By Jonny Turner It would be a tall order to ask Brett Gray to repeat his recent success at Riverton on Sunday. The Ryal Bush trainer had his best season when notching 40 wins in 2025 and just two weeks into 2026 he produced his first trifecta when Anita Mary, Blaze Lightning and Jaccka Evan filled the first three at Ascot Park last week. “It certainly was a thrill, all three horses went well and it was good to see Anita Mary win for Paul Hailes at the Northern Southland…
Author: NZHarnessNews
Sticky draw for Bazooka at Addington tonight
By Michael Guerin This is the campaign in which Bazooka needs to stand up but trainer Steven Reid isn’t entirely sure tonight’s main pace at Addington will be the moment it happens. Bazooka resumes after a month away in the Touchdown Rentals Pace (8.55pm) in which he faces barrier 9 in the 1980m mobile but meets few horses with his natural ability. While Beside Me ($1.85) looked a superstar filly this time last year Bazooka ($3.70) looked an open class horse in the making a year ago. “To be honest…
Purdon with strong presence in opening Young Guns heat
By Michael Guerin Nathan Purdon has plenty of reasons to be excited as he heads to the first Alexandra Park meeting of the year tonight. Because not only does the meeting boast the first juvenile race of the season but Purdon dominates it with four of the seven starters. The $17,000 Breckon Farms Young Gun heat (8.05pm) starts a run toward the $100,000 final at Alexandra Park on March 20 and the series looks set to provide a great advertisement for Purdon’s new business now that he is training on…
Coppins heads back to Hawera “after one of the greatest days of my life”
By Jordyn Bublitz Kate Coppins is going into Tuesday’s meeting at Hawera high on confidence, but realistic that her career-best efforts at the course on Sunday will be virtually impossible to match, let alone beat. Yesterday the talented junior driver took out half the card, with five wins on the 10 race programme. “It was one of the greatest days of my life,” she says. On Tuesday Coppins has eight drives on the 10-race card and while momentum is on her side, she remains focused on staying grounded. “Dad always…
Typhoon Tere back at Blenheim after five year absence
By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk What a story it will be if Typhoon Tere could pull off a victory at Blenheim today. Incredibly, the nine-year-old son of Washington VC is having just his second race day start, over five years after his debut at Addington. Then (July 24, 2020) he was trained by Ken Barron. Now he is under the care of Jason and Ian Thomas. Recent years have had their challenges. “At one stage he cracked a pastern and had to be boxed for a…
Last dance for 12 race-winning mare at Blenheim
By Michael Guerin Dance Till Dawn gets the last chance to add the icing to her career cake at Blenheim this weekend. The seven-year-old mare is preparing for her final weekend of racing before being retired to stud, in foal to Downbytheseaside. She is the third mum-to-be from the Dunns’ Diamond Racing team to finish racing this month, following on from Follow Your Dream and I Dream Of Jeannie. Dance Till Dawn has had a superb career for Team Dunn, having won 12 of her 88 starts and earned over…
Princess Sadie favoured in today’s Group 3 at Invercargill
By Jonny Turner The Group 3 Pryde’s Easifeed Southern Lights Trot is coming along at the perfect time for Princess Sadie. The Oamaru mare is set to start favourite ($2.40FF) for the Northern Southland Trotting Club feature at Ascot Park today (7.34pm) largely due to her front-line handicap. Earlier in her career, punters may not have been keen to take up short odds on Princess Sadie in a 2700m Group event. While she was known as a speedster as she competed with plenty of merit in top-class age-group events, a…
Payne has two debut runners at Ashburton on Tuesday
By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk Dunsandel trainer Sam Payne will line up two contrasting first starters at Ashburton on Tuesday. After impressing at the trials, Makani ($3.80FF) will start in Race 1, the 4 Blokes Syndicate Mobile Trot while stablemate Major Miss ($6FF) debuts in Race 5, the Betavet / B and T White Racing Stables Mobile Pace. Both will be driven Jonny Cox. Payne bought Makani for $23,000 at the 2024 National Yearling Sales. “I spotted him during the Southland tour looking at yearlings and I liked…
Orange with number of chances at Nelson on Sunday
By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk The country’s leading driver Blair Orange looks to have a stack of each way chances on the second day of Nelson’s Summer at The Trots meeting at Richmond Park on Sunday. The now eight-time premiership winner has eight drives on the 11-race card that starts just before noon. He rates course specialist Nellie Doyle among his best chances on the day. She’ll line up in the Mike Austin Memorial Handicap (Race 8, 3.41pm), a heat of the Trevor Craddock Seddon Trotting Series,…
It’s Flying Stakes night at Cambridge tonight
By Michael Guerin Champion trainer Barry Purdon is adamant Meant To Be (pictured above) has the motor of a good open class trotter. But tonight’s $40,000 Trotters Flying Stakes (7.01pm) at Cambridge could be a little too soon to see that motor pay dividends. Meant To Be is a trotting rarity having looked like an open class horse even when winning as a two-year-old, an age when most young trotters are still trying to work out where their legs are supposed to go. After a luckless back end to his…