Year: 2023

Pakenham Cup moved to March, aims to boost on-course attendance

AAP

Kissinger ridden by Damien Oliver wins the 2022 Pakenham Cup. (Scott Barbour/Racing Photos) Racing Victoria, in collaboration with the Pakenham Racing Club (PRC) and Cranbourne Turf Club (CTC), has announced a notable change for next year’s Pakenham Cup (2500m). Mark your calendars for the evening of March 15, 2024, as the Pakenham Cup is set to dazzle under the Friday night lights. This move comes as part of a strategic decision to enhance the prominence of night racing at Pakenham and capitalise on the success of previous events. Originally slated…

Friday free racing tips and best bets | December 22, 2023

AAP

Friday, December 22 promises an exciting day of horse racing with seven meetings scheduled across Australia. Our dedicated team of racing analysts at horsebetting.com.au has curated the top bets and provided quaddie numbers specifically for the upcoming Cranbourne meeting. Friday Racing Tips – December 22, 2023 Cranbourne Racing Tips Best Horse Racing Bets For December 22, 2023 Place these horse racing bets in a multi for $27.04 odds return: Friday, December 22, 2023 Cranbourne – Race 3 #7 The Mansman Cranbourne – Race 5 #5 Speranzoso Wagga – Race 3…

Orange looking for victory in Canada Stakes

NZHarnessNews

By Jonny Turner Champion reinsman Blair Orange has won nearly all of New Zealand’s most prestigious races in recent seasons, but if he is able to claim victory in the Canada Stakes it might just top them all. Orange will compete in the newly conceived event named after Canada Broad, who has been battling terminal cancer this year. Canada’s father, Jason Broad, is not only a very popular figure in southern harness racing circles, he is the general manager of the Southern Harness Racing organization and a good friend of…

Nairn doing what he does best

NZHarnessNews

By Michael Guerin If you have a trotter who isn’t quite doing things right here is your early Christmas present: The Master has room at the inn. Freakish trainer of trotter Paul Nairn was doing what he does best at Ashburton on Thursday, training and driving El Conqueror to win a lower grade trot. But while Nairn is absolutely still the man with trotters, due to a few unforseen circumstances he has a couple of stalls free, which is rare for him. “This time last year I had too many…

Maybe the greatest comeback

NZHarnessNews

By Michael Guerin In a sport of great comebacks few, maybe none, can match Ricky May. The enormously popular Mid-Canterbury horseman heads to Invercargill today to partner favourite Beach Ball in the $110,000 Ascot Park Hotel Invercargill Cup, the only group 1 race in New Zealand this weekend. May is enjoying being a serious player in our biggest races again, a role he held for three decades thanks to horses like Inky Lord, Iraklis, Christian Cullen, Monkey King and Terror To Love. They helped make May the most successful reinsman…

Selections | Invercargill

NZHarnessNews

Jonny Turner’s  selections for Invercargill.                Race   Jonny TurnerRacing Journalist  Race 13.36pm 8 Hot Saucy Betty9 Bill Bootit16 Joeking Race 24.12pm 2 Bowlem Over 1 Scruffy 13 Nek Delight 10 Durrant Race 34.44pm 4 Moonlite Dream8 Aint No Angel13 Kikorangi Blue7 Tayla Me Race 45.16pm 7 Bring On The Muscle10 Imperial Man9 Pyramid Mystic14 Aroha Kenny Race 55.54pm 4 Treacherous Baby1 Mallory Maguire7 Ruby Roe6 Always Ticking Race 66.34pm 10 Oscar Bonavena9 Majestic Man7 Smokin Bandar4 Aveross Majesty Race 77.02pm 1 Amore Infida8…

Forsman departs Macedon Lodge

NZRacingDesk

Andrew Forsman has departed Macedon Lodge after winning a competitive tender process for boxes at Flemington. The Kiwi trainer, who began utilising Bruce Dixon’s facility earlier this year, was one of three tenants at the famous property alongside Liam Howley and Chris Waller. “At our peak we had similar numbers at Macedon, and we won’t be full all the time, but it’s nice to have a box or two free if we think there’s a suitable race for a horse from New Zealand,” Forsman said of the 13 boxes. “Macedon…

Rhetorical set to make amends at The Valley

NZRacingDesk

The Mark Walker stable will be looking for some luck to fall their way when Rhetorical (NZ) (Snitzel) heads to Moonee Valley for the second time.  A three-year-old filly, Rhetorical takes on older horses in the Moonee Ponds 3039 Traders Handicap (1000m) on Saturday.  The contest is a benchmark 64 grade race, and Walker’s assistant-trainer Ben Gleeson said Rhetorical looks well suited after a luckless Australian debut on December 8.  “She probably should have won,” Gleeson said.  “She was a little bit tardy away and Mick (Dee) went for the rails run. She’s only a little filly and she…

Promising 3YO could prove a carnival ‘Wulf’

NZRacingDesk

He is yet to finish out of the placings and boasts a decision over a subsequent Group One winner, but the lightly raced Ceolwulf (NZ) (Tavistock) still needs to convince his trainer he should remain a colt. It is one of the main reasons Joe Pride is running the three-year-old in an off-season benchmark race at Randwick on Saturday, keen to see how Ceolwulf handles the occasion, along with ensuring his fitness isn’t lagging come the autumn. “We’re giving him a summer prep because he went ‘shinny’ (shin sore) in…