Saaga S died of a rare disease

The success of Saaga S revolutionized Ilkka Pyysalo’s life. Ville Toivonen

On Wednesday, June 29, an exceptional piece of Finnish trotting history came to an end. One of the best Finnish mares of all time, the three-time trotting queen Saaga S had to be euthanized due to an autoimmune disease.

Saaga S was 16 years old, so not old at all for a Finnish horse. Saaga S ended its racing career three years ago, after which it had one foal, a now two-year-old mare named Silvia S.

The background forces behind Saaga S were the people of Taipalsaari Whereby and Ilkka Pyysalo. They acquired Saaga S when the mare was a foal. The acquisition took place on the basis of a photograph.

Ilkka Pyysalo was responsible for the training, who learned to be a thoroughbred horseman alongside Saaga S. He got his Saaga a trotting license and drove it in the first races of both the horse’s and the handler’s careers. He soon became the standard driver of Saaga S Matti Nisonenwho rode the vast majority of the mare’s starts, including queen titles.

– I have wondered many times how a person could be so lucky. Saaga was our first own racehorse, and I don’t think anyone has been so lucky, Ilkka Pyysalo describes.

Money doesn’t matter in memories

Saaga S won by far the most prestigious competition among Finnish mares, the queen’s competition in 2015-2017. From 145 starts in her career, Saaga S earned a total of 452,410 euros, and she is the second highest-earning Finnish mare of all time, right after IP Vipotiina.

The fourth queen title was very close. In 2014, in the Queen’s race in Pori, Saaga S galloped on the second leg just before the finish line and was disqualified. Without the gallop in the very last meters, it would have already won the queen competition in Pori, which is decided based on the combined time of the three distances.

When asked about the best memory of Saaga’s career, Ilkka Pyysalo laughs.

– It seems a bit silly to say, but the first victory is as great a memory as the victories at the Queen’s Fair. I was so incompetent that I entered the horse in the second start of its career for an 80-meter back distance, and it still won, Pyysalo marvels.

– Of course we should say the Joensuu queen competition, where Saaga won all the legs alongside the leader. It’s an incredibly great memory, but so is the first win for which 500 euros were paid.

As a movie star

The exceptionality of Saaga S as a trotting horse is indicated by the fact that it has even been made its own movie. In 2018, the documentary film Saaga S – a tale of a Finnish horse was released, which was also distributed in theaters on a small scale. Kai Kuntola directed by 73-minute film gathered more than 5,000 viewers in theaters.

Illness came as a surprise after a career

According to Ilkka Pyysalo, Saaga S’s illness appeared after the end of her racing career, when the mare carried her first and only remaining foal at the end of 2019.

– It started to have all kinds of skin symptoms and finally the tests revealed that it has an autoimmune disease. With medication, it was able to settle down quite well and last summer Saaga was in good shape. They tried to get it to bear last year, but nature decided that it wasn’t healthy enough to conceive.

The decision to kill the mare was made during the early summer.

– The medication no longer worked, and the condition didn’t improve at all. We tried what we could, but decisions must be made on the horse’s terms. This was the right solution with Saaga in mind, Pyysalo states.

– That’s the craziness here, when it was so damn healthy throughout its racing career. The idea was that it would have long, good and healthy retirement days, and then this happened.

Saaga S was buried in the courtyard of Pyysaloi.

– Saaga is next to an old stone fence, and a small commemorative stone will be placed on it. Or not any small stone, but a proper memorial stone, Ilkka Pyysalo corrects himself.

Saaga S must have really deserved that.