Face Time Bourbon, Walner, Ready Cash progeny at National Yearling Sales

An opportunity to tap into the best trotting genetics in the Northern Hemisphere will greet buyers at the NZB Standardbred National Yearling Sales in New Zealand on February 16 and 18.

Face Time Bourbon, regarded as the hottest young stallion in Europe today, the leading American sire Walner and the legendary French trotter Ready Cash all have multiple representation at the sales.

Face Time Bourbon, a dual world record holder and the winner of 17 Group 1’s and $5.4 million in stakes, is taking European trotting by storm with only four crops of racing age.

He has two representatives at Karaka including a half-brother to the Vicbred three-year-old champion Revelstoke and the multiple NZ Group placegetter Belle Neige (Lot 132). The striking youngster is the first colt of his dam Miss Manitoba.

A world champion and USA 2YO Colt of the Year, Walner was the premier stakemoney sire in every category in North America in 2023 and has finished runner-up to his own sire Chapter Seven in the last two years.

Standing at Southwind Farms in New Jersey, Walner commands a full book at a fee of $US50,000. In 2025 his yearlings averaged over $130,000 in the sales ring, including 44 that sold for $100,000 or more.

Three of Walner’s first ‘down under’ crop will go under the hammer in NZ – two at Karaka and one at Christchurch – all out of mares imported from France by Victorian studmaster Pat Driscoll, the principal of Yabby Dam Farms.

One of the highlights of the Walner contingent at Karaka is a colt out of Hopeful Beauty (Lot 113), a multiple winner and placegetter at Group level in Victoria. It is her first foal.

The other Walner youngsters are Lot 81, a filly from the Victorian country cups winner Destinee Jenilou and a filly from the multiple Victorian Group winner Egee Money (Lot 258).

Interestingly, Egee Money’s full brother Je Te Cherche hoisted a new track record of an exceptional 1:51.3 for 2100 metres winning the $100,000 Prix de Nancy at Vincennes, Paris last October.

A dual Prix D’Amerique champion and the winner of 4.2 million euros, Ready Cash is arguably the world’s most influential modern trotting sire, dominating European breeding for over a decade. 

The sire of the winners of over $70 million, Ready Cash is represented by two colts at Karaka – both members of his last NZ crop – including a grandson of the USA Horse of the Year Continentalvictory (Lot 76). 

Ecurie D (1:49.2), the dual USA Breeders Crown champion and Aged Trotter of the Year, is represented by a sole filly at Karaka in Lot 97, whose dam is a half-sister to the Great Southern Star winner Callmethebreeze and last season’s star Italian three-year-old Ginostrabliggi, who scored twice at Group 1 level including a track record-breaking triumph in the $277,000 Gran Premio Orsi Mangelli at Milan and already the winner of over 700,000 euros.

by Peter Wharton for Harnesslink