by Murray Brown

As of July 25, Per Engblom is the second leading trainer in North America in terms of number of wins and money earned by his stable — 203 and $4,32,685 respectively — second only to perennial leader the Burke Stable juggernaut.

Much like third-ranked trainer Travis Alexander, of whom I wrote a month ago, Engblom has seemingly been flying under the radar for many of the same reasons.

Like Alexander, Engblom’s stable is made up of a mix of young horses and older campaigners who do most of their racing at Yonkers, with a smattering regularly doing battle at The Meadowlands, Pocono Downs and Harrah’s Philadelphia. It was at his training center at Magical Acres in Chesterfield, NJ while Engblom was jogging a horse with the lines in one hand and the phone in the other that I caught up with him.

It has been a long journey with several stops along the way that led you to this spot in your career. Can you please outline the steps that brought you to where you now are?

“I started out in the sport like so many young people do. I was in effect born into it. My father was a small trainer in the town of Mantorp in Sweden. He had a small stable and pretty much did it all. He groomed, trained, drove and was the horse shoer for his small stable of horses. I started working for Jimmy Takter as a groom. I was initially with Jimmy for five years, two as a groom and three as an assistant trainer. I suppose my claim to fame as a groom was that I took care of Moni Maker after her last race at Blue Bonnets through her time trial under saddle at The Red Mile.

“After five years with Jimmy, I returned to Sweden where I attended trainers’ school. I was in the school for six months and then took a small job training a private stable. I then went to Italy where I trained for a short time.

“At the age of 32, I came back to the States where I worked for Tony Alagna. 

“It was 2012. What a great year. Captaintreacherous was having a fabulous 2-year-old season. My MVP won the Kentucky Futurity for us. Tony’s stable was on its way to becoming the force on the Grand Circuit that it is today. 

“Then Jimmy Takter persuaded me to come back and work for him. I stayed with Jimmy for six years until he retired in 2018. I then began a public stable headquartered at Jimmy’s farm and training center. The first year on my own was quite successful. The second year was not so much. I decided I needed a change. We packed up and with 35 horses we moved to where we still are at Magical Acres.”

It had to be a great transition growing your barn from then 35 horses to its present size of about 100.

“It was and it wasn’t. There were two main factors that allowed for a successful transition. I have always had excellent help. This is not and never was a one man show. Without good help, you are nothing. As my stable grew in size, I was fortunate enough to acquire enough good people to grow with it. My brother Petter joined us from Sweden.

“In addition to being a terrific all-around horseman, Petter is also an accomplished farrier. The old saying ‘no foot, no horse’ was now well taken care of. My horses’ feet were in good hands.

“The second and perhaps more important requirement was in getting owners. I was very fortunate in that regard as well. From the beginning, Mitchel Skolnick was with us. I wish I could say that I’ve been as successful for Mitchel as he has been an aid to the success of the stable. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Of all the owners in the stable, I have probably had the least success with Mitchel’s horses. But he has kept on keeping on with us. For that I shall be eternally grateful.

“Other owners started coming aboard. They included Evan Katz and Frank Canzone. In recent years the Morrison Stable has joined us. They’ve allowed me to go from being a stable that mostly specialized in racehorses to include some young ones which we race mostly in Sires Stakes, but the hope is that if they are good enough or if we have enough money, to join their ranks we might eventually have some Grand Circuit youngsters in the stable.”

Do you consider it somewhat of an irony that when you first went on your own from Jimmy, your stable was entirely composed of Grand Circuit types; then it transitioned to almost all raceway horses? Now you’ve added sires stakes horses and hope to get back to Grand Circuit horses.

“Not really. In this life of ours, I find that you need to go wherever life takes you. When I wasn’t doing well enough with my Grand Circuit stable, I realized that I still had to make a living. Yonkers was offering excellent money for overnight racehorses. So, I concentrated my energies on getting enough of them to become competitive there. It was a plan that has worked out well. Thankfully we now have enough horses where we are not only able to compete successfully at Yonkers, but also at The Meadowlands, Chester and Pocono. It is the horses and their quality that ultimately determine where you are going to race.”

You now have a stable of 100 head. How is it made up?

“The so-called meat and potatoes of the operation are the racehorses. They are what has enabled us to reach where we now are and they keep us going in both good times and times not as good. There are about 60 of them. The remaining 40 or so are 2- and 3-year-olds. We have about 25 2-year-olds, that is probably a few too many for a mixed stable of this size.

“Two-year-olds obviously need more time and attention. If I were to continue with a stable of this size, I ideally might want to decrease the number to between 15 and 20. However if destiny decides that more quality yearlings come my way, I might decrease the number of racehorses and concentrate more on the younger horses. Ultimately the horses and my owners will make my decisions for me.”

Speaking with regard to 2-year-olds are there any particular sires that you look for?

“I generally look in the direction that my owners and their pocketbooks determine is best for them and their means. Today, I am mostly what one might call a bargain seeker.

“For pacers I have had success with yearlings by Huntsville and Heston Blue Chip. Not necessarily because they are the best, but mostly because they usually fall into the price range of what my owners can afford or are willing to spend. If they decided that they wanted to buy Sweet Lous, Captaintreacherous’ and Bettors Delights, I would be more than willing to expand my horizons.

“With trotters I am more of a Muscle Hill fan than one of Walner, fully realizing that the champions might be found in the Chapter Sevens and Tactical Landings. I like the Muscle Hills, especially the fillies, because I find them to be classy.

“There are lots of choices. Nevertheless, it seems more often than not, the ones that I like and want, prove to be too expensive for my limited pocketbook. But if there is one thing that I have learned in this life of harness racing, it’s that things can often and do often change. Those that prepare for change can often be the ones who most often profit from the transition.”

Let’s end this conversation on this year’s Hambletonian. You have one entered.

“Yes. His name is Supernova Hanover. He is a relatively green Greenshoe colt that keeps on improving. I’m not near naive enough to think that he can win. But you never know. That’s why they hold the races before handing out the money. At this point I don’t believe he will embarrass us. I hope he races well enough to qualify for the final and gets a check when they go for that million dollars.”