Interview with 13-time champion trainer in Scandinavia whose star filly qualified for the Kentucky Oaks with her success in the UAE Oaks at Meydan
The Scandinavian racing scene may be regarded as something of a backwater on the international stage. Not if the region’s 13-time champion trainer Niels Petersen has anything to do about it. however.
Petersen, 53, is making waves in Dubai, where he saddled Queen Azteca to follow up an eight-length romp in a stakes race at Meydan in January with an odds-on success in the UAE Oaks on February 21.
Victory in that G3 event under jockey Carlos Lopez means the three-year-old has enough qualifying points to guarantee a place in the starting gate for the Kentucky Oaks – a tempting proposition, though she might take on the colts in the UAE Derby instead.
The filly in question is a flashy, white-faced daughter of US-bred Sharp Azteca, trained by a Norwegian-based Dane. To make the story even more international, she was purchased in England by an Irishman and ridden to victory by a Chilean jockey, who is also based in Norway. And all of this happened in the United Arab Emirates, of course.
Global success story
Got it? As well as being truly global, this is also a tale of perseverance. Prior to Queen Azteca’s win in the Cocoa Beach Stakes at Meydan on January 17, Petersen was one from 184 with his runners in Dubai. That solitary win came with the turf sprinter Beat Baby, back in 2015. No wonder the cheers went on for a while in the winner’s enclosure.
“It’s been great,” Petersen says, reflecting on the filly’s progress at the Dubai Carnival. “For us, from little Norway, it’s a huge achievement and it gives a good boost to what we’ve been trying to do for years. That the plan worked out is probably the greatest thing of all.”
Petersen’s decade-long Dubai struggle was due to a combination of factors. The main one was transition from the snowdrifts of Norway, where they are trying to train in temperatures of minus 10 in November, to the mid-20s of a Dubai winter.
“To train in Norway in the winter is like training an alpine ski team in Saudi, it’s impossible,” he says, delivering a killer line in trademark quietly spoken fashion.
“We have horses good enough,” he goes on. “We’ve been to Bahrain and we’ve been to Saudi, Qatar and here – but it’s wintertime and we lose our condition. October it gets cold, November we get frost and then we can’t train properly.
“So we’ve learned that if we are to go for these races abroad then we need to go out a couple of months before and stable outside of Scandinavia – otherwise we can’t do it. That’s been the huge difference with coming here this year, when we arrived on November 1.”
That early arrival, which meant he took out a local UAE licence, came at a cost, however.
Massive relief
“It’s cost of lot of my money, my owners’ money …” he says. “But we’ve learned a lot this winter and I wouldn’t be afraid to do it again. There will be some changes, of course. We have had an adequate season, but the money disappears because the costs are high.
“But we pulled it off and that was great, a massive relief. It’s all the way up there [with my biggest achievements].”
Petersen is an interesting mix of modesty and fierce ambition. He is also a hugely experienced horseman and has got to where he is through hard work and a spirit of adventure.
It is that spirit which kept him going through that decade-long lean spell in Dubai. Why keep coming back?
“I’ve been very honest around this,” he says. “We brought our best horses here for the winter and I said to my owners: ‘We go for a good holiday and look after the horses and the results will be at the end of the season.’
“We won [Scandinavian] championship upon championship, all the big races, with these horses,” he explains. “We had a horse called Bank Of Burden who was here for six winters. He never did a tap here, but he was a complete champion back home.
“It’s a little bit of an escape from the cold weather, but we’re trying to win, trying our best. But our horses are coming at the end of a tough season, so it’s hard to compete with horses here.”
Business angle
The shrewd trainer also discovered a business angle; that of building owner relationships.
“You can have a horse with me and we’ll email, talk over the phone, but when we’re on a sunbed, having a beer, in our bathing trunks, we get a bit closer! That’s worked out fantastically.”
Petersen’s quiet persona belies a steely determination. He’s got to where he is with perseverance and by trying new things.
“My sister and brother were apprentices, and my father was a part-owner in a few racehorses,” he says of his early life in Denmark. “I attended the races as a kid and I loved it, but I wasn’t really interested in horses.
“Then I started riding a bit, before high school I’d ride a couple of lots and then after school I joined the Cavalry. I served in the Queen’s Guard and when the Danish Queen had the civil wedding I got to parade through Copenhagen in full gala [regalia]. That was a great day.
“After that I was due to go to university, but the problem is that when you’ve started to earn a bit of money, it’s very hard to go back to studying. There was a big owner in Baden-Baden who wanted an assistant, and I thought ‘why not?’ That was 1992-3.
Bold statement
“I learned a bit about how to train and I made a very bold statement for back in the day. I said, “if this is what it takes to be a good trainer, I can be a good trainer’.”
Part of Petersen’s self-training for training involved a spell as a jockey. “It was always my ambition to train, never to ride,” he continues.
“I rode races, including jumping, in Scandinavia. I did that because if you’re going to turn to a jockey and say ‘this and that’ then it’s good to have a little bit of insight into what you’re talking about.”
That kind of thoroughness has helped Petersen get to a dozen and more overall Scandinavian Championships. He was in Ireland when he got the call to train in Norway, which has been his primary base ever since.
“I started out with four horses, back in 1997-1998,” says the trainer, who is assisted at home and in Dubai by his sister Marianne. “Then it’s just built up. I’ve never been afraid to take a challenge, go abroad, seek adventures and learn from them. I’m always trying to move forward.”
“Niels is different,” says his good friend, bloodstock agent Edgar Bryne, who signed for Queen Azteca at Tattersalls for the now bargain price of 30,000gns. “He’s always thinking, questioning, challenging himself. That’s why he’s a champion; it’s 24/7 and those around him need to be like minded or it wouldn’t work.”
Kentucky option
So, what’s next? The lure of Kentucky on the first Friday in May is strong, but Petersen is as realistic as he is ambitious. “Queen Azteca put us on the map here, but my biggest wish is to get out on the big scene and make my mark,” says the father of two.
“I want my horses to go out and win big races. I’ve done everything I can back home, and I need a challenge. I want to make a real impact.”
“We’ve got the Kentucky Oaks; we’ve got an invitation here for the UAE Derby. There’s a couple of owners who have asked if she’s for sale. Running here, going to Kentucky, both are very exciting.
“The whole thing is on the terms of the horse, of course. She came well out of the UAE Oaks, but we have to use our heads. The Derby is here, and we are here, so that makes it a lot easier than going to America.
“Then there’s things you don’t even think about. You need a horse to go with her, she wouldn’t go ten metres on her own. Then you need staff to go, protocols for quarantine … I guess it’s all doable, but then for a Scandinavian owner there’s a lot of costs as well.
“Right now, I’d say maybe we’ll stay here and run in the Derby, but on the other hand, it is tempting to go to America.”
When it comes to travel, Petersen giving in to that temptation has done him well so far. Will Queen Azteca be the one to put him on the map in America? We shall see.
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