Kimmo Kemppi invests heavily in trotting sports

State aid shrinks. The turnovers are dwindling. The public cannot find the trot tracks. The number of horses decreases when the trade does not work and breeding does not make money.

Finnish trotting athletes have been intimidated with unpleasant news and views more than was necessary. When, at the same time, costs have risen in an already expensive sport, many are fed up, and if not stopped, at least reduced their activity in the sport.

Kimmo Kemppi swim upstream. The 52-year-old Vesa of the Metalli family and a successful businessman has invested a lot during the last year and this year. He has acquired valuable horses, bought two stable buildings in Lahti Jokimaa and hired a successful Mika Haapakkan too to become the coach of the Kravuri team.

Kemppi doesn’t like to talk about sums, but when the Jokimaan stable has room for 42 horses and there are eight employees on the payroll, it’s obviously a million dollar investment.

Why the hell? What makes the trotting sport, which is suspected to be sunset in Finland, to be put on fire?

The answers are not surprising. From love to raves, to a wild party for a sport that gave meaning to life, and so on.

For a voracious person, it is possible without the fear that financial losses would reduce the quality of life.

“From the neighboring Salpaus stable, I went out into the world to work as a professional trainer. Now we have returned to a familiar environment in Jokimaa and have taken horses that were in training elsewhere under our own operations,” Kemppi says at the coffee table of his renovated stable building.

After a period as a trotting coach, working life took him to the United States and Switzerland, from where the family of four moved back to Finland in 2021.

Kimmo Kemppi talks about the plan, the goal of which is to raise the traditional Kemppitalli to the sharpest top of the sport in four years. The guiding idea is to breed and produce good racing horses. Plants are sold especially for bouquets.

If the plan and goals are realized perfectly, making a financial result is possible. It has been shown in Finland, among other places Pekka Korpi.

“It is possible, but very difficult and challenging. You should win at least one big race every year, either in Finland or abroad. The road to success is long and narrow,” says Kemppi.

“But I’m also happy that I can offer many people jobs in the sport and have a positive effect on their economy.”

On the way back it’s not about hobbying or tinkering. Kemppi is serious, as evidenced by, among other things, the fact that he has finished his duties in the corporate world.

Last spring, Kemppi left the board of Kempower, which manufactures charging points for electric cars. He has sold or dismantled his smaller companies.

“If everything goes well, during the rest of the year I will get pretty close to a situation where there is almost nothing left but the family, horses and family business. I will only remain on the board of the Kemppi Group.”

Responsibility for Kemppitalli’s operational activities and finances are the main roles, but Kemppi also participates in training the horses daily and races them.

During the interview, the outfit changes from everyday clothes to the handler’s suit, when soon it is necessary to jump into the stroller of the 3-year-old Xtrafast Kemp.

“I have reduced everything else so that I can fully focus on family and raves.”

The project the first year is already over. It went terribly wrong.

The horses that moved from 13 different places to the Jokimaan stable brought bugs with them and were constantly sick. During training, the soles made in the winter outside the competition season did not last.

The disappointment has been reset and the aim has been moved to the next season.

“Our 2-year-old horses are in good condition. And although there were many challenges with the 3-year-olds this year, I think we have a pretty good roster for next year. Then you have to start getting by and be ready when the big money starts to be distributed from the end of the season.”

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“Too few horses Earn their annual expenses at the moment. The decision-makers should think about how to make the sport attractive to the kind of person who joins as a newcomer.”

Emergency the whole big bet is this: Kemppi knows that the probability of failure is considerable. And what’s more, not everything is in your hands.

“Very much depends on what the political body decides. Does it even give the sport any chance to succeed in the future. Treated like this at the moment”, I don’t think it will.

According to Kempi, the structure of decision-making and the leading idea of ​​competition should be quickly renewed in Finnish trotting. Otherwise, the prevailing low economy may remain permanent.

“Too few horses Earn their annual expenses at the moment. The decision-makers should think about how to make the sport attractive to people who join as a newcomer. That as a horse fortune teller you could reach even a zero result with a reasonable risk. Then the owner would stay with the sport.”

It saddens Kemppi that too few get to enjoy the experiences of success at Finnish raves. For example, equalizing the award scales would be appropriate in his opinion.

“In North America, France and Sweden, the importance of horse owners is understood. Similarly, the money that is quickly distributed as prizes to young horses goes back to the sport.”

Kemppi knows international trotting sports and has been successful in the great countries of the sport, especially as a breeder in the United States.

“The whole way of operating and where the prize money is channeled should be radically changed. Currently, there are almost no horses born in Finland anymore. If breeding stops”, we rely on horses imported from abroad.

He calculates that there are too many trotting tracks and trotting days in Finland. Too much of the sport’s total pot goes to maintenance.

“The Swedish model is good. There, trotting days are divided according to how many trainers there are in the area of ​​the track.

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“I find it difficult that politicians decide how money is distributed.”

The lack of innovation is also surprising. Kemppi would like new forms of competition in Finland, especially for domestic horses and in the short term in the middle of the season.

He himself came up with the idea of ​​Jokimaa Jackpot, the winner of which received 25,000 euros in August. The majority of the prize pool was collected as participation fees from the owners.

Finland the fate of trotting sports includes who will organize the most important toto games in the future; Veikkaus with exclusive rights like now or a new gaming company operating in the license market, where Suomen Hippos would be the owner? The new Lottery Act will enter into force no later than 2027, and its guidelines will be clarified soon.

Kemppi flags on behalf of the new gaming company.

“I find it difficult that politicians decide how money is distributed. It’s not easy to make the equation work, but the best option would be if the trotting sport itself could determine how the income from the game is channeled.”