by Greg Gangle, WEG media

Toronto, ON — It’s no secret that trainer Ben Wallace can condition champions. In 1999, the Milton resident trained the Triple Crown winner, Blissfull Hall, who was voted Canada’s Horse of the Year and banked $1,468,648 in lifetime earnings.

Wallace, the 1999 O’Brien Award recipient for Canada’s top trainer, also conditioned the likes of Camotion ($1,778,468), Zooka ($1,207,613) and Totally Western ($433,706), just to name a few.

New Image Media photo

Bettor’s Green banked $19,194 in seven starts as a freshman.

Now, Wallace is hoping his 3-year-old pacer, Bettor’s Green, can become his next big star. The journey begins this Saturday (May 7) in the Diplomat Stakes elimination.

“He was a terrific 2-year-old training down, right from the day we put a harness on him, he was a true professional. He was the easiest horse to train down you could ask for,” Wallace said of the $10,000 yearling purchase at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.

The son of Bettor’s Delight didn’t provide Wallace with any thrills last season, but the two-time winner scored a lifetime best of 1:53.2 at Mohawk, which caught Wallace’s eye.

“That night wasn’t the best for racing,” he said. “The track was off and the conditions weren’t the best and he ran off the screen with a :27 flat final quarter. It was an eye-catching performance, to say the least.”

Being a New York Sire Stakes eligible, Wallace sent his charge to the care of U.S. trainer Linda Toscano. Bettor’s Green raced in two NYSS events at Yonkers Raceway, however, both attempts were unsuccessful when the colt made two consecutive breaks.

“To this day, I have no idea why he made those two breaks in New York. He’s never done that before in his life and when I got him back, he never did it again.”

Wallace shows enough praise in his young pupil that he has kept him eligible to the C$1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup and other major stakes events this season.

“We kept him eligible to the ‘Cup’ and other stakes because I just don’t know how good he is,” he said. “He does show signs of being a terrific horse, but he might not be the ‘A’ horse this year. If not, he’ll be a nice New York Sires Stakes horse.

“The Diplomat Stakes will be a good test for him on Saturday,” added Wallace. “There are some nice horses in there and he’s going to have to be on his game.”

Bettor’s Green will leave from post six in the second of two Diplomat Stakes eliminations, which will go as the ninth race on May 7. Mario Baillargeon will be at the reins.