Greatest Trotters Of All Time

[Grandstand Handicapper]

I decided to make my list. Top 10. Not ranked. Just 10 names. No excuses, no posturing, no BS. LOL.

Varenne
Ourasi
Un De Mai
Mack Lobell
Moni Maker
Muscle Hill
Speedy Scot
Roquepine
Walner
Self Possessed

Give me your 10 names. Thanks.

[gh2009]

I've been around forever and have heard of most of the ones on your list. Walner is an interesting choice for the list since his career was so brief. Are you basing it on future potential. Very difficult to name the tops of all time because some are foreign horses I've never seen run, and different eras have different top ones. Fresh Yankee was a great trotter in his day, his career earnings were 1.3 million which is huge for back them and he was named the season or champion trotter 7 years in a row. I'm more into pacer than trotters except when I'm betting!

[JT]

Varenne
Mack Lobell
Peace Corps
Moni Maker
Muscle Hill
Ourasi
Greyhound
Nevele Pride
Atlanta
Super Bowl

No particular order..

[wiseowl]

Saw Fresh Yankee race at Hollywood Park was a great horse back then and one of the best ever.

[old guy]

I've been around forever and have heard of most of the ones on your list. Walner is an interesting choice for the list since his career was so brief. Are you basing it on future potential. Very difficult to name the tops of all time because some are foreign horses I've never seen run, and different eras have different top ones. Fresh Yankee was a great trotter in his day, his career earnings were 1.3 million which is huge for back them and he was named the season or champion trotter 7 years in a row. I'm more into pacer than trotters except when I'm betting!

Fresh Yankee was a mare

[Grandstand Handicapper]

I've been around forever and have heard of most of the ones on your list. Walner is an interesting choice for the list since his career was so brief. Are you basing it on future potential. Very difficult to name the tops of all time because some are foreign horses I've never seen run, and different eras have different top ones. Fresh Yankee was a great trotter in his day, his career earnings were 1.3 million which is huge for back them and he was named the season or champion trotter 7 years in a row. I'm more into pacer than trotters except when I'm betting!

I wasn't going to get into this, but what the hell, I have some time to kill, LOL. I wasn't going to get into it, because with him I debated, and I wasn't as definitive. Regardless, I know, I kind of debated with Walner and while he certainly did not have a GOAT career so to speak----I added him because my list is GOAT I have seen, and feel each horse is truly one of the GOAT---talent-wise, ability-wise, etc., that I judge as being truly a great horse. So with Walner, here was some of my thinking. First, from the very first time I saw him, this horse just screamed greatness to me. To me, that played out because every single time I saw him race, he was simply just great. He was just so athletic, just a pure, tremendous athlete. I saw him as a yearling and really liked him, a lot. Not being a yearling buyer, and especially a trotter, I wasn't a buyer, but he was pure athlete. He just stood out. Long legged, strong, built, just looked like a very serious colt. He brought $90k as a yearling, and I think the Chapter Seven average that year was something like $50k.

He was nothing short of phenomenal at 2. He looked like a truly great horse. Yes, he had a great campaign, as many horses do, like Karl did as a 2yo----but with Walner, he looked like a great horse, not just a horse who was ahead of the rest of the class and winning (easy), but far more important, WHAT he was doing, and HOW he was doing it. So when I watched Walner as a 2yo, and I watched Karl, I saw two completely different horses, situations, and potential futures. Night and day, night and month. Walner came back at 3 and potential and hypothetical is nothing more than conjecture, he had grown up, filled out, grew, but based upon his brief appearances, he looked like he was ready to take on---and dominate---the entire crop. He came back at 3 and he was smooth, fluid, an effortless gait and he won right out of the gate in 50 and 2! He made it look easy, like he wasn't even going that fast. Yes, conjecture, but what I saw, boy, I mean, he won the Dancer Memorial at the Big M in 50 and 2 like right out of the box. Was he not going to be 1-5 or maybe even 1-9 to win the Hambo? Yes, conjecture. But he was moving forward, getting better, stronger, etc.----and Karl? He was doing the soft-shoe on eggshells.

So his career was over, but his greatness has certainly played out in his success as a sire. He wasn't a million dollar yearling who was a great horse and had the permission to succeed as a stallion. He was a well-bred horse, a $90k yearling, who looked very good, became a great horse, and had a career-ending injury, and went on to prove his greatness as a stallion. Side note, as a stallion, he's an outcross, so he opened up the doors to a lot of possible mares. When Dave Reid was putting together the syndication for Walner, commercial breeders were lining up to buy shares, get mares on the list, etc. He could have went overseas, but the interest and support here was so strong he stayed in the US. Every major breeder wanted shares, and wanted to breed top mares to him.

Anyway, that's why he is on my list. He is one of the GOAT I've seen. That's my story and I am sticking with it. LOL. Thanks.

[Mazola]

Fresh Yankee was a great horse.

[seen2much]

Varenne
Mack Lobell
Peace Corps
Moni Maker
Muscle Hill
Un De Mai
CR Kay Suzie
Ourasi
Sebastian K
Bold Eagle

[JT]

Varenne
Mack Lobell
Peace Corps
Moni Maker
Muscle Hill
Un De Mai
CR Kay Suzie
Ourasi
Sebastian K
Bold Eagle

Our first 5 are the same then we kind of deviate from each other.. I loved Susie.. just outside my top 10. I can't argue with any of the ones that you have that I dont

[kooter for hipin]

Fresh Yankee was a mare

Splitting hairs, thinks I. I loved Fresh Yankee, a rather small mare that raced her heart out every time kinda' like Rambling Willie, a pacer. I also liked Un De Mai. Both trotters won the International Trot. Throw the picks in a bag and pull one out and you can's go wrong.   

[The Thorn]

So many trotters that were significant in their time.  Here's some more that haven't been mentioned yet

Windsong's Legacy ... Without him no Chapter 7 and Walner
Lady Suffolk ... The Old Grey Mare
Flora Temple
Ideal Du Gazeau
Speedy Scot
Speedy Crown
San Pail
Nuncio

[Mazola]

Splitting hairs, thinks I. I loved Fresh Yankee, a rather small mare that raced her heart out every time kinda' like Rambling Willie, a pacer. I also liked Un De Mai. Won the International Trot. Throw the picks in a bag and pull one out and you can's go wrong.

I wouldn't mention her in the same breath as Rambling Willie but I know what you mean. She was in the elite league of racing winning here and in Europe.

From Harness Hall of Fame :Fresh Yankee was the season or world champion for seven consecutive years and retired as the leading money winning American Standardbred of all time.

[seen2much]

Our first 5 are the same then we kind of deviate from each other.. I loved Susie.. just outside my top 10. I can't argue with any of the ones that you have that I dont

I like CR better than Atlanta...but my opinion. There are so many good ones that you can't separate. A lot of great names by you & others.

[Grandstand Handicapper]

So many trotters that were significant in their time.  Here's some more that haven't been mentioned yet

Windsong's Legacy ... Without him no Chapter 7 and Walner
Lady Suffolk ... The Old Grey Mare
Flora Temple
Ideal Du Gazeau
Speedy Scot
Speedy Crown
San Pail
Nuncio

It almost pained me to leave Ideal du Gazeau off my list.

The San Pail discussion is one I've had many times before, especially with my friends north of the border, LOL. Any GOAT, top ten, etc. type of list or discussion----you can't help but get into these generational discussions. Now you have to start weighing different variables and factors and so on. Aside from judging horseflesh and what I have seen on the track, you start looking at campaigns, careers, individual performances, and so on. Not just the victory in the one big dance. Many people defend their pick with the big dance victory. They are going to look at Karl, and say, "He won the Hambo!" OK, he did. That doesn't make him one of the GOAT. Is Cool Papa Bell one of the GOAT. Forbidden Trade? Royalty For Life? Broad Bahn? Yankee Paco? Shiaway St. Pat? Then, they look at other, sometimes obscure stats or facts, all in support of some GOAT argument, like Karl.

Many Canadians say that San Pail is one of the GOAT. I get it. I am taking absolutely nothing away from San Pail. He was truly a great trotter. No argument. He performed at the highest level, at the top of the game, for many years, in Canada, and in NA when he won the BC. He won three Maple Leaf Trots! Absolutely a great horse. Personally, I think he might be the greatest aged trotter in North America IN THIS GENERATION, MODERN DAY kind of thing. Great horse! But I just couldn't get him on my top 10 GOAT list. I can see others picking him, and I don't take offense to that. I respect it. I may disagree, like many will with me, but I still respect it.

[Grandstand Handicapper]

Varenne
Mack Lobell
Peace Corps
Moni Maker
Muscle Hill
Ourasi
Greyhound
Nevele Pride
Atlanta
Super Bowl

No particular order..

A lot of great names there! Thanks for posting your list!