Month: December 2019

By Michael Guerin A game of musical chairs among his rival drivers is unlikely to change the outcome for Oscar Bonavena in the $50,000 Flying Mile at Cambridge today. The heir to the trotting throne is long odds-on in the highlight of today’s traditional Christmas Eve twilight fixture, with barrier two perhaps giving him the opportunity to lead, which would almost certainly be game over. While it may be business as usual for the young trotting star who is favourite for every race he is entered in over the next…

By Garrick Knight It’s Christmas time and all Mitch Kerr wants in his stocking is an Ashburton Cup. The North Canterbury horseman, arguably the country’s most in-form trainer apart from Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen, has the two favourites for today’s $20,000 feature. Smokin By has established himself as an open class pacer and was a dominant Addington winner last time out. In contrast, Matt Damon has come a long way in a short time, winning six of seven starts this season following a debut second back in July. “I’m…

By Adam Hamilton Dominant Queensland trainer Grant Dixon has quickly turned the page on the disappointment of the Auckland Inter Dominion is planning to hit the road again. But his stable star, Colt Thirty One, won’t be part of the next “excursion.” Dixon is eyeing-off the Victoria Derby, which starts with heats at Ballarat on January 18, with his two top three-year-olds, recent Kiwi import Virgil and the exciting Governor Jujon. They ran the quinella in the inaugural Bill Dixon – a race named after Dixon’s father – at Albion…

The harness racing industry lost a popular identity in Bill Denton on Sunday 22 December 2019. A former trainer and driver, Bill was also involved heavily in the breeding industry, standing influential stallions such as Garrison Hanover during his career as a stud master. He stood stallions at a time when it was extremely hard to get permits to bring in stallions from America, and saw huge changes in the breeding industry during his lifetime. Fortunately by the time the family obtained Garrison Hanover the process was less stringent. “Jack…

By Adam Hamilton   WHAT a shame Kiwis never got to see the “real” Colt Thirty One during the Inter Dominion in Auckland. Never really being comfortable on the track, luckless early runs, especially that gut-buster in the second round of heats all conspired to ruin his Auckland raid. But, remarkably, he returned home to win a Group 2 feature just a week after the last run of his Kiwi campaign. Despite having to fly back to Sydney then face a 10-hour road trip up to Brisbane, Colt Thirty One…

Due to Apple’s upgrade, some ipad’s & iphone’s are having trouble expanding the race fields and results on the HRNZ Website. To fix this problem, follow these simple steps below: Open Settings on your device Swipe down and tap Safari Swipe down again and tap Clear History and Website Data, tap it once again to confirm This should now allow you to view the fields, noms and results.

As we enjoy the holiday season we felt this would be a great opportunity to go back over some of the harness racing mainstream colour stories from the past year or so. Please note we were not able to source copies all of the stories that went to air, but below is a selection of the content we have received. We thank the team at TVNZ and our mainstream media partners for this amazing coverage.   Jeremy Wells meets his namesake Seven Sharp host, Jeremy Wells, was thrilled to have…

By Garrick Knight It’s been a long, hard few years for Winton horsewoman Tracie McGrannachan and unfortunately, it’s not about to get any easier. A botched surgery and ongoing health problems were compounded by a serious accident involving her daughter. So, the win of Dangerous on her hometrack yesterday was a welcome relief from what has been and is to come. The five-year-old has his fair share of talent but has proved a problem horse the last 18 months and McGrannachan is happy to seem back to something like his…

By Jonny Turner A busy Christmas and New Year racing period kicks off for trainers Greg and Nina Hope at Rangiora on Sunday. The husband and wife training partners line up eight horses, before stepping out two more at Ashburton on Tuesday and a further eight at Westport on Boxing Day. The Hope stable have a two pronged attack on Sunday’s feature race, the Rangiora Summer Cup. Both Kendra and Homebush Lad are both strong chances, but will need more luck than they have received in their recent racing to…