Sooner The Bettor makes light work of 30m handicap

The confidence boosters continued for Sooner The Bettor (Bettor’s Delight) at Alexandra Park on Friday night.

The wonderful little pacer made it five wins since he came back to racing in September when he made extremely light work of a 30m back mark in the 2200m Woodlands Stud Yearling Draft Pace.

Fittingly he led home a quinella for Woodlands’s stallion great Bettor’s Delight as he came out of the one-one to crunch leader Final Change to start 2026 on a high.

Anybody who follows harness racing knows Sooner The Bettor is a high class horse but for much of his career that has been his problem.

He has always been good enough to contest our absolute best races like the Miracle Miles, New Zealand and Auckland Cups, Derbys and Sires Stakes and also always good enough to get beaten in them.

He pushed Leap To Fame so close in what would have been a career-defining Miracle Mile but often on the biggest stage he has been the brave placegetter.

But trainers Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan have changed tack slightly in the last year, having Sooner The Bettor ready when many of our best pacers are not.

SOONER THE BETTOR REPLAY

And that has enabled them to pick off more wins in the last 12 months than the rest of his career put together.

“He has done a great job with two Auckland Cup placings and winning races like the Holmes D G in the last 12 months,” says Phelan.

“But we have also been able to find races like this one tonight where he has been able to win without having to dig too deep and that has been really good for his confidence.

“He is a very good horse but it just goes to show you how great those really top ones are.”

The stable hope Sooner The Bettor can race in a similar grade sprint next Friday before things start to get tougher when stablemate Merlin returns on March 13.

And then the really big guns roll into town for the $1m The Race at Cambridge and the Alex Park Group 1s to follow, but Phelan says Sooner The Bettor will be there.

“If he ended up in the slot race you know he wouldn’t disgrace himself.”

Earlier in the night the stable’s enigmatic young trotter Higher Power bolted away with his Metro heat, another horse who will take confidence from his Friday night at The Park.

His driver Zachary Butcher trained and drove the winner of the next as Princess Gracy bolted away with her Metro Pacing heat like in a mare who is going to be awfully hard to beat in the final.

For complete race results, click here.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand