Turnovers hit seven figures twice
For the first time since early February turnover has exceeded a million dollars at two harness meetings in the same week. It last happened at Addington February 12 and at Hororata two days later. Last week Addington turned over $1.144m on Friday night followed by Banks Peninsula ($1,001m) on Sunday. With meetings every day from Tuesday to Sunday total turnover for the week was nearly $4.1m.
Guaranteed pools at Addington
Addington will have two $25,000 guaranteed quaddies on Friday night , with a guaranteed $30,000 Pick 6 at its Easter Cup meeting on April 3, followed by $25,000 guaranteed quaddies for its Premier meeting six days later.
Quality not quantity for Free For All
A small but select field will contest Friday’s Leefield Station Wines Free-For-All mobile pace at Addington , with only five horses starting , though between them they are all Group One winners, and have won 70 races and nearly $4m in stakes. Trainer Hayden Cullen holds most of the trumps with Self Assured (14 wins), Spankem (19 wins) and Amazing Dream (18 wins), with AG’s White Socks (12 wins) and Watch Me Now (7 wins) completing the field.
Purdon no luck in Victorian opener
Nathan Purdon has lined up his first starter in Victoria, since moving across the Tasman last month. The 25 year old is basing himself at Lara near Geelong and last night had two-year-old Captn Me start a hot favourite at Cranbourne. But the son of Captaintreacherous finished third in the five-horse field behind the Gath-trained second favourite Holzhauer. Purdon has about a dozen horses in work, including the dual Group One placed Spellbound.
Dunn close to milestones
In North America Dexter Dunn is pushing both 100 wins and a million dollars in stakes for the year. The two-time US driver of the year has 96 wins from 474 starts to be ninth overall, with Aaron Merriman leading the way with 160. Dunn is also fourth in the list of the top earning drivers with $US971,291 for 2021 behind George Brennan ($US1,003,873), Daniel Noble ($1,047,223) and Trace Tetrick ($US1,157,555).
