There are a total of eight yearlings by What The Hill across the Nutrien Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne yearling sales.
One would expect the majority of that number to be in Victoria given that Victoria conducts the most trotting races of any State in Australia.
In fact five of the eight yearlings by What The Hill that will be sold by Nutrien in 2024 will go through the Sunshine Stars sale at Albion Park on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of February.
A son of Muscle Hill, What The Hill won both the Breeders Crown and Canadian Trotting Classic on his way to USTA 3yo Colt Trotter of the year honours and earnings of $1,263,864.
He retired to stud in 2018 and is now the sire of 143 winners in North America with 21 winners of $100,000 headed by the 2023 3yo gelding Jet Hill tr,3,1:51.8 $546,525.
Standing at New Zealand’s Woodlands Stud, his first Australasian foals were born in 2019 which means they have just turned 4yo.
What The Hill is already the sire of 29 Australasian winners headed by the 2023 New Zealand Northern Trotting Derby winner Lovemeto tr,3,2:00.1 $123,812 and another New Zealand filly in Kiss And Run tr,2,1:59.7 $65,586.
His Australian bred colt Dreambigaimhigh tr,2,1:57.9 $65,176 won the Group One NSW 2yo Trot Final in 2022.
Michael Taylor’s Trotters Australia have four of the five What The Hill yearlings in next week’s sale with a colt and three fillies making up their draft.
Taylor has been a supporter of the trotting gait over many years and among the many outstanding trotters he has bred and raced was the gelding Empire Bay.
Lot 55 in the upcoming Sunshine Stars sale is the first foal, a filly, from Kyvalley Hiphop which is a lightly raced half-sister to Empire Bay.
Empire Bay won 25 races took a record of tr,1:55.7 and banked $270,622. The gelding’s wins included the Group Two NSW Breeders Challenge as a 2yo and the Group Three Bulli Trotters Cup as an aged horse.
Lot 15 is the first of the What The Hill fillies being offered by Trotters Australia and this filly is a half-sister to the Group One 2yo Vicbred Home Grown Classic winner Viksun tr,1:57.2 $188,558 being out of the smart racemare Summerline which won 11 races.
Summerline is a half-sister to 2yo Cambridge Trotting Stakes winner Summer Man tr,2:02.7 $152,246 and 2yo New Zealand Trotting Sales Classic winner Brighton tr,2:00.8 $83,495.
Lot 19 is the Trotters Australia colt and he is a half-brother to the 2023 2yo winner Majestic Avenue tr,2,2:04.0.
He is the third foal from the Sundon mare Sunny Avenue which is a lightly raced half-sister to Ushaka Bromac tr,1:59.3 $144,985 which is now the dam of NSW Trotters Oaks winner Aldebaran Ursula tr,2,1:55.7 $129,294.
Sunny Avenue’s second foal has just turned 2yo and has been named Sunny Majesty and is in work with trainer Chris Angove.
The fourth of Trotters Australia’s quartet of What The Hill yearlings is Lot 58 and this filly is out of the 2yo winning mare Lime And Lemonade tr,2,2:09.0.
This filly is a half-sister to three winners including Major Creation tr,2,202.0 which won a 2yo heat of the NSW Trotters Foundation before finishing third in the final.
While Trotters Australia have four What The Hill yearlings on offer, the first of the What The Hill’s to enter the Brisbane sale ring is Lot 8, a colt being offered by Greg Mitchell’s GSM Racing Pty Ltd.
This colt is a half-brother to the 2yo QLD Trotting Final winner Okanagan and the 3yo winner Banff tr,3,2:02.4.
Lot 8 is out of the Queensland Gold Rush and Queensland Marathon winner Sharons Millicent tr,2:00.6 $99,675.