This appearance at Pompano is a highlight of the first vacation that Ove, 64, has taken in his career. He operates a 35 horse stable with his son from a home base at Bergen, Norway. Every Tuesday he makes an eight hour round trip to compete at Stavenger, Norway, but as he done for the past five decades, he always reports to his own barn by 8 a.m. the next morning. He also travels to Sweden each year to compete in the 'elite' week highlighted by the world famous Elitlopp.
"I finally decided I had to find out for myself what harness is like outside of North America, and I'm bringing a couple of my stable's assistants with me on this trip" Wassberg says. "We targeted Pompano as the first track we'd like to visit and I'm really happy to be picking up a drive there on Wednesday evening, it will be a real lifetime memory for me that's for sure. Plus, making it to age 64 for the first vacation of my life...I think I was little bit overdue for this!" he added with a laugh.
On the Wednesday evening program, Wassberg is slated to drive Four Starz Conway from post 9 in the 2nd race, a conditioned trotting contest for a $6,100 purse.
Ove Wassberg is also highly respected for always taking time with children and the disabled that visit his stable. He is also well known in other European and Scandinavian countries where harness racing is popular for his shrewd business of buying and selling horses in addition to the 29 training and driving titles he's amassed in his career.
Ove Wassberg
Home base: Bergen, Norway Age: 64
Starts: 23,505 Wins: 3,110 Seconds: 2784 Thirds: 1894
(statistics provided by Ove Wassberg)
