Top stallion Walner has been the talk of North American trotting this year and now his brother is making waves in Europe.
Campaigned overseas by a horsewoman familiar to the Canadian harness racing industry after competing for nearly a decade in Ontario, Riina Rekilä drove the Finnish-bred two-year-old trotting colt Tetrick Wania to victory in the Svenskt Uppföddningslopp at Jägersro in Sweden on Saturday. The colt is a half-brother to 2016 Breeders Crown champion Walner, who is the leading money-winning sire in 2021 for two-year-olds in North America and whose offspring sold at a premium with average prices topping all sires at the Lexington ($160,792) and Harrisburg ($172,737) yearling sales.
Despite making a break behind the gate, Tetrick Wania caught the field and passed them all racing three-wide en route to a six-length victory, recording his fifth straight success from seven starts. Rekilä became the first female driver to win the country's oldest classic race, a Group 1 stakes contested over a distance of 1,640 meters.
Now residing in Siuro, Finland, Rekilä bred and owns the son of Muscle Hill out of her Ken Warkentin mare Random Destiny, who she managed through a $690,000 career that included a O'Brien Award-winning three-year-old campaign with victories in the SBOA Stakes and Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final in 2010.
Tetrick Wania was an $85,000 buy back at the 2020 Lexington Select Yearling Sale, but reports from Swedan indicate Rekilä recently sold the freshman to German owner Karin Walter-Mommert for $3 million EUR.