Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Most Happy Fella did it all in his career--he went from being a successful racehorse to a successful sire in just 17 years. He founded a line of pacing sires which has risen to the top levels of the sport and is one of the all-time great broodmare sires as well.

It all began on Sunday, September 29, 1968 was Show Day at the Standardbred farms in the Bluegrass. It was one of those delightful days when the big farms rolled out the red carpet for prospective yearling buyers. They treated them with Kentucky hospitality, fed them well, and made sure everyone got to see the yearlings to be sold at Tattersalls. But on this day, a colt from the first crop of Meadow Skipper out of a Good Time mare at Stoner Creek Stud had been taken out of the sale because he had hurt his hock in a paddock accident, co-owner Norman Woolworth remembered.   That was Most Happy Fella.

“If you know of anyone looking for a nice pacing colt, he’s for sale privately," Woolworth quipped.

The colt was shipped to Woolworth’s partner David Johnston in North Carolina, who broke him to harness, and then shipped him to Stanley Dancer in Florida. Dancer’s job was to get him going so that Most Happy Fella could be sold at a Pompano auction in early 1969. Dancer liked Most Happy Fella so much, he bought the colt for just $12,000.

Most Happy Fella was a big, rough-looking colt, but won the American National, the Arden Downs stake, the Batavia Colt Stakes and the Reading Futurity and Reynolds Memorial at 2.

In 1970, Most Happy Fella swept through the Triple Crown events with Dancer in the bike, then was hustled off to stud at Blue Chip Farm in New York.   His offspring not only dominated the New York Sires Stakes, pacers like Silk Stockings and Tarport Hap proved that they could graduate into Grand Circuit competition and beat the best.

Certainly the best horse Most Happy Fella ever sired was Cam Fella, a winner of $2 million in his career in the early 1980s.   In turn, he became a great sire with six pacers earning more than $2 million. He was buried at Blue Chip Farms in New York after a paddock accident.

Most Happy Fella Career Racing Statistics
Year     Starts  Wins 2nds 3rds  Earnings   Record
1970       26         16      6     3      $387,239    p,3,T1:55
1969       14          6       4      0      $ 31,794     p,2,2;01.3f
Total     40         22     10     3      $419,033