A horse that was a $43,000 yearling purchase at the Ontario Select Sale in 2020 has taken a winding road to start realizing the potential that he was born with, but in recent weeks, five-year-old pacer Bettor On Than Off has been dynamic at Truro Raceway for trainer/owner Danny Romo and driver Jamie Ramsay.
Buyer Dave Ratchford didn’t have much luck with the hulking son of Bettors Delight out of the Western Ideal mare Lights Go Out, handing him over to legendary Maritime trainer/driver Danny Romo.
“Dave bought him at the sale and he couldn’t do much in Cape Breton with him. He was two years old and got him castrated and he still wouldn’t go," explained Romo. "I was down there to race in the stakes races and Dave said, 'Do you want to make a deal? I’ll give you half of the horse and don’t send me any bills for him.' I brought him to Truro and we trained him the first time in three minutes and he was all over the place.”
Nicknamed 'The Alligator' for his penchant for nipping people in the barn, the horse started off modestly in his three-year-old season.
“The next year as a three-year-old, he raced slow, but he did race," said Romo. "We sent him to Ontario and he won at Flamboro [in 1:59] and I thought he was going to be all right. He kicks at you and you have to watch him. I think he must have kicked over something and hurt his foot up there, so we brought him back home.”
The horse ended up racing 23 times as a three-year-old, earning a speed badge of 1:58.1 at Truro and chalking up four wins and $12,329 in purse earnings.
But when training him back for his four-year-old campaign, calamity struck, causing a season-ending injury before the season started. A crane that was being used to help renovate the Truro Raceway grandstand spooked the horse, causing him to injure himself.
“We were training him back and there was a crane over by the grandstand and he did something to his leg when he saw the crane. He’s a bit spooky," said Romo. "Dave just said at that point, 'You can have him.' I threw him out in the field for seven months; I figured I would just play around and get him back to the races and drive him myself. I was just hoping he’d pick up a few cheques."
Cue his five-year-old season in 2024, when he started slow after not racing at all in 2023, in the lower conditioned classes at Truro, winning a modest "non-winners of $320 in last five" race in 2:00.2 on June 2 with Romo in the bike. He followed that up with a solid second-place effort the following week, pacing his mile in 1:57.2. He then went eight races in a row where he picked up a cheque, but failed to win as he rose up the class ranks.
Then a breakthrough and a harbinger of things to come happened on Sept. 6, as the horse cruised to a new lifetime mark of 1:57.1 with Romo aboard. He missed by just a neck the following week.
On Sept. 22, with Romo occupied with stakes action elsewhere, Jamie Ramsay was recruited to drive. The result, a strong second-place finish, beat just a quarter of a length in 1:57.1.
On Oct. 6, with Ramsay back aboard, the horse flashed the potential that belies his pedigree, as he exploded off cover at the half, crushing the top conditioned class on the day at Truro with a 14-1/2-length victory in a nice lifetime mark of 1:54.1. It was the fastest driving victory of Ramsay's career that includes 58 wins in 677 starts.
“He’s a beast. An absolute beast,” said Ramsay. “I’ve raced him from behind, he raced super. I raced him from a hole, he was great, and I raced him off the front and he was perfect. He’s a very nice horse. A fast horse. I don’t know how fast he is actually. The day he went in 1:54, he could have went in 1:53.
"Danny’s done a great job with him. Whatever he’s doing, keep doing it. It’s definitely not me. It’s all the horse. I’m just going along for the ride and I’m just glad Danny is taking me with him. This has been awesome,” said the affable and popular Ramsay.
On Thanksgiving Monday, all eyes were on the horse, to see if he could go back-to-back off of his dominant win last week. Sent off as the even-money favourite, Bettor On Than Off did not disappoint, as Ramsay took control from the outset and they went gate-to-wire for a four-length victory over a sloppy track allowing two seconds in 1:56 flat.
With four wins and five second-place finishes in 16 starts and $6,464 made all at Truro for the modest purses they race for, the sky is the limit on what the future may hold for Bettor On Than Off. Veteran horseman Romo is taking it all in stride, after having seen almost everything you can see in a career comprised of 3,770 career driving wins and 1,055 training wins, noting wryly, “I told Jamie, I guess he better continue driving him now. He’s on him until he doesn’t get a cheque," he said with a laugh, "and then I’ll take him off.”
(Truro Raceway)