By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk
After a close run series, Michael House is New Zealand’s champion amateur driver.
The series concluded at Addington yesterday with House and Bruce Hadley both tied on 16 points.
A countback then couldn’t separate the pair as both drivers had one win, one second and a third over the four races at Cambridge (Thursday) and Addington (Friday and Sunday).
According to the conditions of the Championship “should no winner be identified at the end of the initial count back then the winner shall be the driver who drove the most recent winner in the championship.”
And that was House as he won Heat 3 at Addington yesterday with the Bruce Negus-trained Gliding High. Hadley’s only winner came at Cambridge with Billy The Kid on Thursday night. The fourth and final heat was taken out by Craig Sharpe with favourite Stephs Boy while Cheree Wigg won the second heat with Almighty Clever.
For House, who is second in the trainers premiership with 72 wins in 2025, it is his first win in the NZ Amateur Driving Championship.
Results for House and Hadley for the four races were :
Michael House :
8th in Heat 1 (Maria Kirilenko)
2nd Heat 2 (Betterwithbling)
1st Heat 3 (Gliding High)
3rd Heat 4 (Pure Courage)
Bruce Hadley :
1st in Heat 1 (Billy The Kid)
10th in Heat 2 (Hope For Love)
3rd in Heat 3 (Waterholes Road)
2nd in Heat 4 (Timbimboo)
Final Leaderboard :
Michael House 16
Bruce Hadley 16
Frank Phelan 14
Craig Sharpe 10
Cheree Wigg 10
Andrew Sharpe 6
Neil Munro 6
Alan Edge 6
John Kriechbaumer 5
Colleen Negus 1
Big few days for Bruce Hutton at Addington
By Mike Love
Greendale trainer Bruce Hutton had a very successful couple of days at Addington Raceway over the weekend, lining up two runners for two victories.
Whyamihere and driver Jim Curtin took out the Gold Band Taxis Harness 5000 Series (Final) in emphatic style on Friday. It was the three-year-old Sky Major gelding’s second win in just three starts.
“He’s a really nice horse. He’s Australian owned by John Durston and his wife. He’s doing a great job at the moment,” says Hutton.
“It’s a bit tricky now because he now drops into the better grade of horses, but he’s not that experienced yet. So I’ll have a yarn to the owners and see but he’ll be having a week off now then go somewhere else.”
Capping off the weekend was Apatchofgold’s success in the Mike (Got A Bit On) Palermo Pace, also with driver Jim Curtin on Sunday.
Apatchofgold made a fast beginning to lead from the 2000m stand. Curtin initially handed up, but then angled out and around to regain the lead in a confident move. On the corner Apatchofgold was being urged along to go up a few gears and was meanwhile temporarily headed by Melton Magnate before tenaciously fighting back to win by half a head at the line.
“She’s an eftpos card. I actually broke her in as a weanling, sent her to Bruce Negus and then she came back to me,” says Hutton.
“She’ll have a few days off then line up back here probably on a Friday because she’ll be out of the Sunday grade now.”
Apatchofgold, the six-year-old Racing Hill mare, has now won six from 83, with 18 placings and total stakes just shy of $80,000. She is raced by Hutton along with Derek Newton.
“I’ve got a couple of nice young ones there. We have another nice Sky Major filly who bowls around good, and a Downbytheseaside two-year-old out of Invisible Girl who I’m rapt with.”