Toni Nieminen is leaving Vermo as a track coach

Nieminen started as a track coach at Vermo’s race track in October 2024. Now he has terminated his contract with Vermo.

He would have liked to continue as a coach.

“If I could get a living from this job, I wouldn’t do anything else. Trotting is a damn great sport and the coach’s job is so meaningful that, apart from ski jumping, nothing else has hit in the same way. But I had to call it quits for financial reasons,” says Nieminen.

So the horses spent more than they earned, and there was no butter left on the bread.

“Honestly speaking, now it sucks.”

He answered the phone from the stable in the middle of work on Tuesday morning.

“You have to check the contract and talk to Vermo about how to deal with the notice period. There are still two horses in the stable, but there is a new place for them. This is already packing.”

Nieminen the stable in Vermo has six pens. The stable was full at best, but the results did not satisfy the trainer or the paying customers, i.e. the horse owners.

Nieminen’s coaches competed 54 times after October 2024. There was one win, and the horses earned 3,105 euros in prize money. The numbers are small.

Nieminen didn’t get the star horse that all the trainers wanted in his stable. He had to try with many elderly and end-of-career crabbers. In the trots, the greatest hope rests in young and up-and-coming horses.

“Finding horse owners has been difficult, and especially new owners. And I didn’t have the resources to buy horses for the stable myself. It wasn’t easy when you had to start building from scratch.”

There were also colts waiting to start their racing careers in the training, but Nieminen didn’t make it to the Games with them.

He still doesn’t regret that he came back as a trotting coach after a ten-year hiatus last fall.

“It’s been a good time, despite the setbacks.”

Trotting sports not doing very well in Finland at the moment. The number of competing horses has decreased in the 2020s. The stands don’t look crowded either.

The sport is seasonally sensitive. Nieminen also had time to notice that it does not promote its cause very effectively.

“The sport pisses on its own grains in such a way that people’s bad mood is reflected as a strange head-opening in their own environment. The industry is difficult and profitable anyway, talking shit doesn’t help anyone’s coping or well-being.”

In this context, Nieminen means especially horse people’s discussion forums and social media.

Despite everything, Nieminen wants to continue trotting. He just stops coaching and wants to continue with the stroller. As a director, Nieminen has 42 victories in his career, four of which have come after his comeback in recent years.

“There is no way I’ve burned my overalls and I didn’t ditch the trotting job completely. I’d really like to race as a loan driver in the future.”

Decision to stop working as a trotting trainer is so recent that Nieminen has not yet had time to think about his new work pattern carefully.

“The market situation in real estate is what it is, but the HVAC qualification is still available. I liked the work of a broker. I am also interested in, for example, the work of a sound engineer. I have a wide range of skills.”

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