9-year-old. He was 14 when he made his first trip to the United States. By that time, it was a forgone conclusion that he was destined to be a horseman. That trip to America solidified his belief that the venue for his career would be in North America. His first job of significance was with Swedish legend Ake Svanstedt with whom he worked from 2014 to 2017.

Let’s start there. You came to the United States as an assistant trainer in Ake Svanstedt’s stable.

“Starting with Ake constituted a dream come true. A young horseman desiring to learn and grow could not have had a better teacher than Ake. He is a legend in Sweden where he led and dominated Scandinavian trotting for quite some time. He had achieved pretty much all that could be accomplished in Sweden and then determined that he would try to do more of the same in North America. He is well on his way to accomplishing that. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to come along with him and share his journey. I stayed with his stable for three years before deciding to go out on my own in 2018.”

You were now on your own. Did you think that you were ready?

“I suppose that at the time I thought I was ready [to be on my own], but looking back I probably wasn’t. I was probably a few years ahead of where I should have been. But I was young and full of self-confidence. I felt I was ready to take on the world. I needed a challenge. I started with one horse, a Yankee Glide trotter which was owned by two friends. In order to make ends meet, I worked for the Melander brothers, Marcus and Matthias. Looking back, the proper way to phrase it might have been that I was working for the Melanders while working part-time training the one horse in my stable.

“Fortunately, I did reasonably well with that one horse and got two more. Eventually, I got up to five or six and I was able to hang out my shingle so to speak. I had my own public stable. The first really good horse I had was Appomattox another Yankee Glide who Ronnie Burke had been training. He was a really good old war horse who earned over $600,000. We only had him for one season. Although he didn’t earn a whole lot of money for us, he still managed to win three of the seven races in which we had him. Both the size of the stable and the quality in it grew. I suppose the major turning point in the success of the stable came about with the acquisition of Rebuff.”

Let’s talk about Rebuff.

“I was already concentrating on yearlings. There was never any doubt in my mind that that was the route I wanted to take. When I was with Ake, we had a pretty good Lucky Chucky colt named Non Stick who earned $587,890. Steve Stewart was selling a Muscle Hill half-brother to him at the 2020 Selected Yearling Sale in Lexington. In my mind I figured that if his dam had a Lucky Chucky that good, then how much better could a Muscle Hill be? I thought that the sky could be the limit. As we all know, this is the horse business. In our business things do not necessarily work out according to preconceived logic.

“I had some people who were willing to spend pretty well for a top yearling. I went to look at Rebuff. It was love at first sight. I really liked the colt. Not only did I love him, but I was also willing to spend some of my own money — money that I could ill afford to lose at the time — to buy a piece if we were lucky enough to acquire him. He was a terrific individual who checked all the boxes. He had a great pedigree. He moved like one would like a trotter to move. I saw him turned out in the paddock. I watched his video over and over. If we had enough money, I was sure that we would buy him. We did have enough, but barely. We bought him for $200,000. He trained like a good horse from the very beginning. Sometimes he might have been a little over ambitious. He might not have been the very best 2-year-old trotter of his year, but he was certainly among them. He turned out to be everything we were hoping he’d be and perhaps a little more.

“He started 11 times, with four wins, two seconds and a third at 2. He earned $444,095 and took a record of 1:52.2 in his freshman year. Our gamble had paid off. We were home free. Dreams of the Hambletonian occupied my thoughts all winter. He trained exceptionally well and raced well up into Hambletonian week. In my mind, I felt that he couldn’t have been any better heading into the race. In the Hambletonian, he was disappointingly flat. It turned out that he had flipped his palate and wasn’t getting his air properly. Dr. Patty Hogan operated successfully on him. Our goal became to race him at Lexington and have him fit for the Kentucky Futurity. Things did work out pretty much as we hoped they would. Rebuff was the best horse on Futurity Day. He was very good that day, but in my heart, he wasn’t quite as good as I thought he had been on Hambletonian Day at The Meadowlands. But as they say, ‘That’s horse racing.’ He was subsequently syndicated and is serving a full book of mares at Victory Hill Farms in Indiana. I look forward to seeing and racing his foals.”

How are things looking for the Wallin stable in 2023?

“I think pretty well. We started with 34 head and still have 34 on the go. Of those, 24 are 2-year-olds, nine are 3 and we have one older horse. The only difference between where we started and now is that we stopped with one of the 2-year-olds and replaced him with another. I think I probably have as many in the stable as I hope to ever have. I think that 30-40 head is pretty much the maximum I can do justice to. More than that there is a chance that the horses and the owners will suffer. I know that others have said pretty much the same and overstepped those numbers. I recall reading where Tony Alagna once said that he didn’t want to have much more than 30 in his stable. I believe that he is now over a hundred and counting.”

Do you see any possible Grand Circuit horses among your 3-year-olds?

“We have a few that look very promising. If I had to mention just one it would be D’Apper a Walner colt who we thought a lot of last year. We took him to Lexington thinking that he would do very well there. Unfortunately, he got quite sick and we decided to quit with him. He has trained well and I am hoping for great things for him this year. He is in to race at The Meadowlands on Friday (June 9). We should get some idea of where we are after that race.

“This colt has what I believe is a quite exceptional pedigree. He is of course by Walner perhaps the world’s greatest trotting sire. His dam D’One is a Donato Hanover mare who earned $1,268,611. She is in turn out of the great Giant Diablo, a Supergill mare who earned $1,802,816. When you go deeper maternally in his pedigree, you will come upon Scotch Love who produced the great triple crown winner and sire Speedy Scot. He is of course the sire of Speedy Crown. If you were looking to write a better trotting pedigree, you would be hard pressed to do so.”

How about your 2-year-olds?

“I am very pleased with what we have. We started two Father Patricks in the baby races at The Meadowlands last week. They were both winners: the filly The Moment in 1:59.4 and the colt Alfaromeo in 2:01.1. We started one other that day, the Greenshoe filly Good Faith Hanover. She finished a good second to The Moment. We started five more on Saturday (June 10): three Walners, a Greenshoe and a Muscle Hill. Of those the Walner colt Duke Of Walner looks quite promising. I would be surprised if we didn’t get all 24 of our babies qualified and racing before the season is over.”

How is your newly-arrived son doing?

“Mason is doing exceptionally well. He just passed his six-month birthday. He is a joy to have around. I guess that he would find it difficult to not become a horseman considering his pedigree. In addition to myself, a third-generation horseman, his mother Mikaela is a Melander, sister of Marcus and Mattias and a multi-generational horseperson herself.”