By Jonny Turner Regan Todd admits there is little between his pairing of Baileys Pitch and Theresa Love in today’s junior drivers’ event at Ashburton. The in-form duo have landed in contrasting draws for the 2400m mobile with Baileys Pitch to start from barrier 1, inside Theresa Love who has barrier 7. Race markets suggest Theresa Love ($2.50) has the edge over Baileys Pitch ($5.50) and while Todd agrees in principle, there may be less between the two than those prices suggest. “Going by their work on Saturday, I couldn’t…
Author: NZHarnessNews
Luk Chin turns 80 – “I’m going to keep going for a while yet”
By Michael Guerin Luk Chin may be turning 80 today but he says there is a very good reason he can’t retire from training and, more remarkably, driving in races. “I still have a goal to achieve, I want a Group 1 winner,” says the hugely popular Waikato horseman. Chin has been driving winners for four decades and has no reason to be concerned he is losing his touch: last season as a 79-year-old was his most successful yet with nine driving wins. All are trotters, all horses he trains,…
First Harness to Hack “huge success”
By Katie Steffert On the 17th and 18th of December 2022 the North Island Standardbred Assn held the inaugural From Harness to Hack event at the Waikato Equestrian Center. This event was designed to showcase the versatility of the breed in their life after racing. Combinations entered into one of three overall categories – Pleasure, Novice, or Open. They then selected four sections to compete in: inhand showing, ridden showing, dressage, show jumping, and musical equitation. To help encourage participation, combinations were able to choose their level of dressage test…
Aussie News – January 15
By Adam Hamilton The records keep tumbling for young gun driver Emily Suvaljko. The diminutive Suvaljko became the first female to snare a Group 1 Fremantle Cup winner when she drove a glorious race and caused an upset on $31 shot Mighty Ronaldo in last Friday night’s feature at Gloucester Park. “That was a huge thrill and a bit of a surprise. I missed the WA Cup winning drive on Vultan Tin two years ago when I suspended and then ran second in that race on Miracle Moose,” Suvaljko said.…
Cranbourne takes out Australian debut
By Adam Hamilton Caretaker trainer David Aiken thinks former Kiwi pacer Cranbourne could “pinch” a really big win before he moves to the US. Aiken was thrilled with the six-year-old’s narrow but impressive first-up win in Australia in last night’s $75,000 Group 2 Shepparton Gold Cup (2690m). Cranbourne, who won 12 of his 42 runs in NZ, came through the win so well he will definitely back up in the Group 1 Ballarat Cup next Saturday night. “He didn’t go much quicker than he would have in a trial and…
Dunns dominate second day at Nelson
By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk Diamond Racing were a dominant force at Nelson on Sunday, with trainers Robert and Jenna Dunn taking out half of the 12-race card at Richmond Park. Their charge was headed by Mighty Looee, who backed up his Nelson Cup (3000m) heroics on Friday to win the Nelson Classic (1609m) two days later. “He burnt hard quite early, but he held them off quite nicely in the finish,” driver John Dunn said. “It was good that he backed up from his good run on the…
Austin seeking sentimental win
By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk Sentimentality has drawn Rodger Austin to Nelson on Sunday where he hopes to take out the race named in honour of his father, Mike Austin. Mike Austin was synonymous with the trotting gait and bred Idle Stuartia, who his son will line-up in the Mike Austin Memorial Trot (2400m) this weekend. “He bred her and the race is one of the main reasons why we are going to Nelson,” Austin said. The daughter of Superfast Stuart finished eighth on the opening day of the…
Merlin set for big start to 2023
By Michael Guerin Champion trainer Barry Purdon has no regrets about allowing Merlin miss the final Group 1 of last season and the decision could be set to pay a big dividend. Purdon and training partner Scott Phelan let their stable star bypass the $100,000 Ace Of Spades at the Grand Prix meeting at Addington on December 4, realising the three-year-old features for the new season would roll around before long. “He needed to have a break after the Sires’ Stakes in November otherwise he wasn’t going to get one,”…
Mighty Looee and Dunns dominate Nelson Cup
By Jonny Turner Mighty Looee continued his epic harness racing journey when powering to victory in the Nelson Cup on Friday. The six-year-old led a Dunn domination by taking out 3000m feature on the first day of Richmond Park’s two-day summer meeting. In just his third start back from an Australian campaign, Mighty Looee worked to the lead before running away from his rivals on a big day out for trainers Robert and Jenna Dunn and driver John Dunn. Somewhat ironically, the horse was sent to Australia for mile racing…
Aussie calling Majestic Man
By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk Australia is once again beckoning for Majestic Man after his win in the Group 3 Cambridge Flying Stakes (2200m) on Thursday night. The Majestic Son gelding showed his gate speed to quickly take the lead for driver Brad Williamson who dictated terms throughout and guided his charge to a comfortable 1-1/2 length victory over stablemate Love N The Port. “He has got the game for the sprinting and with it not being a strong field, he was always going to be very hard to…