Photo Quiz

I didn’t even know I’ve been that young… but it was a day I’ll never forget.


My inbox is full of e-mails reporting that "Tony Ryttar" is the correct answer of the racing magazine Travronden’s weekly photo quiz. Someone obviously found a photo which was the cover of Paris Turf back in December 1993...

Horses are a big passion of my life, and I’ve had the privilege to travel the world in the name of them and telling stories about them from every continent but Africa. This particular one on the photo has a very special place in my heart.

I was her lad for years and she followed me like a dog without any leach. We traveled together between the big racetracks througout Europe, and this photo was taken in Paris during a very successful winter tour. She had just reached the ultimate elite and had a great feature coming. We thought.

She was a fighter and fought so hard in the races that her heart broke. Two races later, in what was to become her last, it almost stopped and she never even reached the wire. She was carrying a hidden infection but gave it all and too much.

After the race she could not breathe and her heroic heart almost beat its way out of her strong body. She stumbled slowly of the track on her knees, and I had to rip the bridle of her head to help her breathe.

That day was the saddest in my life of horses and I still think of this heroine with a sting of pain in my heart.

But the day that photo of the quiz was shot she won easily and made all the elite and a future winner of the Prix d’Amerique to look like mediocre mules.


I was so happy and damn proud over this fantastic horse.

Her name was "Iata Käll".

// T.