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MELLBY GÅRD TRAVVERKSAMHET
Ambition to focus
more on quality than
on quantity
Mellby Gård has been running a significant trotting business since Rune
Andersson acquired the farm in 1986. They continue to breed horses
extensively in-house, while the trotting horses have been successfully
trained outside the farm since 2014.
Rune Andersson owned trotting horses back when the family Today there are about 20 broodmares on the farm, and when the
lived in Luleå in the 1970s and so he has been involved in foals are about one year old, they’re sent to professional trainers. The
trotting for about 50 years. stables on the farm are currently used for breeding, convalescence
“I’ve always thought that trotting was a great sport,” he says. “I and rehabilitation. Injuries always occur, and in such cases the horses
follow it closely and something unexpected always happens. It’s not have to stay away from training and competition, usually for quite a
always the best horse that wins. The favorite can get trapped, and it long time.
can easily turn into a gallop. It’s exciting!”
BIG STARS IN THE STABLE
“Since we bought Mellby Gård, our trotting business has gradually Rune Andersson says that trotting business in Sweden rarely makes
expanded,” says Rune Andersson. “More or less immediately we built a profit. Mellby Gård has a number of horses in the US and there, the
our own racetrack on the farm so we could train our horses ourselves. potential for financial gain is much greater, as the prize money is
We did this for many years, but had to stop when the number of wild higher.
animals increased. When deer and wild boar suddenly appeared
alongside the track, the colts and fillies got very stressed. Training “I did a calculation for the Swedish trotting industry a few years
became difficult and dangerous, and so in 2014 we wound down that ago and came to the conclusion that the cost was about three billion
business.” Swedish kronor, with one billion being prize money,” says Rune
Andersson. “This means that two-thirds of the turnover was losses.”
FOCUS ON QUALITY
Jan-Olov Alfredsson is responsible for the trotting business and is “We’re happy if we can produce one star every five years, which
Mellby Gård’s trotting trainer. This is how he describes the current is what we’ve managed to do,” he says.“One of the biggest is
operations and plans for the future. Mellby Free, who won most of her races as a mare, including the
Stochampionatet trotting race a few years ago. She made over ten
“We currently have about 90 horses, and our ambition is to focus million Swedish kronor in a few years, so she was a real superstar.
even more on quality rather than quantity,” he says. “Our business Now she’s used for breeding here on the farm. Another former star
is a bit different from others. We breed the horses, but we don’t sell was Mellby Viking, who won 19 races out of 39 starts, earned 3.5
them at auction – instead, we send them away to other people for million Swedish kronor and set a world record
training and use them extensively for our own purposes.” over 3,160 meters in 2014.”
“If the horses don’t meet our criteria, we tend to lease them out Jan-Olov Alfredsson,
to people who can’t afford to buy their own horse,” says Jan-Olov Trotting Manager
Alfredsson. “The most important thing for us is to find a good home
for the horses. We’re concerned first and foremost with the animals
and their welfare.”
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