Category: Punting

By Mike Love  Franco Marek ($5.50FF) will be looking to make his case stronger for a spot in this year’s IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup by producing a stout effort in today’s Group 3 Alabar Methven Cup (4.36pm). Currently ranked 13th for the New Zealand Cup, Franco Marek, who will start from a 10 metre handicap, gets his chance to move in the right direction today in a race where conditions should suit the big gelding and Lincoln trainer Greg Manson believes the seven year old A Rocknroll Dance is…

Craig “The Whale” Thompson shares his thoughts on Methven today.    

Methven’s meeting tomorrow (Sunday) will go ahead as planned. There were concerns that the meeting would have to be transferred to Addington Raceway after this week’s poor weather in Mid Canterbury. But after a track inspection today by a group including HRNZ representatives, club officials and the Racing Integrity Board it was decided the meeting would proceed as planned. The track, currently rated as dead, has held up well which is a credit to the work done by everyone at the club. The first of the day’s 11 races will…

By Michael Guerin The southern invasion at Addington is about to get longer and stronger. And that could see trainer Nathan Williamson with at least three major race chances during Cup week as he continued his profitable spring at headquarters on Friday night. A week after two-year-old trotter Duchess Maria won the inaugural Sundon Trot at Addington last Friday her Williamson stablemate Indulge Me came from the worst possible draw to blast past some talented juvenile pacing fillies in the Dunstan Feeds Sires’ Stakes heat. It was only her second…

By Michael Guerin While there was no surprise in the quinella in the Holmes D G at Alexandra Park on Friday night it raised a very interesting question.  Is winner Sooner The Bettor going better than this time last year or is Merlin going worse? The answer might be a little bit of both.  Sooner The Bettor made it three wins on end to start this campaign and earned his golden ticket into the IRT New Zealand Cup when he led, trailed his stablemate then clearly outpointed him in the…

By Michael Guerin The reason Merlin shouldn’t win tonight’s TAB Holmes D G at Alexandra Park isn’t as powerful as the reasons he should win it. The north’s best pacer faces the curse of the back makers in the Group 3 tonight, a win-and-you-are-in race for the IRT New Zealand Cup on November 11. Horses starting off back marks in major races in recent years have been regularly getting beaten and costing punters plenty, Merlin doing exactly that in the Spring Cup last start against many of those he races…

By Michael Guerin The big girl Beside Me is back at Addington tonight and she is ready to go.  She is going to need to be. One of our most talented three-year-old pacing fillies in a very deep yet even crop Beside Me looked like she could be the next big thing with a stunning Caduceus Club Ladyship Stakes win at Alexandra Park in March. Soon after she was odds-on for the Northern Oaks but she was beaten by Arafura in the Oaks and Captains Mistress in a red hot…