The barefoot comeback king
by Lisa Harkema
When Åke Svanstedt recorded a fantastic win in the 2004 Elitlopp, he did it with a horse that two years earlier had been retired. But after 18 months away from the track, Gidde Palema returned in style and when the excellent trotter could race barefoot he was an almost impossible proposition for his competitors.
Born in the same crop as Victory Tilly, Gidde Palema was the better of the two at 3 and one of the best in his crop. Still, he failed to win any of the biggest races that year in Sweden, finishing second in the Breeders Crown (behind Igor Brick, himself a star with earnings over $1 mill ) and E3 Korta (behind Viking Kronos who despite being Italian-born was eligible), and third in the Kriterium (behind Lucky Po and Vikings Gustav). The next year Gidde Palema was still among the best in his crop, but continued his winless streak in the major races, finishing second in the Derby and Fyraåringseliten, the race for 4-year-olds at the Elitlopp day, both won by Victory Tilly.
At the end of that year, owner-breeder Karl-Erik Bender moved Gidde Palema to Björn and Olle Goop. At 5, the colt was already one of the better aged trotters, but a big win still eluded him. Two wins in smaller, relatively speaking, races were supplemented by a second place in Copenhagen Cup and third place finishes in Hugo Åberg and Jubileumspokalen. Still, with a personal best of 1.11 (1:54f) and well over 2 million SEK (around $250,000), in earnings he was obviously a class trotter. But just two starts into his 6-year-old season, in March 2001, Gidde Palema was injured. A joint injury caused him to struggle to stay on gait and an operation was deemed necessary. Also, according to Svanstedt, Gidde lost interest in competing. Even though the intention was to return to racing after the operation, nobody really seemed to believe in it and Gidde Palema became a full-time stallion.