Floyd, not Pegasus, and his North Belle Vernon outrider made a once in a lifetime trek to Sweden. Even someone whose Swedish language ability barely extends beyond “smorgasbord” can recognize the word “elite” in Stockholm’s Elitloppet, one of the top harness racing races in the world.
A Mon Valley equestrian who participated in the event made history in May when she became the first American outrider at Elitloppet.
Racing animals can make unpredictable moves and an outrider is to be ready to intervene, if necessary, to rescue horses and humans.
“In Sweden they don’t have them,” says outrider Wendy Ross, 32, of North Belle Vernon, after she returned from her first-ever trip to Scandinavia.
Swedes may be unfamiliar with outriders, but Ross has long been aware of the Elitloppet’s series of eliminations that has been held annually at Stockholm’s Solvalla Racecourse since 1952.
“I’d known about it my whole life,” Ross says, referring to it as Elitlopp, a nickname common in harness racing circles.
Dave Palone, a regular at The Meadows Racetrack in Meadow Lands who was inducted into the harness racing Hall of Fame in 2010 and holds the record for the most wins of any driver worldwide, has raced at Elitloppet, a three-day event. “I never realized how big it was over there until I was there myself,” he says. “There were 50,000 to 60,000 fans at the Elitloppet, and it reminds me a lot of our Little Brown Jug (an annual race in Delaware, Ohio). They cheer you when you come out in the post parade and each horse has his own fan base, with flags and signs everywhere. It’s almost like a Super Bowl atmosphere. We could learn a lot from the way they promote the races over there.”
Heats during the modern Elitloppet take place over three days, and for the invitational “it is really not the driver that is invited, it is the horse,” according to Palone. “The trainer chooses the driver. There are so many great European drivers that it is a real honor to be able to go over there and represent the United States. They invite one horse from the United States that is at the top of his game at the time of the Elitloppet.”
Ross calls Elitloppet “the biggest race in the whole world as far as trotters go. I’m not really good with words, but it was a pretty big deal. There were 30,000 people there. It was epic. We were introduced at every race. All I could understand was when they said, ‘Wendy Ross and her horse, Floyd.’ They were very welcoming to us.”
The welcome began in a big way. Floyd was one of six horses booked on a Boeing 747 for the trip. Ross did not see him board on the East Coast because her flight was on a Sunday night and Floyd’s plane departed Monday morning during the last full week of May.
Ross and 4,000 other people turned out to watch the equines’ plane land in Sweden, and she walked him from a portable stall to a barn on the airport grounds.
Because this year’s Elitloppet may have been the first time Swedes saw an outrider in action, Ross wanted to make sure she and Floyd made a good impression.
Ross and horse were decked out in American patriotic colors. She paired bright blue trousers and a shirt with stars and stripes. Floyd’s hand-tailored back pad was trimmed in red and blue. “I make them different for every event I do or every track I’ve worked,” Ross says.
A horse faces no language barrier, and once on the track, Floyd “took to it like he’s been there a million times,” Ross says. “He’s a pro. We’re basically just out there for safety. We had to grab a horse who was running away a little bit.”
“It takes a really special ability,” Ross says of Floyd’s skills. “Only one in 40 horses could do this. It was very rare. An outrider’s horse has to be very athletic and be able to handle situations. He did it for 19 years.”
According to the Standardbred Canada website, the winner of the Elitloppet final was, by a quarter-length, Nuncio, bred by Pennsylvania’s Russell Williams and owned by Stefan Melander’s Stall TZ. Nuncio “was a $7,000 purchase (who) has gone on to a tremendous international career.” The purse was $892,000.
The return trip from Stockholm was bittersweet for Ross because, once back in the United States, she and Floyd, 23, parted ways.
“He’s retiring to a really nice farm in New York with an 8-year-old girl who absolutely adores him,” Ross says.
“I cried. When we said goodbye, it was pretty sad. I talked to him. I was there a half hour with him in the field. It was really hard. I’m going to go see him. We’ve been together for 10 years and we got to do some really cool things. It was the end, but it was fine. There aren’t too many words for the friendship and the partnership we had. There is no comparison.”
Their trip abroad together was a once-in-a-lifetime event now that Floyd is officially retired.
“He’s been with me the longest and he’s definitely my favorite horse that I’ll ever have, for sure,” Ross says.