Tristan Sjöberg is a man of the world
The part-owner of Sebastian K and Captain Corey is living his best life.
by Murray Brown
It is appropriate to describe Tristan Sjöberg, both literally and figuratively, as a man of the world. He was born and raised in Sweden, lived in the United Kingdom for 19 years, and he and his family now reside in Singapore while still maintaining a residence in London. He remains a globetrotter with his international travels, both involving his day job and his pursuits in harness racing, keeping him on the road for 150 or more days a year. It was during a respite for him in Sweden where I caught up with him.
Let’s begin with your involvement in harness racing. When and how did it begin?
“My dad was always a gambling man, both as his profession of choice and in his approach to life. My mom has always been an animal lover. You name it swans, parrots, and most importantly white horses, she loves them.
“I suppose it all began when mom was in search of a German Shepherd puppy. She went to the farm of a breeder of Shepherds and came away from it with a horse, a trotter.
“My dad, always the competitor and gambler, wasn’t about to be outdone by my mother, so he got one for himself, a better bred one. Both horses were put into training by master Swedish horseman Stig H. Johansson.
“Their involvement in the sport grew from racing a few head to also breeding a few. They had some success on the racing front with a horse by the name of Private Property. He was a Grade 2 stakes winner in Sweden.
“Mom traded one of her trotters for this Swedish bred mare who actually had American lineage named Gabriella K. She was by American-bred Probe, out of a mare by American-bred The Prophet which they had been breeding without success. They were advised by noted Swedish breeder Lufti Kolgjini that perhaps a change in stallion type was necessary. He advised them to breed her to a French stallion.
“‘Why not?’ my father said. So, they bred her to the French stallion Korean. From this mating in 2005 came the world champion trotter Sebastian K. I hadn’t yet become very involved in the family’s avocation. I was in London and traveling the world helping to manage our family’s casino equipment business. My dad had passed in 2012. At that time, we knew we had a great trotter. But quite how great was yet to be determined.
“The decision was made to send him to America, where his great gate speed would be a decided asset. Who else to send him to, but master Swedish horseman Åke Svanstedt.
“Åke and his wife Sarah had moved their enterprise to America and were about to become the guardians of one of that country’s greatest stables. The success of Sebastian K reawakened my interest and involvement in harness racing.”
Let’s move with Sebastian K from his coming to America to his becoming a world champion at the age of 8, to his placement in the stud at Hanover Shoe Farms.
“Sebastian K was a great horse, but great horses do not always become great stallions. Actually, only a small percentage of them do. He stood at Hanover for a few years, but the results were rather mixed. He sired a few decent trotters, but that is all they were, just decent. That wasn’t good enough at Hanover, nor is it good enough just about anywhere else in America. The natural tendency of some owners would be to place the blame on the farm standing the horse for it not to live up to expectations. If a stallion is meant be great, he will almost always overcome all obstacles placed before him and achieve greatness. That was unfortunately not the case with Sebastian K.”
Let’s move from the stallion who did not live up to expectations, to the one who has perhaps exceeded them: Captain Corey. Did the incredible success of his first crop surprise you?
“I’d be lying if I said I expected what he accomplished this past racing season. So would just about anyone with the exception of Åke and Sarah Svanstedt. They had absolute confidence that his destiny was to become one of the world’s greatest trotting stallions. From the time that Åke bought him, they loved the horse. If they felt he had any faults, I wasn’t aware of them. He had none of the myriad of problems, minor or major, that befall most horses. No sickness, no lameness, no bad days, perfect manners, everything that you look for in a horse, Captain Corey had it. I was quite aware of Åke and Sarah’s views, but I look upon myself as being somewhat of a realist.
“There were a few obstacles that the horse faced here in America. The chief among them was the pacing blood in his pedigree. His sire Googoo Gaagaa, although pacing bred, was a great trotter and a great trotting sire in Sweden. America, and most specifically, the American breeders were perhaps reluctant to accept a trotting sire with his pedigree. Would they breed to him?
“Undoubtedly they would and did.
“Would they gamble their most preferred and blue-blooded mares to this hybrid? Most definitely not.
“We were fortunate in that we had a quality syndicate, in addition to Hanover that would see that he got adequate numbers of decent, but far from the top-of-the-line mares. The rest would be up to him. If one were to study the traits that most great stallions possess, the most abiding one would be that they would achieve that greatness in addition to, or sometimes despite, the quality or lack of it of the mares they receive.
“The truly great stallion will overcome just about everything. All he needs are enough mares.
“Even in the case of a super sire such as Stars Pride, he didn’t even need the volume of mares. Just think of what Stars Pride accomplished. From a total of less than 40 foals combined in his first three crops, he sired two Hambletonian winners, Emilys Pride and Diller Hanover, a heat winner of The Hambletonian, Little Rocky, a horse that finished two-for-two in the Hambletonian, Section Man and another horse Hickory Pride, who some thought might have been able to win the Hambletonian, if he had been eligible to race in it. Just think of that, all from a total of 37 foals. I’m not about to even suggest that Captain Corey is another Stars Pride. No horse is or probably ever will be. But much like Stars Pride, he has accomplished what he has done without having many top mares in that first crop.”
How did you become involved with Captain Corey?
“Åke had seen him at Carter Duer’s place and was impressed. He asked us if we would be interested in buying a piece if he got him. Bernie Noren, our racing manager, told him we would be in for $100,000 or less. Actually, he brought more than we thought he’d bring. Robert Lindstrom signed the ticket on him for $150,000. Were we still in? We were in for 25 per cent. His ownership was divided up into three partners with Lennart Agren’s SRF Stable as the majority owner together with minority owners Lindstrom’s Midnight Sun Partners and ourselves. The following spring Åke and I traded some ownership between Southwind Tyrion and Captain Corey as Åke definitely wanted to be able to drive him. And as they say, the rest is history. He turned out to be a terrific horse for us winning among other stakes, the Hambletonian.
“Now, all that remained on my wish list was to have a successful stallion. He appears to be leading us in that direction. His book is full, with many being turned away, at a fee double that of last year’s. I’ve been approached by many people asking if we can help them get a booking. The answer is, sadly, no. We are entitled to seven bookings. We will be using them all. I’m guessing that all of the other shareholders will be doing the same. His fee is $15,000. I feel that if it had been $20,000 or even $25,000, the result would probably have been the same.”
Among Captain Corey’s first crop of 2-year-olds, you bred and own the white colt Nebbiolo. Tell us something about him.
“As you know my mother has always been drawn to white horses. We had looked far and wide to try and find a white horse for her with no luck. We had even gone to Russia to find one among the Orlovs. None there as well. There were grays who might eventually turn white. There were even fewer albinos. But we couldn’t find a genetically white horse. Finally, we became aware of a white colt by the name of White Bliss who was foaled in the U.S.; a pacer no less. My mom didn’t care. She wanted to own it. We bought it at Harrisburg for $240,000. The mare’s previous three foals had averaged $25,000. I suppose the underbidder also wanted a white horse. We still own White Bliss and he has produced a white offspring. At best, he was just a nice pacer. Mom didn’t give up on her dream of owning a white trotter though. We became aware of this white filly in Italy. Her name is Via Lattea. Of course, we had to buy her for mom. She turned out to be just a fair trotter in Sweden, but she blossomed under Åke’s tutelage in America and she won the Bobby Weiss series at Pocono. Sadly, she suffered a career ending injury shortly afterwards. We first bred her to Six Pack a couple of times. Then when Captain Corey went to stud, we sent her to him. Lo and behold, she gave mom the white colt she had been seeking. We named him Nebbiolo, which references his Italian background and is also the name of an Italian wine grape famous from the Piedmont area of Italy. We raced him lightly this year, because philosophically, we, Åke, and Sarah believe that is best for a 2-year-old. He raced pretty well taking a record of 1.55.3f and earning just shy of a $100,000. We feel we have a lot to look forward to in 2026.”
If someone were to ask me to give them a two-word description of you, I would use the words bon vivant, which roughly translates into a lover of life. Would you agree with that description?
“I guess I probably would. We have only one life to live and I try to live it as best I can. I’m a lucky guy in that I have had lots of opportunities and I have tried to make the most of them. I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful daughters. I’m fortunate in that my working pursuits also involve things that I love and enjoy. In addition to harness racing, my day job involves travel to many of the most exciting places in the world. That has enabled me to know a multitude of great and interesting people and also allowed me to pursue the great pleasures to be found in food and drink. I love going to the best restaurants and indulging in my appreciation of great food, wine, and in recent years, the very best small batch Kentucky bourbon.”
Let’s speak of your day job.
“My dad was a great entrepreneur who was always looking for opportunities and willing to take a chance on something new. As I mentioned previously, he had been involved in the betting and gambling business all his life and as the Brits say was willing to ‘take a chance on a flutter.’ He was approached by this man who was an engineer. He asked dad if he thought a way to increase the speed of roulette by funneling the chips mechanically, rather than the time-consuming way of doing it by hand, would be beneficial. ‘Of course,’ he said.
“Shortly thereafter this man showed up on his doorstep with a prototype of his invention. They went into business beginning in England which had the largest number of casinos in the world and then spread globally. They leased these machines to casinos. The business grew and expanded into all sorts of casino equipment. There are very few places globally in which there are casinos where our equipment isn’t found.
“We also have several other businesses including harness racing of course. My brother Michael and I co-own a vineyard in Oregon where we grow some of the finest pinot noir grapes to be found anywhere, maybe second and perhaps the equal of those in the finest vineyards of Burgundy. The folks in Napa and Sonoma Valleys in California have tried with little success in producing pinot noir grapes comparable to ours. There is something in the Oregon terroir that is not found anywhere else except perhaps in Burgundy.”
Do you and your family live in Singapore?
“I had lived in London for 19 years. London is a great city and we were reluctant to leave it, but I was on the road for the better part of the year with much of my traveling being to the Far East. Truth be told, it was becoming taxing. After they opened the two super casinos in Singapore, I thought it would make sense to perhaps move there. Those casinos combined with the many in Macau, which is Las Vegas of the East, would take up much of my traveling time.
“I made the proposition to my dad. He came aboard.
“Now I had to convince my wife Kimberlee, who was a successful investment banker in London, to give up her career and become an even more successful mother and housewife. Fortunately, I got that job done.
“Singapore is a wonderful city state. It has everything that most people might look for in a place to live. It is safe and clean. It is vibrant and has most of the qualities of life that people would look to find. The only significant negative is the climate which can be stifling hot and humid. It’s not London of course. No other place is. But I still get to visit and spend time there occasionally on business. It could be said that I enjoy the best of two worlds, but if I were asked to choose between the two, my choice would definitely be the one I definitely prefer, Singapore.”
