By Michael Guerin
The biggest decision of David and Stacey Whites’ training career may have been the race they chose not to start in.
The greatest moment came a week later, in the $200,000 Reharvest Rowe Cup at Alexandra Park on Friday night.
The Whites train Bet N Win, the horse we all thought would win a Rowe Cup one day but we were starting to doubt it might be this one.
After starting 2025 so well the five-year-old was below par in his two runs at Cambridge and was found to have a virus before last Friday’s Anzac Cup.
The Whites were forced to decide between scratching and missing a vital lead-up race and starting and possibly flattening their pride and joy. They chose right.
“He was just starting to overcome the virus and actually worked okay last Friday morning and we almost started,” David explains.
“Had he not been off a 10m handicap we might have started or had there been two weeks between last week and this race we might have risked it because we would have had more time for him to get over it.
“But we knew he races well fresh so we decided to wait. It made for a nervous week but we are thrilled with how it has worked out.”
Good manners and a cool Bob Butt drive helped do the rest as in an action-packed race Bet N Win never left the markers and showed great courage when his petrol tank was on empty to hold out Mr Love with Queen Elida a strong third as she farewelled the racetrack after a great career.
It was an unusual race with some of the favourites having excuses and others not so much but Bet N Win was always likely to one day ascend to being our best trotter and while he is still improving he may already hold what almost felt like a vacant crown.
His win sparked cool scenes in the Alexandra Park winner’s circle with some of the industry’s biggest names in the ownership but the stars of the show were the two White children Lachlan and William, adorable in their own little sets of stable colours.
Whether the White family and their 470kgs son of What The Hill can star on a bigger stage we should find out in July as a trip to the Inter Dominions looks likely.
“We were always going to wait until after tonight to make that decision but we’d like to go and the fact it is only two rounds of heats helps,” says David.
“So while that isn’t certain it is what we will aim at and he might even fly into Sydney two weeks out for a lead-up run.”
While the biggest win of any trainer’s career is a massive deal it came as the Whites wore red and green ribbons to honour their late friend Greg Sugar, who passed away last weekend.
“Stacey and Jess are very close and because of that I was lucky enough to be mates with Greg and he was the greatest guy,” shares David.
“To win this race the year after Just Believe, after the terrible week everybody has had, means more than anything.
“To be honest, standing here right now I can’t believe either thing has happened.”
Also in a state of disbelief earlier in the night may have been young driver Riley Harrison after she produced a gem of a drive to win the Northern Trotting Oaks on Frazzled, adding to a great night for stallion What The Hill.
She blew past favourite Habibti Pat at the top of the straight and then held out stablemate Ya Rite Darl for a stable quinella for Harrison’s bosses Robert and Jenna Dunn.
It was a mammoth night for Dunn racing as they also captured the Delightful Lady Classic with Cool For Cats, the opening trot with Bravehearthighlander and the Greg Sugars Memorial Race with Bruntwood Brigade.
