Author: NZHarnessNews

By Jonny Turner  Phil Williamson has raced enough horses at Ascot Park to know Tarragindi is facing a stern test on Thursday. Tarragindi will start from a 30m handicap over 2200m in Race 10, the Centrepoint/South City Liquorland Handicap Trot (3.39pm) taking on a smart field in the process.  Those circumstances all add up to the master trainer being hopeful rather than confident going into the race.  “I have had a few that have tried to win off 30m over 2200m at Invercargill and it is not easy,” Williamson said. …

By Adam Hamilton  Champion driver Luke McCarthy can’t wait to drive boom Kiwi pacer Marketplace in his Australian debut at Menangle on Saturday night. Regan Todd’s four-year-old is a $1.50 favourite despite drawing the outside (he will start from gate 10) in a 2300m free-for-all. His key rivals include Jason Grimson’s star speedster Hi Manameisjeff and Mick Stanley’s Ubetcha Tigerpie, who ran fourth in the Nullarbor and Fremantle Cup at Gloucester Park in April. McCarthy took the reins when Marketplace beat Ubetcha Tigerpie comfortably in a slick 1min50.1sec mile trial…

By Mike Love  Canterbury junior driver Mia Holbrough takes the reins behind four good chances at today’s Addington meeting which features the $25,000 Hydroflow Silk Road Fillies and Mares Final Mobile Trot (4.27pm). Holbrough will take the drive behind the Bruce Negus-trained Buffy Northstains ($8.50FF) in the event, and with a handy draw, coupled with some good recent form, Holbrough is confident the 21-race winning, eight-year-old Majestic Son mare, can feature.  “Her last two starts have probably been the best of her career. She needs a bit of luck, but…

By Michael Guerin Cran Dalgety says it is great to have the stable back firing on all cylinders. And while he and wife Chrissie won’t be taking their absolute elite to Addington tonight he thinks they could come away with a winning double. Team Dalgety may sit fourth on the national premiership with 37 wins following a treble at Ashburton last Sunday with Cherish Me, Freeze Frame and Franco Sinatra, but their recent northern campaign wasn’t much fun as many of their reps were hit by a bug that even…

By Jonny Turner  Mark Hurrell can eclipse his 2025 driving tally in half the time at Ascot Park on King’s Birthday. The reinsman goes into June 1 meeting on 25 wins for the year, just two shy of his total from all of last year. Hurrell looks a realistic chance of completing the feat with his strong book of each way chances. Getting it done would provide an extra boost for the reinsman whose great recent momentum in the south is about to come to a halt for the next…

By Mike Love  West Melton trainers Cran and Chrissie Dalgety head to Ashburton today with a book of seven runners, most of which are sure to give punters something to cheer home.  There are several features throughout the day, including the $40,000 Group Three Helen Pope Memorial 2YO Fillies Stakes (1.28pm) over 1700m. In this event they line up Devil Woman ($10.00FF), driven by Carter Dalgety, who tasted defeat for the first time in her last outing at Addington. In that event she showed gate speed to lead before being…

By Michael Guerin Moonlite Blood looks to be the right horse with the right draw in the feature pace at Addington tonight. The six-year-old will start favourite in the McMillan Equine Feeds Mobile Pace (8.05pm) after a run of luckless draws from behind the mobile. While the talented pacer with the big ownership group won four starts ago that was from a standing start whereas his most recent draws behind the mobile have been 10, 9, 5 (when fourth in a good field), 6 and 11. In fact the last…

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk  With a quartet of this year’s open class pacing stars off the scene, Sideshow Bruce has been installed a red hot favourite for the $25,000 Free For All at Ashburton on Sunday. The Rakaia Seed Cleaning FFA Mobile Pace (3.58pm) is one of the day’s features along with the $40,000 Group 3 Helen Pope Memorial 2YO Fillies Stakes (1.28pm) and the $25,000 Gallagher Insurance Ashburton Winter Cup (3.18pm). Among the top-liners missing from the Free For All are four-year-old stars Got The Chocolates…

By Ben Grimstone, the TAB’s Trading Manager for Harness Racing In this column I delve into the why, how and what behind our tactics and results on the biggest harness meetings in New Zealand. Today it is Addington’s Premier meeting last Friday night. Off the back of my last column and the hiding we received, I naively assumed the next one I wrote would be back in the bookies’ favour. The punters had other ideas. I’ll go through a handful of the Addington races, including the features. We got more wrong…