Daniel Wäjersten one of Sweden's rare double Thousand Club members

Daniel Wäjersten has spent the best part of two decades building a reputation as one of Sweden’s most versatile horsemen, and this year he’s joined an exclusive club, twice over.

The Bergsåker-based driver and trainer reached 1,000 career wins in the sulky on 19 September 2025, guiding Onana Boko to victory at his home track. It capped a run that began 17 years earlier, on 16 May 2008, when Seven of Nine gave him his first winner at Östersund.

The trail between those two results tells its own story of steady, unglamorous progress. His 100th win came aboard Jeppas Picasso at Bergsåker in February 2016, nearly eight years into his career. From there the milestones started arriving faster: 200 wins by November 2018 with Superdry Pellini at Umeå, 300 in July 2020 courtesy of Barley Sugar at Dannerö, and 400 the following year when Dancing Days scored at Bergsåker.

The back half of the journey to four figures came in real bursts. King Cole took him to 500 at Östersund in June 2022, and within eight months Load Master had him at 600 at the same track. Star Muscle delivered 700 at Boden in October 2023, Bottnas Jake made it 800 at Hagmyren the following July, and Mellby Jinx brought up 900 at Solvalla in March last year. Six months later, Onana Boko closed the loop.

What sets Wäjersten apart from most drivers who reach the milestone is that he hasn’t stopped there. This spring he also passed 1,000 wins as a trainer, putting him among a small group of Swedish horsepeople who’ve reached four figures in both roles. It’s the kind of dual achievement that takes not just longevity but genuine skill on both sides of the operation, and it’s not a common combination even among the sport’s best-known names.

The Thousand Club itself, or Tusenklubben, has a long history in Swedish trotting. It’s recognised drivers and trainers reaching 1,000 career wins since 1956, when Gösta Nordin became its first member.

A celebration match, a tusenklubbsmatch, is confirmed for Tuesday, August 11 at Bergsåker, run as race four on the card (V4), with a 12:20 start. Team lineups are yet to be finalised. Speaking to Travronden in June, Wäjersten kept his cards close.

“The only thing that’s clear right now is my own team,” Wäjersten told Travronden.

It’s a fitting line from a trainer who’s built his career on getting the basics right rather than chasing headlines. That approach was on full display at the most recent Hästgalan, Swedish trotting’s answer to an awards night, where Wäjersten swept the board. He took out Trainer of the Year with 91 per cent of the vote, a landslide by any measure, while Bolets Victory earned him both Horse of the Year and Older Horse of the Year. Bullet the BlueSky rounded out the night as 3-Year-Old of the Year.

Those results aren’t isolated either. Wäjersten has picked up multiple driving and training championships at Bergsåker, Dannerö, Solänget and Östersund over the years, and he’s ventured further afield too, with nine wins recorded abroad in Germany, Norway, Finland and France. In 2019 he was awarded the Joakim Sandkvist Scholarship, recognition that sits alongside the win tallies as evidence of a career built on substance rather than a single big result.

Bergsåker’s own track body, Norrlands Travsällskap, confirmed in a news post on 2 March 2026 that Wäjersten is relocating his stable to Bjertorp, near Skara. The August match at his long-time home track now doubles as a send-off ahead of the move.

For readers outside Sweden, the scale of what Wäjersten has done is worth putting in context. Reaching 1,000 wins as a driver alone places him in rarefied company in Swedish trotting. Doing it as a trainer as well, inside the same career, is the kind of achievement that tends to get remembered long after the results pages have been forgotten.

The Bergsåker match will give Swedish trotting fans a proper chance to mark both milestones together, and a farewell to the track where Wäjersten built his career. Until then, his focus looks exactly like it has for the past 17 years: build the team, do the work, and let the numbers take care of themselves.

by Harnesslink Media