The star who cost 20 sheep

In 1989 Olav Christiansen, a farmer in the Norwegian village Åsenfjord, lost the right to let his sheep grace in the nearby mountains in the summer, so he decided to quit sheep farming and focus on harness racing. Trading his remaining sheep for a a yearling filly and an unborn foal, Christiansen made one of the most lucrative and one-sided deals in harness history.

Fellow sheep farmer Jon Arne Sand got Christiansen’s remaining flock of sheep in exchange for yearling filly Tomina Sandy, by Speedy Tomali and Princess Anita, and her unborn full sibling. At the time there was little to suggest his two purchases would be anything but average: Speedy Tomali had been a good trotter in the 1983-crop in the US, winning the Matron and the New Jersey Sire Stakes final at 2, but in the biggest races, like the Hambletonian, he was found lacking. Exported to Norway ahead of the 1987 breeding season, his first crop was born there in 1988. At stud, Speedy Tomali proved to be a stellar stallion – but this was of course not known in 1989.

Nervolo Belle

Similarly, Princess Anita had started only twice, at 3 in 1983, where she finished fifth and sixth, respectively. She was the only one of four siblings to even start and didn’t at all appear an elite broodmare prospect. That said, there were a few good trotters in the maternal family which descended from Yardley, imported to Norway in 1935 together with her filly foal by Mc I Win. Yardley, by Bogalusa, a paternal grandson of Axworthy, had a really interesting maternal pedigree as the penultimate daughter of the legendary Nervolo Belle. The above-mentioned filly foal by Mc I Win was also called Nervolo Belle, and the “Norwegian Nervolo Belle” was stellar in from 2 to 4. At two she dominated her crop, and the following year she was second in the somewhat comical 1938 Norwegian Criterium where the first three finishers were all (correctly) disqualified. At 4, she then won the Norwegian Derby. Despite these great origins, the Norwegian branch of this maternal family hadn’t produced any great stars. That was about to change, though.

The original Nervolo Belle

The first dam of three 2:05 trotters, her mating was the result of chance. Even though Nervolo Belle was never even trained, she went on to achieve fame as a broodmare and also produced one of harness racing’s biggest names in Peter Volo.

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Tomina Sandy 1.14,7 (2:00.1f), from Speedy Tomali’s first crop, immediately proved to be a good trotter and a good advertisement for her sire as she finished third in the 1990 Norwegian Filly Derby. That was nothing compared to her two year younger full brother, Tamin Sandy, who went on to rewrite all Norwegian records.

An insane debut season

Making his debut in January 1993 as a three-year-old, Tamin Sandy won comfortably at his home track Leangen in Trondheim. Starting his career with eight straight wins, his only loss as a three-year-old came when he finished fourth in the Nor Trav final at Jarlsberg on May 28. Exceptionally fast out of the gate and quite recognizable because of his short neck, the Speedy Tomali-son would almost always rocket to the lead, control the pace and speed away in the final stretch. He won the Bergen 3-year Festival in a Norwegian record time of 1.14,4 (1:59.4f), a record that would stand for 16 years.

Christiansen trained Tamin Sandy himself, working the horse relatively hard in intervals up the hills behind his farm. The results were on a scale not seen before in Norway. The Criterium, the biggest race for Norwegian three-year-olds, was won with ease despite the crop containing Sugar Ray, who had recently returned from the US. Sugar Ray had been taken to the US early and trotted 1:58 (1.13,3) in Lexington as a two-year-old, yet had nothing on Tamin Sandy whey they went head-to-head. The win gave the colt his 19th win of the year. and Christiansen then announced his decision to try Tamin Sandy in the European Championship for three-year-olds in Munich.

European champion

No Norwegian horse had ever been close to winning the European Championship for three-year-olds before, but Tamin Sandy changed all that and made it look easy in the process. Taking the lead and sprinting away, he notched his biggest win to date with a 5-length victory.

Realizing they had a real gem on their hands, Christiansen and Garberg knew they had an outsider for an even bigger race, the Orsi Mangelli at the San Siro track in Milan, Italy, widely regarded as the biggest and most prestigious race for three-year-olds in Europe at the time. However, an outbreak of an infectious disease at San Siro meant the track was hermetically closed to outside horses. Svein Morten Buer, later Secretary General of the Norwegian Trotting Association, helped find a spot for Tamin Sandy with a local trainer at Munich while everybody for the restrictions in Milan to be lifted. They had to wait for several weeks, and the Orsi Mangelli race was in fact delayed for 27 days.

Making it look easy

Tamin Sandy had met demanding opposition in the European Championship, but it was much infinitely tougher in Italy. Pine Chip, Toss Out, Giant Chill and Turbo Thrust came over from the US, while Zoogin and King Lavec, who had competed most of the year in the US, took the trip from Sweden. Still, Tamin Sandy was the third favorite behind Pine Chip, the overwhelming favorite, and Toss Out.

Olav Christiansen got sick and had to travel back to Norway so he assigned the training duties to Italy-based Norwegian-born trainer Knut Endre Lie, and also gave a rather simple recommendation to driver Bjørn Garberg: “Drive silly.” With post 7 Garberg probably felt it was his only choice. The experienced driver went all-in and got to the front in the first turn. Meanwhile, John Campbell and favorite Pine Chip found themselves sitting close to the end of the 13 horse field. The rest of the drivers obviously had immense respect for the Norwegian horse with 20 wins already in 1993 and allowed Garberg to control the tempo. When Campbell and the rest realized their folly down the backstretch it was too late. Tamin Sandy looked like he was just jogging when Garberg upped the speed. However, the of Speedy Tomali was extremely efficient and was much quicker than it appeared, thus making it impossible for any of the others to make up any ground. Just turning and looking back in the last turn, Garberg expected the others to challenge but in the end, Tamin Sandy took yet another easy three-length win. Giant Chill and John Patterson was second while Pine Chip finished a disappointing fifth.

Feeling safe in the TV-studio

After his marvelous season the horse became a celebrity. He was even nominated for his province’s “Name of the Year” but lost out to Mona Juul, one of the key diplomats behind the Oslo agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Tamin Sany was also invited on national TV and brought into the TV studio. The production team was of course worried the horse would relieve himself in the studio, but Christiansen assured them that there was nothing to worry about as the horse would only do that in safe and familiar surroundings. Maybe it was just Murphy’s Law that struck – or maybe the horse did indeed feel extremely safe – but sure enough; Tamin Sandy left a big yellow puddle there in the studio.

At 4, Tamin Sandy followed up by winning 13 of 23 races and in the Momarken Grand Prix he was the only horse that could keep up with Copiad, the fresh Elitlopp winner, in the final. Tamin Sandy made an honorable effort, but against the one year older rival, already established as one of the best aged trotters in the world, he had to settle for second. Tamin Sandy’s 1.11,9 (1:55.4f) time was the fastest time of a European four-year-old. At the time such a fast race by a Norwegian born four-year-old seemed almost unreal, and 30 years later it is still the fastest time ever trotted by a four-year-old trotter at the southeastern Norwegian track. Tamin Sandy had a relatively decent season at 5 but a rhinovirus infection set him back and seriously affected – and shorten – his future career. In fact, Tamin Sandy only lasted another year on the track. Later, owner Olav Christiansen appeared to be second-guessing his decision to start in 22, 23 and 25 races at 3, 4 and 5, respectively: “We should have been more careful and not said yes to everyone who invited us [to start at their track],” Christiansen said in an interview with TV-channel NRK in 2011.

Tamin Sandy won 10 races in 39 starts at 5 and 6, and though he finished third behind Copiad and Ina Scot in the Olympiatravet at 5, it was obvious that some of the magic was gone. After 6 winless performances in 1996 against relatively easy opposition they decided to retire him to stud duties. He was a below average stallion, but his fantastic season at 3 – highlighted by the defeat of Pine Chip – earned him a spot in the Scandinavian Trotting Hall of Fame.

The legendary trotter has a race named for him at Varig Orkla Arena outside of Trondheim. In 2021, it was won by Creek’s Nu Love. As the filly was bred, partially owned and trained by Christiansen’s son Haakon-Magnus, and as she is out of a daughter of Tamin Sandy, the victory was very emotional for the family.

Tamin Sandy died in 2014, and is buried at the farm where he grew up.