| Mark Larsen |
The Career
|
||||||||
      |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
 Mark wins a ponies race with Bastian.  Explosive Red - the best horse Mark rode in Canada.  Kill The Crab wins Berlin-Brandenburg Trophy (Gr.2) before Royal Abjar.  Vetrotex wins the Danish Derby 2000.  Dano-Mast in the paddock before winning at Saint-Cloud.  Hovman wins the Listed SFK Jubilee at Jägersro.  Lights Out wins the Danish St. Leger at Klampenborg. |
Mark Larsen started riding the ponies as a 7-year-old at Copenhagen Racecourse. He won several races aboard his horse Bastian.
In the summer holidays Mark travelled to Germany to ride out for trainer Trond Hansen in Neuss. Aged 17 he rode his first amateur race, which was won on top of the filly Lady Evita, who was trained by Marks mother Lone. Mark stayed home for the rest of the season. He rode a total of five races, which resulted in three wins and one second. This was a great start for the young rider. The following year Mark couldn't ride anymore amateur races. He had plans of going to New York as an apprentice, and if he reached five wins before going abroad he would have to start his professional career without allowance. At the same time he couln't get a green card before his 18th birthday, which meant no racing at all for the first half of the year. Within the same year Marks parents Lone and Ole went to France to start up as trainer and jockey, and Mark went along to help, but shortly after the arrival he just missed riding races so much that he returned to Scandinavia and became an apprentice for Michael Kahn in Stockholm. Though Mark wasn't offered that many rides in Stockholm, and he then chose to go back to Denmark where he had a kick off start the year before. Even though he did not start riding in Denmark before the end of June, he reached the fantastic amount of 24 wins in 105 starts - that is a winning pecentage around 25! Most of the wins came at the home ground at Klampenborg. Mark was awarded Champion Apprentice in Copenhagen 1990, which resulted in the racecourse payed a plane ticket to Miami, where Mark could develop his talent at Gulfstream Park, Florida. He was back in the beginning of the Danish racing season 1991 and rode for a couple of months before he was set to travel abroad again - this time to continue his career as an apprentice at Woodbine, Canada. Mark rode 46 winners from the end of July to the end of November and was awarded Champion Apprentice at Greenwood, and an overall second behind Mickey Walls, who had beaten the world record as the most winning apprentice ever. In the winter og 91/92 Mark went home to Denmark for the holidays, and in March he went to Baden-Baden, Germany, to visit his his father and close friend Lennart Hammer. Mark took a few mounts to keep in shape, which resulted in seven wins. Thereafter he went to California to work for Charlie Wittingham, but Mark never managed to settle down here, and after three months he was back in Canada where he finished the season with 35 winners in five months against the toughest competition in America. The following year Mark spent the entire season in Canada, where he primarily mounted horses at Woodbine, Greenwood and Fort Erie. A horse that Mark specially recalls was the 2-y-o Explosive Red, with whom he won the Canadian Criterium, Cup And Saucer Stakes, with 180.000 Canadian Dollars for the winner. The next season looked like the previous. Mark won several Grade Stakes races, including Niaga Handicap, which is the greatest Stakes handicap in Canada. The race was won aboard Shiny Key, a horse Mark partnered to win four further stakes races. Shiny Key should have started in The Breeders' Cup, but just four days before the race the horse got injured. The same year Mark went to Kentucky two times with the wonderful Explosive Red, and both starts resulted in Stakes wins, including The All American Derby. The following winter Mark went to Australia, where he won a total of 32 races. He was back in Canada in April 1994 but got thrown off a horse and injured his knee. When he got back in the saddle he took four wins before a guest appearance on the Danish Derby Day, where he won The Derby Consolation with Mr Beautifull and landed a second in the Derby aboard Zerenad. Mark brought his little brother Michael back to Canada, but shortly after Michael told Mark that he should go back to Scandinavia because of continuing weight problems. Michael went back to Denmark - and Mark came along. The 95 season started in Scandinavia, but Mark travelled a lot and won great races in Germany, as well as classics in both Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The greatest win of the 95 season came when he partnered Kill The Crab in the Berlin Brandenburg-Trophy (Gr.2) at Hoppegarten - Kill The Crab beat the heavy favorite Royal Abjar in a new course record of 1,33. The winter was spent as first jockey by one of Englands all time greatest trainers, Clive Brittain, but a super contract in Germany made Mark leave England again. The contract in Germany only lasted a couple of months, and again Mark was back to his roots at the Scandinavian racing scene. Since 1996 Mark has been an established jockey in Scandinavia, where he was awarded Champion Jockey 1998 at Jägersro, and Champion Jockey at both Klampenborg and Jägersro in 1999. In the winter of 1999/2000 Mark went to Macau outside Hong Kong, where he immediately became succesful riding 10 winners during his stay. The emotional highlight of Marks career came in June 2000, where Mark rode the 3-y-o colt Vetrotex to win the Danish Derby at Klampenborg. Vetrotex was trained by Flemming Poulsen, with whom Mark enjoyed two seasons of great partnership. In 2001 Flemming Poulsen and Mark Larsen continued the marvellous results by winning the Group 2 Prix Jean du Chaudenay at Saint-Cloud, Paris with the Danish globetrotter Dano-Mast. This was Marks best result in 2001. The winter of 2001/02 was spent in Florida riding out for different trainers, but Mark never rode any races because of weight problems. The weight problems continued in the 2002 season which never really got going for Mark, and the best result was winning the Listed Race Swedish Open Mile aboard Bellamont Forest, who is trained by Marks father Ole. After the disappointing season of 2002, many had written Mark Larsen off as a top jockey in Scandinavia. The continuing weight problems looked like being the waterloo of a great career, but as so many times before Mark fought back and went to Macau for the winter - this resulted in a fantastic period with 16 wins and more importantly the jockey got back his self confidence. Now he just had to prove it to the Scandinavian trainers and horse owners in 2003. Mark briefly went home from Macau in the beginning of May 2003, winning on the first two horses he mounted on Jägersro. He returned to Macau to complete his contract, and then travelled back to Scandinavia to partner the filly Lake St Clair in The Swedish 1000 Guineas. Even though the pair were a long shot, they won the race and the first classic winner of the season was a reality. Later in the season trainer Lennart Reuterskiöld ended a five year gentleman agreement with Mark, and instead the jockey teamed up with Norwegian trainer Cathrine Erichsen, which proved to be a very wise decision as Mark partnered Cathrine Erichsens chestnut colt Lights Out to win the Norwegian Derby, as well as both the Norwegian and Danish St. Leger. The new Scandinavian duo also took the Listed Event SFK Jubilee with Lights Outs one year older brother Hovman. After a succesful, but stressed, season in Scandinavia Mark went back to Macau in November 2003 where he rode a single winner before shortly after returning to Denmark. The jockey will now recharge his batteries and be ready for another hopefully great season in 2004. |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
