It could be a big 48 hours for Correy Grenfell who has Tiggerlong Tonk in tonight’s G1 Hobart Thousand heats (461m) and Yozo Bale in the Group 2 Ballarat on Saturday night. A genuine superstar, Tiggerlong Tonk ($1.50F) contests Heat 4 – Race 6 Box 8 – at 9.07pm. Tiggerlong Tonk finished fifth to retired champion Hooked On Scotch in last year’s Hobart Thousand final, but Grenfell says “he’s a seasoned campaigner now”. “He’s at his peak in terms of maturity and is a lot more consistent early and a…
Month: December 2020
Ballarat Cup night goes live
Join Troy Harley, James Van de Maat and Molly Haines live from Ballarat for in depth coverage and the stories behind Ballarat Cup night. Starting from 8pm, the team will take you through the three feature races on the card. The Mandy ‘Mumma’ Shaw Memorial kicks off the features and it promises to be a race full of emotion. The Group 2 Ballarat Cup is the headline act with $67,000 on the line and will jump at 8.48pm. Finally, for the first time on a country circuit we will see…
Features focus for Te Akau team
Matamata trainer Jamie Richards was delighted to secure a winning treble at Te Rapa on Saturday but was also left rueing the fact the day could have been even better with a little more luck. Richards unleased another potential juvenile star in Sword Of State (Snitzel), who made a stunning debut as he demolished his rivals by more than six lengths over 1200m in the second race of the day before promising three-year-old Brando (NZ) (Savabeel) indicated he was ready for bigger assignments when defeating some handy three-year-olds over 1200m…
McKee team firing up for Christmas racing
A win by hardy campaigner Breezon (NZ) (O’Reilly) at Te Rapa on Saturday signalled that trainer Stephen McKee is gearing up for another profitable summer racing campaign from his Ardmore base. The O’Reilly seven-year-old showed his liking for the Te Rapa track as he sat outside the pace over 1200m on Saturday and ground out his sixth career victory at a track where he has now won three of his four starts. McKee had been expecting a good run from his charge, who was approaching peak fitness after finished fourth…
Stakes success still sinking in for young apprentice
Twenty-four hours on from the biggest win in his fledgling career, apprentice jockey Callum Jones is still having trouble coming to terms with his achievement. The eighteen-year-old, in his first full season of riding, pulled off a daring mid-race move on the Bill Pomare-trained Ocean Billy (NZ) (Ocean Park) in Saturday’s Gr.3 SKYCITY Hamilton Waikato Cup (2400m) that saw the pair stride clear of the field with 800m to run before holding on strongly for a well-deserved victory. During the immediate aftermath of the victory, Jones was the first to…
Chmiel hits 700 with Annie Richter
By Jonny Turner Terry Chmiel’s evolving harness racing career hit new heights when he drove his 700th winner in his own colours at Addington on Saturday night with Annie Richter. The Leeston horseman ticked off the milestone when getting the best out of his four-year-old in a thrilling three-horse finish to race 1. “It is good to get there, really good,” Chmiel said. Chmiel’s winning run in the sulky started almost 26 years ago when Seaview Girl won at Westport’s Christmas meeting in 1994. After that the reinsman went on…
Morrison’s Methven Drives
Johnny Morrison is attempting this year to be New Zealand’s leading junior driver for the third season in a row this Sunday he travels to Methven where he has already won both leading junior driver and leading open driver in previous years.(This year the junior title is currently lead by John and the title by Blair Orange at this stage). Here is how John rates his drives Sunday. Race 1 –Adhika; Probably a watch for now and perhaps pop up over Christmas racing from it’s bad draw. Race 2-Random Spur;…
Heavyweight Hero ready to deliver knockout
By Jonny Turner Heavyweight Hero goes into Sunday’s Trotters’ Green Mile at Methven with significant reach advantage over his rivals. The race looks tailormade for the Bob Butt trained seven-year-old considering he has a brilliant record on grass and is a group 1 winner over a sprint trip. The obvious hurdle for the New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All winner is his barrier 9 drawn. Butt goes into Trotters’ Green Mile hopeful his horse can overcome the outside of the front row and with no plans to use the alley as an…
Big Fish, Little Fish – Methven Sunday Dec 13
It’s Green Mile day and Big Fish Little Fish hosts Michael Guerin and Craig Thompson give us their best for Methven today.
NZ Racing and Breeding News – 13 December 2020
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