Wallin reflects on Rising Star Award

Trenton, NJ — Lucas Wallin will receive the 2022 Rising Star Award at next month’s Dan Patch Awards banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment. And while he is grateful to the U.S. Harness Writers Association for the recognition, to hear him talk one would think the name should be changed to Rising Stars.

“I put it as a very high honor,” said the 30-year-old native of Sweden, who will be honored Feb. 19 with other Dan Patch Award winners at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. “Other people think we’re doing a good job and it feels very good. I hope everyone in the barn feels the same. I don’t see that it’s just me. It’s more that it’s my whole team. I’m the ’Rising Star,’ but without them it would never be possible.”

He admitted to being taken aback by the accolade.

“Of course, I had a very good year but it’s not like I was walking around thinking about (winning an award),” Lucas said. “It was a little surprise, that’s for sure.”

It’s also for sure that Lucas deserved the award after enjoying a banner year.

Wallin hit career highs in training wins with 34 and earnings with $1,696,978. His 3-year-old trotter, Rebuff, earned $518,395 and won five of nine starts, including the Kentucky Futurity and a division of the Stanley Dancer Memorial. He also gave Wallin his first Hambletonian finalist as a trainer.

In addition, Pour Mea Double and Manon won the male and female divisions, respectively, of the $253,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships for 3-year-old trotters.

“One thing I look at and I like to see is the high earnings per start,” Wallin said. “When the horses come out to the racetrack, I want them to be ready to perform. I’m very happy with the numbers. We got a lot of great wins.”

He added, however, while speaking of the Hambo that “of course the big day and big race we didn’t have our day. But it’s not bad or anything. It was a tough day, that’s for sure. But now we just have to aim for it again. Overall, it was a very good year.”

Rebuff, who is now standing at stud in Indiana at Victory Hill Farm, entered the Hambo as the favorite and held the lead coming down the backstretch before fading to sixth. Wallin said it was “very hard” to describe his emotions afterward.

“He was a huge favorite but it’s not like I was saying ‘We’re gonna win this,’” the trainer said. “I know it’s very tough to win any race, especially the Hambo. I was so happy with him before the race, I thought he would perform very well.

“I wasn’t shocked that he didn’t win, but I was very shocked at the way he raced. It’s very unfortunate it happened in that race. There are other horses waiting in the barn ready to work toward this year. But it wasn’t the best week afterwards.”

In looking at the bright side, Wallin felt the overall experience was a good learning tool.

“Rebuff taught me a lot when he was two and three,” he said. “After training him I’m gonna be a lot better trainer thanks to the big races we were in. That was an important experience to be in the Hambo and everything around it.”

Despite Rebuff’s disappointing Hambletonian finish, Wallin had nothing but good things to say about the horse, who was a 2-year-old Breeders Crown champion.

“I’m very thankful for him, he gave me a lot of things,” Lucas said. “After the Breeders Crown (we knew) we had the horse we wanted to have. The Stanley Dancer, to be honest, was the second (biggest) race I wanted to win last year. Of course, Hambo is number one. That’s one of my favorite nights of racing along with the Meadowlands Pace. It was a dream, that’s for sure.

“He had a couple of OK starts in Kentucky after the Hambo. To be able to win the Futurity with him was nice for the whole team; especially for the horse showing he was back again.”

He was also thankful for Pour Mea Double and Manon, proclaiming their Sire Stakes wins were “also a thrill with two very nice horses. They got me in some very big races as well.”

Pour Mea Double will race in Sweden this year while Manon is now a broodmare.

Wallin felt if there was one downside to the year, it was a lack of success with his 2-year-olds, prompting the trainer to say, ‘we haven’t done good enough with the 2-year-olds as trainers; hopefully we can do that this year.”

Wallin has 27 2-year-olds in his stable this year along with seven 3-year-olds, so the desire to improve his work with the freshmen stands to reason. Coming off such a successful year, he is raring to go in 2023.

“For sure,” he said. “When you win these big races, you want to go out and do it again. I like the little break we have here in November, December, January, February. You’re just at the farm training them. I’m really looking forward to the season. I have never had as good a quality on paper as we have right now. I’ve never had these kinds of numbers either. We’re ready to roll.”

He will roll into a season as a father for the first time. Wallin’s wife, Mikaela, gave birth to their son Mason in November. It was the perfect capper to 2022 for both mom and dad, as Mikaela served as caretaker for Joviality S, the Dan Patch Award winner for best 3-year-old female trotter.

Mikaela is the sister of trainer Marcus Melander, who she works for. She and Lucas knew of each other while driving small ponies in Sweden, but Wallin noted “we never really talked.” Things got serious when Lucas began working for Swede Ake Svanstedt and found Mikaela there. It didn’t take long for romance to blossom.

“She’s probably the best wife you could ask for and best mother also,” Wallin said. “She cares about everyone else. She’s just very nice to be around. She understands me and I understand her. We talk about the business and horses; she gives me a lot of ideas. She’s a very good caretaker too. She doesn’t work in my barn, but she comes to me with a lot of ideas. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”

And while it is nice that she provides her husband with love, caring and ideas, her greatest gift to him came on Thanksgiving morning as the birth of Mason was a life-changing event.

“She gave me the best thing you could ask for,” he said. “It’s tough to describe it. It’s such a feeling to be a dad. You feel that it’s very important to win races and everything, but the most important thing is him right now. You have him forever. You’re gonna have a new look at what’s happening.”

Like so many new dads who work in professions where results mean everything, Wallin has noticed that Mason’s arrival makes it a little easier to deal with a rough night at the track.

“For sure,” he said. “I’m getting better and better every year. But I was a very bad loser in the beginning. I probably always was gonna be. But now you can drop those things after a couple of minutes. You don’t have to think them over for a couple of days. When you come home and meet him there you know there’s more important things in life.”

That being said, Lucas is hoping for another big campaign in 2023. Whether that can happen with his large crop of 2-year-olds remains to be seen, but the potential is surely there.

“You will never talk to a trainer who will say they’re not happy with their 2-year-olds; everyone is excited and happy with them,” Wallin said. “It’s a little too early to say much about them. I don’t want to say any names yet. There’s so much that can happen, but we’ve never had this kind of quality. It’s up to us to deliver.”

by Rich Fisher, for the USTA