On Thursday night, Tapio Perttus became the fourth Finnish driver who has driven 6,000 wins in his career.
Tapio Perttunen achieved a great goal. Ville Toivonen
Tapio Perttunen66, directed his 6,000th career complete game in a rare fitting place and on a fitting horse.
The celebratory victory came at Lahti’s Jokimaa, which has been his home track for 40 years, and the driver was Tapio’s daughter Suvi Perttunen owned by Zelos.
The fact that Tapio Perttunen has driven the first victories of his career on Ponnettare, the mother of Zelos’ father, three-time trotting king Sara Salama, brought his own additional color to the festive victory. The stories of the Perttunen family and the horse family descended from Ponnettare have traveled the same path for 50 years.
Tapio Perttunen is the fourth Finnish trainer to reach the 6,000 win mark. He still has more than 11,000 victories in the number of victories, already having an impact in Sweden for twenty years Jorma Kontiowith 8,381 wins Antti Teivainen and 7,626 won Ari Moilanen.
Perttunen is an exception in the 6,000-win club, as he is the only one of the four who has also worked as a coach throughout his career. All three trainers ahead of him in the number of wins have long focused on the career of a loan trainer, and have not kept a training stable for decades.
Perttunen, who comes from Pelkosenniemi, has lived in Orimattila since the early 1980s, where he still runs one of Finland’s largest training stables. There are currently 59 horses on Perttunen’s training list.
Perttunen’s career is not only long and successful, but also exceptionally versatile. While trotting trainers are often successful only with warmbloods or Finnish horses, Perttunen has achieved great success with all kinds of horses, regardless of their breed, age or gender.