Logan Park’s part-owner Arpad Szabo nearly immigrated to Sweden as a child with his father. Now, the 82-year-old Hungarian-born Canadian will visit the Nordic country for the first time to race in the Elitlopp.

by Melissa Keith

It’s fitting that the fastest Canadian-sired trotter in history will also be the first in three years to represent Canada at Elitloppet. The 2023 and 2024 O’Brien Older Male Trotter of the Year Logan Park (6, 1:49.2m; $1,553,509) set the early-season Canadian trotting record of 1:53 in his 2025 comeback race, the April 14 Woodbine Mohawk Park preferred. The gelded son of Archangel—Rite Outa The Park repeated in the April 21 preferred at his home track, equaling that 1:53 clocking, this time without Lasix, to prepare for his May 25 Swedish adventure, because Lasix is not permitted in Swedish races.

Perfetto was the most recent Canadian trotter invited to race in Elitloppet. He narrowly missed making the 2022 final, won by Etonnant, who will return in this year’s edition.

Arpad Szabo of Bradford, ON shares ownership of Logan Park with Outofthepark Stable, of Rockwood, ON and Reg Higgs, of Blenheim, ON. The 7-year-old black gelding was originally a $57,000 yearling purchase at the 2019 London Selected Sale.

“Well, I was surprised, actually,” Szabo told HRU on Friday (April 25). “I was happy just racing him in Canada and the United States. I wasn’t expecting to be taking him to Sweden. It was a pretty good year last year, so I was hoping he’d come back about the same as he was last year, so it’s an honor to take him over there. We got invited and we decided we’re going to take him.”

Logan Park is one of six trotters currently invited to compete in the 2025 Elitloppet at Solvalla Racetrack. The other horses to receive “pink tickets” so far are: The Locomotive (Australia); Go On Boy and Etonnant (France); Borups Victory and Francesco Zet (Sweden).

Szabo said he is trusting trainers Rob and Kyle Fellows with the plans for Logan Park’s first overseas start.

“For a long time, [Rob] has been training horses for me and we keep in touch very often,” Szabo said. “I have other horses with him too, you know, a couple of yearlings and a claiming horse here and there. He was the one who told me about it. I talk to Robert, Kyle, and Yolanda Fellows. I go up to their farm pretty often.”

The 82-year-old owner said he was surprised to see his horse invited to Solvalla.

“I have a partner in Alberta, Blair Corbeil… He talked about [the 2025 Elitlopp] sort of, but I never took it seriously,” Szabo said.

With the May 23-25 Elitloppet weekend less than a month away, Szabo said he had made plans for his own travel to Stockholm.

“My son [Arpad, Jr.] is going to come with me, because I don’t want to take on a trip like that by myself in the airports and stuff,” Szabo said. “I’m up in age a bit, but I’m going for sure now.”

He told HRU that Logan Park would be cheered on by a strong Canadian entourage.

“I don’t know how many, but I hear there’s maybe 20 or so,” he said.

There is a poignancy to Szabo’s upcoming first visit to Sweden.

“I never went to Sweden. I came to Canada in 1957 from Hungary,” he said. “Actually, we were going to go to Sweden to settle there, but Canada was the one that accepted us first, so I came to Canada with my father when I was 13. It was just the two of us, my father and I.

“I used to go to the races when I was 20. I’ve been going to Old Woodbine [i.e., Greenwood Raceway before it was renamed in 1963], Mohawk, and other places as a gambler, pretty well. After I retired, I decided that I was going to get into [racehorse ownership]. I have a small business, so I finally got to the point where I could afford it.”

His family business is still going as strong as Logan Park.

“We have a distributorship called Mr. Dairy and Food Distributing Ltd.,” Szabo said. “We’ve got over a thousand products. Actually, I think that we serve Woodbine and Mohawk, too. We’ve been trying and we expanded. We have over 3,000 accounts right now in Ontario.”

He has also enjoyed more than one success story in the racing industry.

“I’ve had some good horses before,” he said. “I had one named Piston Broke [p, 5, 1:48.3s; $505,788] and I had Keystone Concrete [p, 2, 1:52s; $165,011]. He won the [Ontario Sires Stakes] Gold final when he was a 3-year-old. Also, other horses like Rustler Steve [p, 5, 1:50.4s; $354,113]. He was a decent horse, too.”

Mohawk and Woodbine preferred regular Piston Broke retired in Dec. 2018, but the 16-year-old gelding remains a favorite for Szabo.

“I loved the name Piston Broke,” he said. “I really liked that horse. He raced quite a bit, got into some big races… Every horse has good luck and bad luck. Now he’s a riding horse. Rob [Fellows] found a good home for him. I love animals, so you know I’d like to keep them, but we’re too old, my wife and I, for a big horse like that.

“I used to have horses all the time on the farm here, riding horses. My wife loves riding, but she’s 76 years old now.”

The racehorse owner said he was initially drawn to Logan Park because he admired his sire, Archangel (5, 1:50m; $1,140,972).

“We’ve been buying Archangels and they usually develop late, I understand,” Szabo said. “I had another good horse, All Wrapped Up [8, 1:52.3s; $505,628], that was another Archangel. He got claimed last year. We owned him since he was a yearling, and we bought another Archangel last year, another yearling. I like that horse; we’ve bought about five of them so far. Some of them didn’t work out, but three of them were pretty good.”

Logan Park has been managed well throughout his six years on the track, noted his owner. His second consecutive O’Brien Award-winning season was no different.

“We gave him a good rest; his last race [of 2024] was in November, so he had the winter off, he wasn’t heavily raced, I don’t think we over-raced him,” said Szabo, adding that he went to The Meadowlands to witness his champion trotter’s Nov. 30 FanDuel Championship Open Trot victory.

“I went three times to the States for some races. That’s an adventure that I took on. We also went to The Meadowlands for the Breeders Crown, but that was bad luck. We drew the 10-hole, so that didn’t work out. Actually, that›s the third time he went to the Breeders Crown.»

Logan Park and driver Doug McNair won his 2023 Breeders Crown Open Trot elim at Hoosier Park, but finished fourth in the final, his best Breeders Crown result to date.

Szabo said he had high hopes for Logan Park in the 2025 Breeders Crown at Mohawk.

“I’m looking forward to that one, yes, maybe even more than this one [Elitloppet],” he said, explaining that the thrill of winning at his home track was always special. “I’ve got four kids and 10 grandkids, so maybe some of them have free time to go with me. Quite a few people come to the races when my horses are running.”

He credited Logan Park’s steady climb to the Mohawk preferred and the Grand Circuit to the horse and his trainers.

“He was a good horse when he was a 2- and 3-year-old, but he used to break quite a bit,” Szabo said. “That was his problem. So, after he settled down, he really matured… I don’t interfere with his training. He does a good job… I’ve been selling milk my whole life and I know how to do that, but I don’t know about horses, so I let the horsepeople do the horse job.”

Doug McNair is another part of the winning equation for Logan Park.

“The driver is going with him [to Sweden], Doug McNair,” Szabo said. “He’s been driving him quite a while now, and he’s used to the horse and always does a good job with it. I’ve been watching him since he started driving, and I’ve always liked his style.”

Elitloppet will be the biggest race of Logan Park’s career so far. Szabo said he knows it won’t be easy for foreign horses to take on the powerful European trotters on their terms.

“We have to put him on a plane, and then have a changeover at Brussels or somewhere in Belgium, and then put him on a ship,” he said. “It’s not easy on a horse, I’d imagine, so we’re going to take him a couple of weeks before the races. Most of the horses are going to be on home ground, I think, so it’s not going to be an easy race, but I think that we’ve got a good chance… He raced without Lasix when he was a younger horse, so I hope he does good without it.”

Canadian fans will have one more chance to wish Logan Park luck before his trip to Sweden.

“We’re going to give him one more [prep] race, that’s where it stands right now,” said the owner. “Not this Monday [April 28], but next Monday [May 5], they’re going to give him a race [at Mohawk], and they’re probably going [to Europe] on the 8th or 10th, to give him a couple of weeks [before the Elitlopp].”

Szabo’s care for his horses extends beyond their racing years.

“He’s at the top of his game and he’s a gelding, so a racehorse is a racehorse, right?” he said. “That’s why they breed them, to race, and then after the racing, it’s time to get a good home for him, because that’s where I really get upset; when these horses don’t find a good home after retirement. I always loved animals since I was a kid. It was always my dream to own some racehorses, and finally I got a good one.”

Now the founder of Mr. Dairy and Food Distributing Ltd. and his top horse can celebrate the moment together while carrying the hopes of Canadian harness racing on May 25.

“It’s a thrill to represent Canada,” Szabo said. “I came here as a kid and Canada was good to me. You get opportunities here if you work hard, so you’ve got to take chances in life, and maybe you get where you want to go… It took a long time to get there, but I guess I got my wish.”

Logan Park has brought his owner to the pinnacle of international trotting, with a beautifully appropriate bonus: The former milkman will finally get to visit the nation that almost became his home in 1957. “Maybe I’ll see the country a little bit,” he said. “I imagine Sweden is a beautiful country.”