Author: NZHarnessNews

By Jonny Turner Few horses deliver fresh-up performances as impressive as Tony Mac’s winning return at Winton on Thursday. The three-year-old shrugged off the mid-race work he did sitting parked and left no excuses for his rivals in race 3 when powering to victory for driver Kerryn Tomlinson. Put aside after just four starts for trainer Brad Williamson over summer, the trotter looks set for a big campaign judging by his win. “He has been going pretty well at the trials and we have been pretty happy with him,” Williamson…

By Michael Guerin Canterbury horseman John Dunn thinks he can win all three Group 1s at Alexandra Park tonight but they come with varying degrees of concern. When it comes to champion trotter Sundees Son in the $250,000 Reharvest Rowe Cup the concern levels are understandably low. They increase a little more with Highgrove in the $100,000 Breckon Farms Trotting Derby because while he may be the best horse in the race he was an expensive and spectacular failure in his lead-up race last Friday. And Dunn’s greatest challenge of…

By Michael Guerin Nobody could be in a better position to rate Self Assured’s main dangers in tonight’s $400,000 Trillian Trust Auckland Cup than Natalie Rasmussen. Which has a touch of irony because when the outstanding driver jumps in the sulky behind the hot favourite tonight it will be the first time she has done so for a race. Rasmussen, who used to co-train Self Assured, has never actually driven him in a race yet has won Group 1 races in the last year on three of his rivals, including…

The fastest ever time has been set at the Trot Rods in Queensland. The series has been going for three years now. The concept is simple. It involves horses dashing over 947 metres at Redcliffe, with the owners of the fastest horse overall winning $10,000. It’s been a hugely popular series with drivers mic’d up and also wearing helmet cameras to add to the excitement. Last night featured the final 10 of 20 heats, with Just Dessy and driver Cam Hart cruising to victory in heat 18 in 63.46 secs.…

Auckland’s big meeting last Friday topped the turnovers for harness racing meetings in this country last week. The meeting, which featured the Roy Purdon Memorial and the ANZAC Cup, had a turnover of $969,647. That put it ahead of Addington, also on Friday, at $763,397, Rangiora (Sunday) $662,916, Invercargill (Saturday) $463,041 and Addington (Tuesday) $418,879. The combined turnover for the week was $3,277,880, down substantially on the same week last year ($4,125,955) though there was an additional meeting in 2021. The turnover at Auckland last week augurs well for Friday’s…

By Jonny Turner Classy trotters are the order of the week for driver Mark Hurrell. The junior will continue his association with Only One Way who looks well placed in race 8 at the Riverton meeting at Winton on Thursday. After a big win on Diamonds Day at Ascot Park, the Kirstin Barclay trained six-year-old then ran a gritty fourth at Addington. That looks like outstanding form to bring to Winton. “It looks a pretty good race for him, he hasn’t had many mobiles which is probably one concern, but…

Here’s Greg O’Connor and Darrin Williams with the Addington News – May 25