Month: June 2020

By Dave Di Somma – Harness News Desk A hard luck story, a horse that just loves to race and a last start winner – that sums up Geoff Dunn’s three starters on Friday night. The hard luck story is Laver. Royally bred by Art Major out of Dunn’s brilliant 16-race winner Venus Serena Laver has been the “nearly” horse  this season.  In 17 starts the three-year-old’s has just the one win,  but has never finished further back than 5th. So often he’s been the victim of tough draws and tough runs. On…

Today we continue our series on horse ownership – how did it all start? And what are your favourite memories? We’ve already heard from Trevor Casey, Elizabeth McCormick, Pauline Pattullo, Pip Gerard, and Ross Cleland. Today it’s Melissa Whyte’s turn. By Dave Di Somma – Harness News Desk Melissa Whyte’s racing dreams may seem common enough – she desperately wants to breed and race a winner. But what sets her apart is that the horse can’t be just bay, black or grey – it has to be multi-coloured. Put simply,…

By Josh Smith – Harness News Desk Our Sunny Whiz took trainer Ken Sefonte to the pinnacle of his career when winning the Gr.1 Rowe Cup (3200m) 12 years ago and he is hoping her daughter Whimsical Whizard has inherited some of her star quality. The three-year-old filly will make her debut in the Host Your Special Event At Cambridge Raceway Trot (2200m) on Thursday and Sefonte is confident of a solid first-up run. The daughter of Majestic Son has finished runner-up in both of her trials to date, including…

Jason Teaz, Aaron White & Michael Guerin provide us with their selections ahead of the meeting at Cambridge today. Selections can be found here Head to www.tab.co.nz to make a bet!

By Adam Hamilton PART-OWNER Rob Gartrell has strongly hinted at a Menangle stint for exciting WA pacer Ocean Ridge. Speaking on Perth’s TAB Radio this morning (Thursday), Gartrell said it was an attractive option to send the Kiwi-bred Ocean Ridge to race at Menangle in future. “It’s something we’ve talked about, to give him the chance to see what sort of time he could run there. We also think the style of racing there would suit him.” More immediately, Ocean Ridge (gate two) will try and beat Chicago Bull (five)…

By Jonny Turner Quality age-group racing is set to return in emphatic style at Addington on Friday night with an epic clash of two-year-old trotters. A seven-horse field of squaregaiters will reignite New Zealand’s two-year-old racing after harness racing’s lockdown hiatus when they do battle over 1980m. The scintillating clash will give trainers Greg and Nina Hope the chance continue their brilliant late season form when they start Eurokash, Summer Lovin and Franco Jorik. Stable junior driver Ben Hope will attempt to keep his own hot form going when he…

By Michael Guerin Heavily-backed debutante pacer Alterior Motif is going to have to get used to something new at Cambridge tonight: rivals. But he might still find himself lonely at the business end of race four. The three-year-old pacer races for the first time tonight and is an extreme rarity in that when he qualified three weeks ago he did so completely by himself. While that is not unheard of for a trotter or the occasional maiden qualifying in a smaller harness racing area like Manawatu, northern pacers qualifying in…

Big Fish, Little Fish is the brand new Whale Watch brought to you by Michael Guerin and Craig Thompson. Today they look over the Addington meeting