Category: Meeting Previews

The fields are all but complete for the two $500,000 slot races at Addington Raceway on Show Day. All 10 runners have been confirmed for the Majestic Horse Floats THE ASCENT while there is one space left in the Hill, Lee and Scott THE VELOCITY. THE ASCENT features top Australian filly Tracy The Jet, trained by Jess Tubbs. She has won eight from 13 including her last six in a row. Tracy The Jet is the favourite with the TAB though there are five runners in single figures – Tracy…

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk Career win number four at Cambridge last Thursday was enough to secure Eric of Dreams a trip to the Harness 5000 at Ashburton next month. The Vincent three-year-old is trained at Pukekohe by Ray Green and Nathan Delany and is raced by Delany and his mate Cody Evans. “He’s been my project right from the start,” says Delany, “I got him as a yearling and broke him in .. he’s doing well.” Dreams Of Eric has won four from 14 and will have…

By Michael Guerin Merlin’s New Zealand Cup campaign is back on track and he could even be joined by another stablemate in the great race. The five-year-old recorded his first win in nearly a year in the $100,000 Alabar Kaikoura Cup and it was a proper victory too, coming from well off favourite Akuta to overpower him in the last 150m. Akuta led early and was briefly challenged by Sooner The Bettor but Merlin still had to come from a long way back, three wide down the back straight, and…

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk  Surely they can’t be a more popular winner at Kaikoura today than Rachmaninov.  The veteran trotter, having his 289th start, outstayed his rivals to win the Smartpanel Construction Ltd Trot.   It was his second start in two days, his 12th career win and it pushed him over $200,000 in career earnings. “Everyone’s so stoked with him,” says co-breeder, co-owner and trainer Trevor Grant. “He really is everyone’s favourite horse isn’t he? After a safe beginning Rachmaninov went up to sit parked with…

Europe has flexed its muscle on day two of the World Driving Championship in Kaikoura. Firstly it was Jaap van Rijn from the Netherlands who took out Heat 4 and then it was Germany’s Michael Nimczyk who prevailed in the second and final heat of the day with the Matt Purvis-trained Flying Bird. Their victories completed a hat-trick for the Europeans, following Italian Giampaolo Minnucci’s win in the third heat yesterday. The opening two heats were taken out by Australia’s Gary Hall Junior. In today’s heats It’s Tough produced a…

Jaap van Rijn (The Netherlands) has registered his first win at the World Driving Championship. And it was a powerhouse performance at the South Bay race course in Kaikoura in heat 4 of the WDC.  Van Rijn made a mid race move with favourite It’s Tough and from there it was all over. The Robert and Jenna Dunn-trained four year old has been in outstanding form and just powered away from his opposition to win effortlessly. It was his fifth win in his last six starts. For van Rijn it…

Two-time champion Swayzee is out of the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup. The Jason Grimson-trained star was vying to become just the fourth horse to win three New Zealand Cups in a row but today he’s been officially withdrawn from the $1m feature at Addington Raceway on Tuesday, November 11. The news was not unexpected. Over the weekend it was reported he had a suspected cold and was scratched from a race at Menangle. He also missed last month’s Victoria Cup with a bowel infection. Australia’s two starters in the…