Bettor’s Delight Rewrites the Pacing Money Lists in 2025

With the curtain now down on the 2025 racing season, it feels like the perfect time to dive into the New Zealand pacing siring money lists and see how the numbers actually shake out. From the juvenile ranks through to the three-year-olds and on to the all-age table, this is about more than just who topped the list. It’s about how they got there, how efficient they were with the stock they had, and what sits beneath the headline figures when you start pulling the data apart.

Bettor’s Delight claimed his 13th 2YO pacing money title in 2025, a milestone that almost defies belief when you consider just how long he has been operating at the very top of the breeding pyramid. It feels like a lifetime ago that his first commercial Southern Hemisphere crop arrived back in 2010, yet the dominance he continues to exert remains as strong as ever.

Bettor’s Delight first announced his presence in the juvenile ranks with the exploits of champion mare Bettor Cover Lover, but the warning signs had appeared even earlier. In 2008, with just 25 live foals on the ground, he still managed to finish second on the 2YO money list, an extraordinary effort that, in hindsight, was a clear precursor of what was to come.

In recent seasons he has been forced to do it the hard way. The halcyon days that saw him produce crops in excess of 200 foals on nine separate occasions are now well behind us, replaced by significantly reduced books and smaller foal crops. Yet, as the saying goes, the cream invariably rises to the top. Despite those headwinds, Bettor’s Delight once again stood tallest in 2025.

His juvenile tally of $860,502 was a shade below his record-breaking $1,138,908 set in 2016, but context matters. He remains the only sire in New Zealand harness racing history to eclipse the million-dollar mark in juvenile stakes, a feat he has achieved on five separate occasions. That he came so close again in 2025 with almost half the number of live foals compared to those seven-figure seasons only underlines the depth and efficiency of his output.

One of the limiting factors this season was undoubtedly the emergence of his Woodlands Stud stablemate Downbytheseaside, who amassed $725,367 and emphatically shook off the ‘emerging sire’ tag. Through the exploits of Jumal, who also finished the season as the leading 2YO sire in North America, he well and truly announced himself as a genuine source of precocious speed.

The same can be said for Always B Miki, whose juveniles accumulated $320,506. These three siring heavyweights were the only stallions to produce crops exceeding 100 foals, with Downbytheseaside (148) and Always B Miki (166) both operating at scale. Whatever way you slice it, however, ‘The King’ still emerged on top of the lead trio, topping key efficiency metrics including foals to starters, average earnings, foals to winners and most individual winners, finishing the season with 20 juvenile winners.

At the elite end, Bettor’s Delight produced two individual Group One winners in Freeze Frame and Allamericanplayer, second only to Downbytheseaside, who celebrated at the highest level with Jumal, All Of Me and Fugitive.

Captaintreacherous once again deserves a worthy mention. Frozen semen availability and limited access have likely been the only factors preventing him from featuring closer to the pointy end of the list. Finishing fifth among a collection of the world’s best pacing bloodlines with just 26 live foals, his 50 percent foals to starters and 23 percent foals to winners provide a clear illustration of why his stock remains so highly sought after.

Bettors Wish claimed the leading first-season sire tag among juvenile pacers, finishing ninth overall with $119,000 in stakes. From 48 live foals he produced 13 starters and seven individual winners, a solid foundation upon which future seasons will now build.

Bettor’s Delight also led the Broodmare Sire of 2YOs list for a record-equalling sixth time, drawing level with In The Pocket. His daughters produced 23 individual juvenile winners, accounting for 27 percent of all 2YO winners in New Zealand in 2025, headed by the talented All Of Me, a daughter of champion mare Dream About Me.

Staying on theme, Bettor’s Delight also captured his 13th 3YO pacing siring title, six clear of Vance Hanover, who sits second on the all-time list with seven. Interestingly, his $2,148,638 total, while nearly a million dollars clear of second-placed Always B Miki, was actually only the 11th highest seasonal figure he has posted when winning this title, again reflecting the impact of reduced books and smaller foal crops in recent years.

Cracking the $2 million mark at three is no small achievement. In fact, Bettor’s Delight is one of only two sires to have ever reached that milestone, a figure surpassed just 12 times since electronic records have been kept. Of those 12 occasions, Christian Cullen, the only other member of the $2 million club, achieved the feat just once.

Four of the top five three-year-old stake earners in 2025 were sired by the undisputed GOAT, with the dual Group One successes of his sons Marketplace and Got The Chocolates among the highlights of last season’s calendar. Add dual Group One-winning filly Arafura and the ultra-consistent Bettors Anvil to the mix, and it becomes clear why the chasing pack were effectively pushing uphill all season and more often than not chasing a shadow.

Always B Miki ($1,149,252) edged out Art Major ($1,054,840) and Captain Crunch ($1,010,925) for second on the three-year-old list, marking the second time Always B Miki has eclipsed the million-dollar mark with his sophomores. Celestial Sea claimed Group One honours in the Nevele R Fillies Final, while Rubira backed up his juvenile Group One success with a Group One Queensland Oaks and a series of gallant performances behind Marketplace and Got The Chocolates. Midnight Miki also added further lustre to the season, finishing second in the Group One Great Northern Derby.

Of the quartet to crack the million-dollar mark, Bettor’s Delight again edged them all on efficiency, returning 58 percent foals to starters and 41 percent foals to winners. His 50 individual winners were nine clear of Captain Crunch on 41, while Art Major’s presence in the million-dollar bracket remains a testament to his enduring greatness, achieved with almost half the number of foals as his contemporaries.

Sweet Lou (fifth), Captaintreacherous (sixth) and Downbytheseaside (seventh) were all competitive despite facing similar numerical headwinds to Art Major. Special mention must also go to eighth-placed Vincent, a Harness 5000-eligible sire since the outset of his career, who produced the talented Greased Lightning, fourth on the money list for three-year-old pacers.

Bettor’s Delight once again led the Broodmare Sire rankings, with his daughters’ progeny posting the highest single-season three-year-old stakes figure ever recorded in New Zealand at $2,720,686. It marked the third consecutive season he has topped this chart, leaving him four short of Christian Cullen’s record seven titles. Even so, Bettor’s Delight now lays claim to the three highest seasonal broodmare-sire figures of all time and remains the only broodmare sire whose three-year-olds have cracked the $2 million barrier, a feat he has achieved twice. Captains Mistress, Rubira and Beside Me were the standout performers among his broodmare-sire representatives.

The domination of the All Age pacing money list came as little surprise, with Bettor’s Delight once again setting the standard at the very top. His progeny amassed $6,768,808 in stakes, almost double that of his nearest rival Always B Miki on $3,537,670, despite operating with fewer starters and a significantly smaller active population than in his peak numerical years. From 213 individual starters, he produced 135 winners, equating to an outstanding 63 percent winners to starters ratio, a figure that comfortably outstripped the majority of his contemporaries.

Perhaps even more telling was his ability to convert opportunity into consistency. Bettor’s Delight progeny recorded 2,115 starts for 288 wins, 267 seconds and 251 thirds, meaning nearly 38 percent of all his starts resulted in a top-three finish. When viewed through an efficiency lens rather than raw volume alone, it becomes clear why he continues to dominate this list year after year. By comparison, Always B Miki returned a 57 percent winners to starters ratio, while Art Major and Sweet Lou sat at 61 and 59 percent respectively, all admirable figures, yet still shaded by ‘The King’.

The domination of the All Age pacing money list also reinforced the extraordinary depth of Bettor’s Delight’s influence across age groups, classes and distances. With 135 individual winners from 2,836 live foals represented in the population, his ability to continually replenish quality at the elite level remains unmatched, particularly when viewed against modern breeding constraints and reduced foal crops across the industry.

Taking nothing away from those incredible legacies, with the exception of Christian Cullen for one North American stud season, none of the greats of the past ever shuttled across the Pacific Ocean, let alone did so for nearly two decades while serving full books in multiple jurisdictions. Since 2002, it is conservatively estimated that Bettor’s Delight has served more than 5,500 mares across North America, New Zealand and Australia combined. That figure is well supported by published service records in New Zealand and North America, with Australia the only jurisdiction where only live foal numbers are publicly available rather than full service data. Even allowing for margin of error, the scale of the achievement remains staggering. Serving full books in three countries across two breeding seasons every calendar year is almost impossible to comprehend.

And if all of that was not enough, the 2025 season delivered a statistical milestone that may, in time, be viewed as one of the most extraordinary achievements ever recorded in New Zealand breeding. Across the six primary pacing siring categories that define true, generational influence, Sire of Stakes, Broodmare Sire of Stakes, 3YO Sire of Stakes, 3YO Broodmare Sire of Stakes, 2YO Sire of Stakes and 2YO Broodmare Sire of Stakes, Bettor’s Delight topped every single one in the same calendar year.

Not only that, he did it for the second year in succession, having first completed the clean sweep in 2024 before repeating the feat again in 2025. No other stallion in New Zealand history has ever managed to lead all six categories concurrently. Not Christian Cullen at the height of his broodmare-sire powers. Not In The Pocket during his era-defining run. Not Vance Hanover, Holmes Hanover or U Scott. Several came close, some led four or even five categories in a single season, but none before Bettor’s Delight ever managed all six, let alone twice.

As our foal crops continue to contract and books shrink across the globe, it is increasingly difficult to imagine these records ever being seriously threatened. Records are made to be broken, as the saying goes, but some are set so high they become monuments rather than targets. In 2025, just as he has done so many times before, ‘The King’ once again stood alone at the summit.