When it comes to selecting a Standardbred yearling, few people have it down to a science with the proven track record of success of Perry Soderberg. The 57-year-old native of Sweden spends months each year going from farm to farm inspecting into the thousands of potential future stars to provide his clients with the most precise information available. The go-to guy for Hall of Fame trainer Jimmy Takter and other clients like owner/breeders Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld when it comes to yearling selection, Soderberg’s fingerprints are on countless champions. Soderberg has played a role in recent Hambletonian winners Pinkman and Trixton, Oaks winners Wild Honey and Ariana G, and two-time Pacer of the Year Captaintreacherous all in the last decade. Just a couple of weeks out from one of the most important events of the year for Soderberg, the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, he took the time to go over his regimen with me in a recent phone interview. DG: When does the process begin for you each year? PS: I go to Lexington in June and do some work regarding yearlings but the real search starts in mid August. I don’t wait for a catalog or anything. Normally farms have all of the yearlings listed on their websites so I just go from one farm to another. DG: Do you spend any time studying the catalog or are you so well versed that you just know the pedigrees and breeding? PS: I know most of the pedigrees now, though I’m a little stronger with trotters than pacers possibly, but I know quite a bit about them too. The pedigree comes later, anyhow. I start with the visuals and how they move, the videos and all of that. Then I work on the catalog and the pedigrees. DG: Do you watch a good portion of the videos? PS: I watch most of the videos that are online. There are a few here or there that I don’t watch because I know I won’t have a client for the pedigree of the horse. The video comes last in my way of doing things. I want to see the horse first and see him move in the paddock before I watch videos. The first thing I do is go to see the horses. I don’t worry much about pedigrees. I ask them (farm) to rack them up and I look through them. I do like a scanning procedure and the ones that I like the best I have them turn out in the paddock so I can watch them move freely. Down the road, when the video comes out, I look at them. The two most important factors to get me going is to look at them on the floor for conformation and to turn them out in the paddock to see them move; to see attitude and athleticism, and all of those things. DG: Let’s say I know little about horse racing. What could you tell me to look at in a video that would key me into something worthwhile on a horse? PS: I think a good thing to look at for someone who is not experienced would be the overall impression of the horse. Do you like the way the horse looks or not? The second thing is how fluid they are; how they may flex their knees or use their shoulders; general athleticism. Also, if they land hard or if they land soft (on their feet); if they have some shock absorption in their landing. Those are a few basic things you can watch. Of course it depends on whether they are a trotter or a pacer. Also look for whether they paddle, that’s the front to back view, and also watch how wide they travel, whether they are narrow or wide. DG: How many yearlings do you look at in a year? PS: It used to be 2,000 and I cut down to I’m guessing between 1,500 and 1,700, including some in Europe. It takes a bit of time because whoever survives my screening process and has the pedigree to match, I go back and look at those at least twice before we bid. Some of these horses I see three times on the floor and I see the video and in the paddock. DG: How many actually survive the screening process to get that second look? PS: I think it is probably in the range of 500-700. If you have to include some bargain hunting, which we have always done, you have to include horses with some faults and hopefully they move better than they stand. We have to buy some horses at times that have faults but hopefully they overcome them. Or we look for signs that they can overcome them. I will knock that down to much lower numbers as we get closer to the sales. DG: In addition to Jimmy Takter, what other clients do you work for? PS: Jimmy, that includes all of his owners, which is a bunch of people. Also there is Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld, Brittany Farms and Order By Stable. Those are my other main customers. Otherwise it is all of Jimmy’s owners, like John Fielding, Bud Hatfield, Herb Liverman and a whole bunch of people. DG: Nowadays many owners buy together and form partnerships. PS: Fillies they like to buy by themselves, at least the ones that are meant to be broodmares. Colts they like to join up to get more chances. Instead of buying one they might take a quarter of four horses to have more chances. DG: You’ve been buying a little bit lately and have seen some success. PS: I don’t buy much because my main job is to recommend to my clients, but there are one or two here and there that doesn’t fit what my main clients are looking for and I step in just to have a little fun. I let them know what I have and if it doesn’t fit what they are doing I might try. The last one I bought, California Cruisin, he was a big, kind of heavy horse out of an old mare. He was also an embryo transfer. There were a lot of things going against him and he didn’t fit the profile of what my clients buy. It is more exciting to own a horse yourself and it is refreshing at times. DG: Is what you do a skill that can be taught? PS: You could definitely learn some of it or a lot of it but I think you need a little feeling for horses. I put quite a bit of weight on attitude and those kinds of things, which you need the right feeling about horses to see. I’m not sure everybody has it (feeling about horses), but you can learn a lot about it if you have enough time and the right teacher. DG: Have you ever tried to teach someone before? PS: Not really. I had someone that went with me for a couple of days last year, somebody younger who is taking this serious from Europe. I think it was a good thing to help a little bit, but it was just for a couple of days. DG: Considering the amount of time you put into it, learning would probably be a huge commitment. PS: It would take time and you need the routine also. You have to evaluate every year the ones you did buy and the ones you didn’t buy, whether they are good or whether they are bad. You have to go back and say, ‘why did I buy this one or why didn’t I buy that one?’ You have to learn from all that. You need the time and experience after you get some basic knowledge about it. That probably takes a few years. DG: After you narrow the list down, do you just give the information to all of your clients or do you separate it different depending on the client? PS: I do put a list together with my top picks for the sale, but we have done a lot of bargain hunting over the years and many owners what to be in on it. We bought Wild Honey for $35,000, we bought Costa Rica for $23(k), Ken Warkentin for $26(k). People love to be in on those horses but they weren’t on my top 10 list. Normally the expensive ones get on that list because of pedigree and because they look fantastic. So I have a top list that is accessible to all of my clients but I also have information about what I think we should buy at a specific price. Because Jimmy Takter has a vision for things, he realized 20 years ago that if you have four eyes it is better. He didn’t have the time to do it the way he wanted to do. He called me and we’ve been working ever since together. DG: Does Jimmy take a second look at the horses you advise him on? PS: It has been a little different throughout the years. There have been times where he would come with me to the farms and the sales to look at them together; most of the time that has been the case. There have been times where he hasn’t had a chance to look them over and he has bought them on my recommendation, but most of the time I’ve had the chance to show him and talk about it. DG: Judging by his results it seems like you’ve had great success. PS: He’s a great trainer. I’ve bought some ability for sure, but a lot of them had problems. He is just a great trainer that he’s been able to pull them through. I don’t know how many of these top horses were actually the worst ones training down. I’ve been fortunate to pick out horses for the right guy, also. DG: After the Harrisburg sale is over do you relax for a few months? PS: I’ve been at it since the week after the Hambletonian; full speed ahead. I’ll go straight through this sale (Lexington) and then Harrisburg. Then my mind is empty after that. I do a lot of work for Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld for their breeding operation, so we start studying bloodlines and stallion matings at the end of each year. We do a lot of other things on the other side of the year as well. I get a little time after New Years, a couple of months when it is slower. Then I go to watch the horses train. DG: The amount of champions that Libfeld/Katz is turning out is truly impressive. PS: Their new plan that has been in effect for a couple of years is starting to bear fruit and they are starting to get tremendous broodmares. Plus they have a lot of fillies that are on the track that will be entering the broodmare shed. I think the next five years will be fantastic. DG: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I’ll let you get back to work. PS: My pleasure, Derick. I actually have an appointment coming up in a half-hour and another later today.