Sweet Lou, who stands at Woodlands Stud in New Zealand, has been crowned Australia’s champion sire for the first time.
His ascent to the top of the stakemoney scoreboard ended the 13-year streak of his studmate Bettor’s Delight, who has headed the table every season since 2011/12.
Sweet Lou was represented by 301 individual winners of 776 races from 437 runners. His progeny earned $10,479,121 in total prizemoney, with 11 banking in excess of $100,000. His standout performers were Eye Keep Smiling, who won the Group 1 NSW Ladyship Mile and the Group 1 Queensland The Golden Girl, contributing a substantial $404,984, and the outstanding juvenile Loucasso ($400,204), winner of the Group 2 Breeders Crown and Listed The Protostar.
Alabar Bloodstock’s Art Major finished second with $9,785,195, followed by Bettor’s Delight, who tallied $9,576,165.
Bettor’s Delight topped the two-year-old sires’ list for the fourth time with $1,124,647, while Art Major claimed his fifth three-year-old title with $2,013,759.
Champion Australian first season sire went to Cobbitty Equine Farm’s Bettor’s Wish. The son of Bettor’s Delight had nine individual winners from 13 runners, with those winners totalling 20 wins and earnings of a very impressive $445,796. Ride High (Alabar) finished second with $371,930.
Majestic Son, who also stands at Alabar, topped the trotting sires’ premiership for the ninth consecutive season with 74 individual winners of 222 races from 149 starters. His progeny earned $2,199,965 in total prizemoney, headed up by the Great Southern Star victor Watts Up Partytime ($231,825).
Elite Stride, another of the Alabar roster, was the leading two-year-old trotting sire and first crop sire with $268,772, while his studmate Volstead claimed his second three-year-old title with $416,177.
The champion Australian broodmare sire for the fourth consecutive season was Bettor’s Delight, whose daughters produced the winners of $14,201,502, almost $500,000 more than the second placed Art Major, the leading broodmare sire of two and three-year-olds.
Sundon headed the trotting broodmare sires’ premiership for the 15th season on end with $2,657,367. Majestic Son, the runner-up on the all aged list, was the leading broodmare sire of two-year-old and three-year-old trotters.
Art Major took out both the sire and broodmare sires’ premierships in Victoria in 2025. Captain Crunch and American Ideal claimed the two-year-old and three-year-old titles respectively, while Majestic Son was again the leading trotting sire.
River Storm, the runaway winner of the Vicbred Platinum Homegrown 2YO at Melton last Saturday night, is out of the Ronan family’s dual Listed winner Bettor Downunder
The three-year-old trotting filly Bar Tab, a winner at the New Year’s Eve meeting at Melton, was bred by pedigree guru Philip Trainor.
