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May/June 2011 • The Harness Edge

There are horsemen well known fortheir aggressive way of marketingthemselves. They love to show up in

front of television cameras and in winner’scircles. They use big words and show theiremotions in winning as well as losing.

Then there are horsemen that, in spiteof their enormous skills, keep a low profilein their job situation while achieving cham-pionships, even World Championships. The53-year-old Danish trainer-driver BirgerJørgensen is such a horseman.

Birger Jørgensen (pronouncedBeerwa Yerwensenn) was born on August5, 1957 on the Danish island Falster, whichis situated in the sea between Denmarkand northern Germany some 120 milessouth of Copenhagen.

For a few years as a child his familylived closer to the capital, but at 11 he wasback in Nykøbing, where he was born. Thefamily moved in next to the house whereharness trainer Arne Elgaard lived. Mr.Elgaard came from Copenhagen to

Nykøbing when a new racetrack openedthere in 1966.

One of his grooms by the name ofArvid Olsen (born 1951) rented a room athis house, and it was Arvid who broughtthe 11 year-old Birger to the stable area.Later in life Olsen became Jørgensen’s lasttutor before he started on his own.

At 17, after finishing high school, Jør-gensen was offered an apprentice job withan electrician company, but on the day hewas supposed to begin the companyinformed him that there was no job for him.

Without a job and an expectedincome, Birger turned to his friends at theracetrack. At that time he wasn’t reallyinterested in harness racing, but he neededa job, and the leading trainer Harald Lundhad a place for the young man.

Lund trained as many as 70 horses, buthe never had more than five grooms totake care of the barn, so Birger and his col-leagues didn’t have to worry about how tospend their time.

“Harald had two barns. One on thetrack and one on a nearby farm,” Jør-gensen recalls. “In order to train the horsesfrom the farm, we had to lead them to thetrack.

“Normally I used my bicycle and had ahorse in each hand. We had to pass a high-way with heavy traffic, but I got reallyskilled doing that.”

Lund was the national Danish Cham-pion for a number of years in late 60s andearly 70s, but Jørgensen never drove whileserving as an apprentice for him. Whensecond-trainer Arvid Olsen (mentionedearlier) started up on his own at the sametrack in 1974, he soon built up quite a bigoperation, and Jørgensen was offered thejob as second-trainer and driver.

In 1978 Olsen was badly kicked in theface by a three-year-old, which cost him allhis teeth and a few weeks off.

“It was a bad accident for Arvid,” Jør-gensen remembers, “and I got all respon-sibility for a while.

THE EUROPEAN VIEW ~ By Klaus Koch

A REAL CHAMPIONBirger Jørgensen is the 2009 World Driving Champion who will defendhis title at the upcoming 2011 Championship being held in the U.S. later

this summer and a better representative would be hard to find.

Klaus Koch

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“The horses were in top shape andwhile the boss was away, I won morethan 30 races. On one occasion I wonfive during one single card, and that wasa lot considering that most race daysconsisted of eight or maximum nineraces.”

At the same time the racing secretaryof Denmark’s second most important track,Århus in the western part of the country,had a dilemma. The dominating trainer,Lønborg Nielsen with more than 25 con-secutive championships, had enormousinfluence on the races.

Not only did he win every third racehe drove, all new trainers starting up wereapprentices of his, so the “in breed” wassignificant. The race secretary had seen thetalent in the shy boy from Falster, and heoffered Jørgensen a barn at the track fromthe beginning of 1980.

On November 23, 1979 Jørgensentook his trainer’s degree and on New Year’sEve he went to Århus.

“I had two horses with me, one wasmy own, the other belonged to a goodfriend of mine,” Jørgensen tells. “I knewnobody in Århus, but I was keen to try.”

The beginning couldn’t have beenbetter. On January 1, the 22 year-old new-comer got the drive behind Onkel Ø, a 12year-old gelding, in the free for all raceand won.

“Being quite shy and not aggressive asa person, that was exactly what I needed,”Jørgensen continues. “After that I gothorses from local owners, and by April 1 Ihad 16 or17 horses in training.”

The operation grew to 60 horses aftera couple of years. In 1981 he conquered hisfirst driving title. The second was achievedtwo years later in 1983, and since then he

has won all titles at the track except from1990 to1991, when Lønborg Nielsen’s sonHenrik was the champion and last year2010, where Jørgensen’s former appren-tice Knud Mønster took the title.

Being such an excellent pilot, Jør-gensen had numerous drives from othertrainers. At the same time his youngerbrother, Johnny, got more and moreinvolved in the training stable, and at theend of the 1990s Jørgensen decided tohand over the barn to Johnny in order tobecome a full time catch driver. Of coursehe continued to drive all the horses for thebarn.

“But I didn’t fancy being only a catchdriver, so after a couple of years I bought asmall farm with a training track andstarted training a small stable again,” saysJørgensen.

“My brother was doing very well with

The Harness Edge • May/June 2011

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"It is of course something special to call yourself a World Champion and I look forward to participate in the championshipsin New York and New Jersey this summer. The event seems to be very well prepared, which I like, and to race at theMeadowlands, what a thrill!” says Birger Jørgensen the defending World Driving Champion of the upcoming WorldChampionships being held this summer in the U.S.

May/June 2011 • The Harness Edge

THE EUROPEAN VIEW ~ By Klaus Koch

my old barn and I did not want to change that, so I started upagain from scratch as a trainer.

“So for more than ten years I train eight to10 horses in themorning and drive in the evenings three or four times a week,which suits me perfectly.”

Early in his career as a trainer-driver he became the nationalchampion, which qualified him to represent his country in theEuropean Driving Championship and eventually the World Driv-ing Championship. He won a European title in the late 80s, but itwasn’t until 2009 that he captured the ultimate title, that of theWorld Driving Champion when the competition was held in Nor-way.

“In recent years I often refrained from participating in thedriving championships,” Jørgensen explains. “You know, nowa-days I compete against young drivers whose fathers I raced with20 to 25 years ago. Like Goop (Sweden), Langeweg (Netherlands)and Martens (Belgium).

“Earlier,” he continues, “the championships were a chancefor us drivers to get a time off, to relax and socialize.

“The championships are more a show than actually a compe-tition between the top drivers of the world. Some drivers repre-senting small harness countries like Great Britain and Russiawouldn’t even be in the top 50 in the bigger countries, so youknow what I mean.

“However, in recent years the thrill has disappeared from thechampionships. The younger drivers are taking it dead serious,and at one point in New Zealand I had to go between two young

European drivers in order to prevent a fight. I mean, you do nottravel to the other side of the world in order to beat each otherliterally!”

So Jørgensen had to be convinced by the Danish trottingauthorities in order represent his country in Norway 2009.

“I am glad I went. It is of course something special to callyourself a World Champion,” Jørgensen admits, “and I look for-ward to participate in the championships in New York and NewJersey this summer. The event seems to be very well prepared,which I like, and to race at the Meadowlands, what a thrill!”

The author of this article is of the same age as Birger Jør-gensen. Actually, Jørgensen is exactly four months younger thanme. I have known him for more than 30 years, and I can guaran-tee that Denmark sends a real champion to the USA.

I would describe Jørgensen as a driver who gets the most outof his drives to the smallest costs. Meaning, that he always findsthe shortest way to the finish line, and he always hands back ahorse well performed.

Some will find him extremely defensive, often at the rail,which is a bit dangerous in Scandinavia, where the risk to beblocked in is vast. But in some kind of way Jørgensen always suc-ceeds to serve his horses good and economical trips, and he will bethere when then money is distributed at the finish line.

With more than 7,000 career wins Birger Jørgensen is in thirdplace in the European all time list. Only German Heinz Wewering(born 1950) with almost 16,500 wins (number one in the world)and Finnish Jorma Kontio (born 1953) approaching his 9,000thwin have more.

North America will find the representative of Denmark analways happy and extremely polite man of his best age. Extremelyfit and competitive, Birger Jørgensen is ready to defend his title.

That is all for this time. Please do not hesitate to comment onmy articles. My e-mail address is ontrack@telia.com and as usual Iwould be more than happy to receive reaction from North Amer-ican harness racing fans. �

Till next time,Klaus Koch

Klaus Koch is one of Scandinavia’s leading racing adminis-trators and is perhaps best known for his former role as directorof racing at Solvalla Racetrack.

“In recent years I often refrained from participating in the driving championships. You know, nowadays I compete against young driverswhose fathers I raced with 20 to 25 years ago. Like Goop (Sweden),Langeweg (Netherlands) and Martens(Belgium)..” – Birger Jørgensen

The Harness Edge • May/June 2011

IN THE CHAMPION’S CLOSET

ART PROFESSORp, 4, 1:50s –’11 ($320,807)Art Major – Allamerican Toffee – Western Hanover

1. I’ve raced him in a blind bridle but he’s now wearing aKant See Back. He could probably race just as well in anopen bridle. He wears a Murphy Blind inside.

2. His bit is just a plain snaffle with a chin chain which I wearon all my horses to keep their mouth closed.

3. No ear plugs.

4. He wears a Martingale, just a loose one. I think when thishorse was young he could have been tough. He wore amore severe tie down before, this is all he needs now.

5. His shoes are plain aluminum with a half swedge behind. Itried steel on him but he’s too trappy gaited for them andwent back to the aluminum.

6. His harness is a Walsh.

7. His hopples are at 57 inches.

8. Like just about everyone these days, we wear littlesplint boots on him up front and rundown patchesbehind over the hind ankles. At the speed they go it’sjust for protection.

9. He usually wears an Advantage bike which suits him, orMark MacDonald’s bike. But the night he beat St ElmoHero (which may be watched by clicking on the video iconabove) Mark had to borrow a bike because his had a flattire.

10. He has a headpole on the inside as he'll run in a little onthe turns.

In The Champion’s Closet is sponsored by:

Trainer Ben Wallace’s comments:“We gave $200,000 for this horse last year at Harrisburg. We werelooking for a good quality racehorse for the winter without a lotof wear and tear and he fit the bill. We certainly didn’t expect tobe out on him within six months.

“He’s proven to be a real professional racehorse, you’d like to haveyour whole barn full of horses like him. You know each time hesteps on the racetrack he’s going to give you an honest effort.

“He’s a big handsome stud horse that can be a son of a gun whenyou’re jogging him, I usually let Straussy (Tom Strauss) jog himbecause it’s a bumpy ride, but on the track he’s a professional andin the barn you’d never know he was there.

“I’ve been told he was a gorilla on Yonker’s half-mile track so we’llsee how he does at Western Fair (in the upcoming Molson Pace).Post position at that track is the great equilizer.”

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