Author: NZHarnessNews

By Michael Guerin Pacing’s pocket rocket is both bigger and stronger for his return to racing at Alexandra Park tonight and Merlin is going to need to be as a mammoth back-end to the season looms. Merlin is unbeaten in four starts including winning the Group 2 Cardigan Bay Stakes at Alexandra Park in March but with the harness racing season now based on the calendar year the early-season juveniles have to prove themselves all over again, starting with the first race meeting of spring tonight. Merlin suggested that won’t…

By Michael Guerin The Rowe Cup hero may get his chance at the dream double in the Dominion after all. Bolt For Brilliance has pleased trainer-driver Tony Herlihy so much in the early stages of this preparation the champion horseman says a trip to Addington for the Group 1 trot on Show Day is now back on the cards. Herlihy never totally ruled out the Dominion, a race Bolt For Brilliance finished third in last season, but had suggested the Inter Dominion which start in Victoria 15 days later was…

A fund-raising event has been confirmed for popular Canterbury horseman Murray Edmonds – and already support is pouring in. The Motukarara-based trainer-driver was diagnosed with a brain tumour a month ago. “Uncle Murray is the sort of person who would help everyone else and now people are helping him,” says Murray’s niece Aimee Edmonds. Along with other harness racing identities Sandi Curtin and Stevie Golding, Aimee’s organising a fund-raising dinner at Addington Raceway on Thursday, September 22. “We have booked the Silks lounge and we have had a lot of…

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk A plethora of talented young pacers have carried Brian O’Meara’s famous silks, and he may have unearthed another at Rangiora on Sunday. Mandalay Bay was making his debut in the Sefton Pace (2600m) and was handled patiently by driver Jim Curtin after making a quiet beginning. The three-year-old gelding tracked fellow debutant Michael Caine throughout and attained the coveted one-one position with a lap to go. With 550m to go driver Ben Hope pushed the go button on Michael Caine, who left his rivals…

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk It will be a sentimental moment for Canterbury horsewoman Kimberley Butt when Master Class steps out in the Oxford Trot (2600m) at Rangiora on Sunday. The three-year-old debutant was bred by Butt family matriarch Jenny Butt, who shares in the ownership of the gelding with her granddaughter, Kimberley. It will be the first time Butt has trained a horse for her Nana and she is looking forward to it. “He is a horse I have luckily got from my Nana, which we are halves…

By Jonny Turner A repeat of last year’s Group Three Maurice Holmes Vase won’t cut it for Geoff and James Dunn’s returning stars The Falcon and Laver. The hardy stayers will both make a start on their new campaigns when stepping out in the first New Zealand Cup qualifying event of 2022. There looks to be little question about where The Falcon is at ahead of his turn after he produced a stirring performance to run second to race rival Heza Sport in a recent trial. The four-year-old set up…