Vesa-Matti Loir’s success in sports was not limited to his own achievements. Loiri was also the owner of successful trotting horses, whose horses achieved success both in Finland and abroad.
- Vesa-Matti Loir’s enthusiasm for trotting ignited when he entered the 1980s.
- In 2015, his and Christer Bergholm’s company, Ramppivalo Oy, was awarded the horse speaker of the year.
- Loir’s greatest moment of success was winning the Derby, but the best horse of his career was Meadowbranch Fred.
Dead on Wednesday Vesa-Matti Loiri was multi-talented, who had time to do many things during his life. One of Loir’s favorite hobbies was trotting, in which, like so many other areas of life, he achieved great success.
Loiri talked about his trotting hobby in an extensive interview published in December 2012. A friend of Loir’s, well-known as a musician and entrepreneur, was recalling the shared sky in an interview with Loir Christer “Kicke” Bergholm, who, according to Loir, was also the original inspiration for his trotting hobby. Bergholm, on the other hand, was introduced to raves by an actor Pertti Melasniemi.
Vesa-Matti Loiri recalled that his hobby of horse racing started in the 1980s, when he started regularly going to raves in Vermo. Pretty soon, Loir and Bergholm’s trotting hobby expanded from watching trots and playing Toto to also owning horses.
Loiri and Kicke Bergholm got their first horse in 1981. The friends’ first horse, Re Count, was a very good purchase, as the mare was very successful in her short trotting career. However, Re Count’s fate was an injury during the loading situation.
Voimaori was successful in Europe
Vesa-Matti Loiri also owned trotting horses. LENA ÜLYMUTKA
Loir and Bergholm’s horse hobby did not stop when they lost their first horse, but the two got new horses. They hit a real goldmine in the 1990s, when the duo Ramppivalo Oy acquired the Meadowbranch Fred crab, born in the USA.
In the early 1990s, Meadowbranch Fred was one of the best crabs in Finland. It ran 106 starts in its career, of which it won 28, and earned just under 1.6 million marks in its career, which is 268,446 euros directly converted into today’s money.
Relatively speaking, Meadowbranch Fred’s earnings were significantly higher than the amount of winnings converted into euros, after all, trotting prizes were also low in the lowlands of the 1990s.
In addition to Finland, Meadowbranch Fred was successful in Central Europe, where it ran most of its prize money. With the stallion trainer Pekka Korvella was at that time a stable unit in Belgium as well, and Meadowbranch Fred was one of the stable’s hardest hitters.
The years 1993 and 1994 were the best of Meadowbranch Fred’s career, and he earned a total of more than 1.1 million marks over the two seasons. In 1993, Meadowbranch Fred was Finland’s seventh and in 1994 the fourth highest-earning crab.
– Fredi was a really good horse at that time. It was big and a risk, and it ended up going well. That’s why it suited Central Europe well, and it won good starts in both Belgium and France, Pekka Korpi recalls to Iltalehti.
At the time of Meadowbranch Fred, Loir and Bergholm had several horses, and credit trainer Pekka Korpi remembers that time as the most active phase of Loir’s horse ownership career.
– Both went to see Fred at least a few times in Belgium, Korpi remembers.
Loir and Bergholm’s most active trotting hobby folded when the 21st century came. According to an interview with Equestrian Sports, the duo drifted into a cycle of passivation in the hobby when, after remote tracking of trots became possible, going to raves decreased, with which the knowledge of the horses worsened and, as a result, the game’s success also worsened, which in turn further reduced enthusiasm.
The story continues after the picture.
Jackpot with Fabrice Duo
Vesku also had success in trotting sports. In the picture on the left is the late son Joonas Loiri. Leena Ylimutka
Later, horse ownership continued on a smaller scale and sometimes stopped completely, until in 2012 Ramppivalo Oy acquired half of a horse named Double Duo from Pekka Korve’s company. It was a reasonable crab, but there was even better to come.
After Double Duo, the same owners had together Fabrice Duo, who ran the biggest win of Vesa-Matti Loir and Kicke Bergholm’s horse ownership career. In 2015, Fabrice Duo won the Great Finnish Derby, whose first prize was 100,000 euros.
The Derby is Finland’s largest and most prestigious breeding competitions, whose winners are great heroes. As the winner of the classic race, Fabrice Duo was essentially a one-hit wonder, as the gelding was a 25-fold surprise in the race, and it did not come close to similar achievements before or after the derby victory.
In any case, Fabrice Duo is in the annals of trotting sports as the winner of the giant race and, through Vesa-Matti Loiri Ramppivalo Oy, equally in the pages of trotting history.
Warmbloods trained by Pekka Korve were not the only successful horses of Loir and Bergholm. Over the years, they also co-owned good Finnish horses, Valmeri, who was very successful in the 1990s, and later Toivon Lohtu, who was very successful in 2007–2008.
Excitement and reasonable spending of money
Vesa-Matti Loiri got excited about trotting when the sport was on the rise and very fashionable. However, his enthusiasm for trotting remained better than many others who were enthusiastic about it during the rise of trotting.
– Money has been spent on horses, but not unreasonably. I am grateful that we have had such a hobby. It has enriched life, Loiri described in an interview with Hevoseruhlu in 2012.
At that time, the biggest star moment of his ownership career was yet to come.
In the same interview, Loiri also said that he excites raves immensely.
– I get so excited about gigs that I throw up before going on stage. But when my own horse starts, I can’t compare that feeling to anything. Maybe if your own child were on the concert stage, it might be exciting in the same way.
Loiri praised that going to raves is a good hobby even for a high-level celebrity.
– As a public figure, I have no problem at raves, no one is interested in some TV clown. I get to be myself with my wrongly guessed notes. No one comes to say that Turhapuro hello, Loiri hello. If someone comes to speak, correctly, kindly and relevantly – and that’s perfectly fine.
The key figures in Loir and Bergholm’s trotting hobby was Pekka Korpi, who was coached by both Meadowbranch Fred and Fabrice Duo.
Loiri and Korvi, who is four years younger than him, crossed paths already in the early 1960s, when Loiri was filming Boys-film in Korvi’s hometown, Oulu.
– We went with the boys quite often to watch the action when the movie was filmed in Oulu. It’s a wonderful thing that we became friends through horse work, says Pekka Korpi.
– Vesku was a really nice guy. Colorful, but really nice, at least what I was dealing with.
Pekka Korpi (right) trained Loir’s horses. Leena Ylimutka