A quality cast of four-year-olds will clash in Malaysia’s richest race this weekend, with a significant NZB influence throughout the 16-horse field. Sunday’s Selangor Mile (1600m) is worth RM1m (NZ$395,000) and is marketed as ‘One Race, One Million, One Champion’. Five of the 16 runners in the 2025 Selangor Mile are graduates of the Karaka sale ring, plus New Zealand-bred Shinjuku (NZ) (Tarzino). ANTIPODEAN (NZ)The number-one saddlecloth will be carried by the race’s highest-rated runner and likely favourite Antipodean (NZ) (Derryn). Breeders Grangewilliam Stud offered Antipodean in Book 2 of Karaka 2022, where he…
Year: 2025
Karaka Graduates Shoot for Selangor’s Seven-Figure Prize
A quality cast of four-year-olds will clash in Malaysia’s richest race this weekend, with a significant NZB influence throughout the 16-horse field. Sunday’s Selangor Mile (1600m) is worth RM1m (NZ$395,000) and is marketed as ‘One Race, One Million, One Champion’. Five of the 16 runners in the 2025 Selangor Mile are graduates of the Karaka sale ring, plus New Zealand-bred Shinjuku (NZ) (Tarzino). ANTIPODEAN (NZ)The number-one saddlecloth will be carried by the race’s highest-rated runner and likely favourite Antipodean (NZ) (Derryn). Breeders Grangewilliam Stud offered Antipodean in Book 2 of Karaka 2022, where he…
Karaka Graduates Shoot for Selangor’s Seven-Figure Prize
A quality cast of four-year-olds will clash in Malaysia’s richest race this weekend, with a significant NZB influence throughout the 16-horse field. Sunday’s Selangor Mile (1600m) is worth RM1m (NZ$395,000) and is marketed as ‘One Race, One Million, One Champion’. Five of the 16 runners in the 2025 Selangor Mile are graduates of the Karaka sale ring, plus New Zealand-bred Shinjuku (NZ) (Tarzino). ANTIPODEAN (NZ)The number-one saddlecloth will be carried by the race’s highest-rated runner and likely favourite Antipodean (NZ) (Derryn). Breeders Grangewilliam Stud offered Antipodean in Book 2 of Karaka 2022, where he…
Pitmans go to Plan B for Winter Cup-bound Epee Beel
Sunday’s Glenmoa Farms Ltd River Plate Trophy (1200m) at Oamaru is an unexpected detour for Epee Beel in her build-up to the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1600m) at Riccarton on August 2. Epee Beel is a proven big-race performer over the course and distance of the Winter Cup, having taken out the Listed NZB Insurance Stakes (1600m) last year and the Gr.3 South Island Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) in March. Trainers Michael and Matthew Pitman had no hesitation in pointing her towards the $110,000 feature on the opening day of this…
Top mares set for new spring racing series
by Michael Guerin New Zealand’s best pacing mare is set to add her stamp of class to a new series of races being widely welcomed by trainers. HRNZ has announced the new Mare’s Spring Schedule to provide consistent racing for mares without having to take on the boys. The Canterbury-based series of six races starts at Addington on August 29 and runs through until Show Day at Addington on November 14, where it ends with the Bob McArdle Classic. It contains a $17,000 kick off race, one race of $25,000,…
Oscar primed for one final Inter Dominion tilt
by Adam Hamilton Oscar Bonavena has at least one more booming run in him. Co-trainer Nathan Purdon said the nine-year-old “looked a million bucks” as the $500,000 Inter Dominion trotting final draws closer. “I’m pleasantly surprised how good he is, especially after the two mistakes and the chasing he had to do the other night,” he said. “I was just saying this morning how sound he is and how great he looks. “He might have looked a bit showy last Saturday, but he’s spot on now.” This time there is…
News Briefs: Kiwis chasing titles, stallion rosters revealed
Herbertson leads as Kiwi quartet chase in Young Drivers Champs The 2025 Australasian Young Drivers Championship is heating up, with Victoria’s James Herbertson staking a dominant early claim as the competition leader heading into the final rounds. Three heats were held at Albion Park on Tuesday night and another three last night, where all four of the New Zealand representatives recorded a placing: Carter has two second placings, and Sam, Wilson and Harrison have a third placing each. But it’s Herbertson who’s set the benchmark, notching up three wins and…
Gray lining up powerful 12-horse team
by Jonny TurnerSouthland’s biggest day of winter harness racing so far is looking Gray. Brett Gray lines up a powerful 12-horse team at Winton’s Winter Rewards Finals Day on Thursday. Beating her stablemates may prove to be the biggest challenge for Gray’s stable spearhead Haley Jaccka in the tightest assessed of three Winter Rewards Finals for pacers. The mare returned from a freshener with a bang, powering along the inner to win a hectic affair at Ascot Park ten days ago. And according to her trainer, she’s thrived since. “That…
Vadamos colt tackles Sires’ Produce
Mostly For Show (NZ) (Vadamos) will fly the flag for Richard and Chantelle Jolly in Saturday’s Gr.3 South Australian Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Morphettville, in what will be the son of Vadamos’ final run before a spell. Twice placed from four starts this campaign, the two-year-old colt has consistently been competitive without getting his nose in front, convincing his trainers to give him one more go this time in. A mix of locals and Victorian raiders have accepted for the A$150,000 contest and though Mostly For Show is among…
Perfect three for the Grays at Awapuni
As Stephen Gray’s first season back on home soil nears a close, the Palmerston North trainer was rapt to add three more wins to the stable’s tally on the Awapuni Synthetic on Thursday. Formerly training in Singapore, Gray joined his father, Kevin Gray, in partnership this term and the pair have swiftly gained momentum, collecting 21 victories prior to the all-weather meeting. Their first representative, the striking Cosentino (NZ) (El Roca), was backed into $2.10 favouritism in a competitive Tomo’s Aluminium Services 1000 after trading blows with Platinum Designs (NZ)…