Winbak’s Jimmy Ladwig has been along for Bettors Delight’s entire $400 million ride

by Dave Briggs

When your farm bred the top stallion by progeny earnings by either a standardbred or thoroughbred, it’s worth celebrating. If you’re the man that sold that horse in your very first year as the yearling manager for one of harness racing’s iconic farms, doubly so.

In 1999, Jimmy Ladwig was in his first year as the yearling manager for Winbak Farm when the Joe Thomson-owned outfit sold a plain brown horse at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company (SHSC) auction in Harrisburg, PA for $65,000 to John Grant of Ontario. Twenty-seven years later, that horse, Bettors Delight is approaching a whopping $400 million in progeny earnings as his siring days come to a close. That’s about $170 million more than the next closest standardbred (Camluck, $231 million) and about $140 million more than the top thoroughbred of all time, Into Mischief ($260 million).

Today, Bettors Delight, a 28-year-old son of Cam’s Card Shark out of Classic Wish, is retired from active stallion duty. He bred just 12 horses – all but two by frozen semen – in 2026. That means there won’t be many more sons or daughters of Bettors Delight coming. It also makes the three Bettors Delight yearlings Winbak is selling at the SHSC extra special to Ladwig, whose career has been in lockstep with the great stallion.

The three Bettors Delights Winbak is selling in Harrisburg are:

• Hip #33 Mischief Night, a first foal out of Darkness, a Downbytheseaside mare that is out of Loving Caroline, a sister to $880,000-winner Divine Caroline.

• Hip #243 Shake N Shimmy, a colt out of Blueberry Shake, a sister to $600,000-winner Chotat Milk.

• Hip #903 Destiny’s Delight, a filly out of $700,000 winner Thong.

In total, Winbak is set to sell some 90 yearlings – 70 in the select portion of the sale and another 21 in the Mixed Sale.

Compared to Winbak’s Lexington consignment, Ladwig said at the SHSC they have, “a few more Father Patricks, a few more Six Packs, a little more PA-breds, some Stay Hungrys, a real nice Papi Rob that’s probably a standout, and some Canadian-breds.”

“We are selling the brother to [Jug-winner] Redland Rocket Man,” Ladwig said of the Bulldog Hanover—Granny Hanover colt. “He’s a great looking colt and we’re excited about him. He’s Hip #66 [Redlandshananagins]. I haven’t seen him, but [Winbak Ontario manager] Pat [Woods] says good things about him, so I’m excited to see him and sell him and see how he does.”

Ladwig said Winbak is also excited about the first crop of Beach Glass, who stands at their Ontario farm.

“You see one coming and you can pretty much tell that it’s a Beach Glass,” Ladwig said. “He does stamp them pretty good. Nice, big, stout-looking horses. Usually they have a cool-looking star on their head.

“We had a gorgeous Beach Glass that unfortunately hurt herself and got precluded from the sale, but, man, she was one of the prettiest fillies you’ve ever seen. She wants to be a racehorse. She’s healed up pretty good and I’m just getting her ready to go down to [Winbak head trainer] Jeff [Fout’s] and I’m hoping she turns into something because she’s gorgeous. She just looks the part. She would’ve been a top filly at the sale.

“Usually that stuff doesn’t really get me too much, but when it happened to this filly I was just, like, ‘Oh my God.’ I was heartbroken. It kind of got me right in the stomach.”

As for those selling at the SHSC, Ladwig mentioned two Beach Glass yearlings specifically:

• Hip #631 Beach Tussle, a filly out of Best Tussle.

• Hip #711 Hallie Beach, a filly out of Hallie Gallie.

Other pacers Ladwig highlighted included:

• Hip #461 Clark Kent, a Papi Rob Hanover colt out of Spreckles.

• Hip #579 Hold The Key, a Sweet Lou filly out of Village Madonna.

• Hip #250 Mooving Target, a Cattlewash filly out of Bullet Point.

On the trotting side, Ladwig pointed out:

• Hip #14 Holy Breeze, a Father Patrick colt out of Baileys Breeze.

• Hip #40 Seven Dances, a Chapter Seven filly out of Donnas Dance.

• Hip #242 Greenshu Sue, a Greenshoe filly out of Blue Yonder.

• Hip #195 Unpack It, a Six Pack colt out of Adreamcomestrue As.

As a group, Ladwig said Winbak’s consignment is “pretty standard.” But then, Bettors Delight was initially thought to be ordinary.