Ashburton Raceway has had a major makeover ahead of its huge finish to the year.
An entirely new surface has been laid, with around 600 tonnes of material being replaced.
The work was overseen by Harness Racing New Zealand’s Track Facilities Manager John Denton.
“We had a slight delay to doing the work because of bad weather earlier in the month but the whole process went smoothly,” says Denton, “we are confident that the track will provide an excellent racing surface.”
View track video here
The Ashburton Trotting Club will host three major meetings in coming weeks, starting with Labour Day, Monday October 27.
The day will feature two Group 2s in the Mid Canterbury Trotting Owners Ladies’ Sprint for 4YO and older pacing mares and the NZB Airfreight Ashburton Flying Stakes.
November sees the running of the second ever “Emerging Talent” meeting on the Thursday of IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup week. Targeted to horses in the maiden to one-win grade it will feature 13 races. Among them will be an Invitational Drivers race for 4YO Mares over 1700 metres. Already dual New Zealand Cup-winning driver Cam Hart has indicated he’s keen to take part and may be joined by other international drivers here for the World Driving Championship that concludes on Cup day. Invitations for the race will be issued closer to the time.
Then on December 21 Ashburton will host the Harness 5000. The eagerly-anticipated series, featuring 12 $60,000 finals, is for trotters and pacers whose sire stood for an advertised retail service fee of $5,000 or less in the breeding season of conception and to be eligible horses must compete in at least five race day starts between July 3 – December 9,2025.
Every week the Harness 5000 tracker is updated. It shows how any horses have become eligible for the series.
The “168” on the tracker signifies correlation to the maximum number of horses that can compete on the day, based on 12 races of 14 horse fields. Right now the figure is well past that at 212, an increase of 17 in the past week. It is anticipated that around 350 horses will be in the mix come December, though this figure could fluctuate. So far the biggest categories are for the 5YO and older Entires and Geldings. There are currently 47 pacers and 46 trotters.
To see the Harness 5000 Leaderboard click here