Walner’s richest ever son – Youbetcha!

Winner’s Bet 1:49.6 ($1,364,651), the richest and fastest son of the world champion Walner, one of North America’s greatest trotting sire, will be available to breeders in Australia and New Zealand via frozen semen this season from the Ballarat-based stud Haras Des Trotteurs.

A striking brown horse, foaled in 2020, Winner’s Bet stood his first season in America at the premier Blue Chips Farms in New York, where he served a full book of 150 mares at a fee of $US10,000.

It can rightly be claimed of Winner’s Bet that he is one of the best bred and best performed trotting stallions to be available to ‘down under’ broodmare owners. He was a multiple Stakes winner as a two, three and four-year-old and set a string of track and race records in a brief career.

As a two-year-old he won the $512,050 William Wellwood Memorial at Woodbine Mohawk Park in 1:54.2 and a leg of the Kindergarten Classic at The Meadowlands and was never out of the money in 10 starts.

At three Winner’s Bet was again among the top bracket of his age, winning the $138,500 Stanley Dancer Memorial and a leg of the Reynolds Memorial and was runner-up in the $488,400 Canadian Trotting Classic.

Among his nine successes as a four-year-old were the $600,000 Breeders Crown in a stakes record-equalling 1:51, the $230,000 Graduate Series Final in a track record 1:50.8, the $260,000 Charlie Hill Memorial in a track record 1:50.8 and the $200,000 Caesar’s Trotting Classic tying the stakes record at 1:50.6. 

He was race-timed in 1:51 or better in eight of his 11 starts at four and was subsequently voted the USA 4YO Trotting Entire/Gelding of the Year.

In all, Winner’s Bet raced on 31 occasions for 14 wins and six placings.

Nancy Takter, who trained Winner’s Bet during his four-year-old campaign, said: “Not only is he absolutely gorgeous, but also a true gentleman to deal with. He’s a very sound horse and great gaited. As the fastest and richest son of Walner, he should be very sought after as a stallion.”

Driver Dexter Dunn said: “Winner’s Bet is a beautiful horse with a great gait and attitude. He was simply an awesome trotter to sit behind”.

Winner’s Bet is a son of the world champion Walner (1:50.4), the leading sire in America in 2023 and the sire of the winners of almost $50 million in stakes and to this stage is credited with more than 170 in the 1:55 list and three in 1:50.

Winner’s Bet is the first colt out of the multiple stakes-winning mare Side Bet Hanover (1:53.2) and belongs to the immediate family of the USA 2YO Trotting Filly of the Year Spellbound Hanover and the Hambletonian winner and Hall of Famer Marion Marauder ($3.3 million).

His service fee is $8,500 plus GST in Australia and $9,000 plus GST in NZ. Limited bookings are available.

By Peter Wharton