Month: July 2024

Kana did her bit for raising money for Cure Kids at the second annual Red Nose Raceday at Riccarton Synthetic on Friday. The Peter Didham-trained mare carried the red-and-white spotted Cure Kids silks to victory in the Prezzy Card Rating 75 (1200m), raising $1,000 for the charity, with LOVERACING.NZ dedicated to donating that sum for every winner donning the colours on the day. Didham said it was a great cause and he and his owners were happy to do their part in raising funds for Cure Kids. “Anything to support…

Te Rapa has been the scene of plenty of this season’s success for Wexford Stables, and Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott are hoping to bring 2023-24 to a close with more of the same at the Hamilton track on Saturday. Coming to the end of their 11th season in partnership, the Matamata trainers have secured a career-best 63 winners this term and sit in third place on the premiership. They have won nine black-type races, and their runners have earned more than $3 million in stakes. No fewer than 19…

Back and refreshed after escaping some of the coldest weeks of the New Zealand winter, Stephen Marsh is hoping the final weekend of 2023-24 will give his stable some momentum to take into the new season. The Cambridge trainer has enjoyed another outstanding year and went into Friday’s Riccarton meeting with 98 wins to his name. That ranks as the third most successful season of his career behind his totals of 104 in 2021-22 and 100 in 2022-23. Marsh’s runners have earned more than $5.2 million in 2023-24, which easily…

Matamata trainer Wayne Hillis is hoping to record his third win of the week when he heads to Te Rapa on Saturday. Hillis kicked off the week in perfect fashion when Drop Of Something scored his second consecutive win in the AgFirst 1600 at Hawera’s transferred meeting on Tuesday, and Hillis said he is thriving on the heavy surfaces. “It was a very good run, he loves the mud and he had been placed there before,” he said. “The field looked a bit better than the one that he had…

A return to Riccarton is looming large on the horizon for reigning Grand National winners West Coast and Berry The Cash, who have been entered for a pair of 2200m races on the flat at Waverley on Sunday. The Mark Oulaghan-trained stablemates have been off the scene since Hawke’s Bay’s showpiece jumps meeting on June 29, where Berry The Cash won the Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m) and West Coast was runner-up in the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m). Two-time Grand National Steeplechase (5600m) hero West Coast is entered for Sunday’s Ecolab…