Author: NZHarnessNews

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk Petra Luzumova has just one concern with Streaming Live ahead of racing at Kaikoura on Sunday – the mobile. The four-year-old mare will have her first start behind the gate in the Vic & Irene Smith Memorial NZJD Champs Heat Mobile Trot (1900m), but the Oamaru trainer believes it won’t be a problem. “She has been in fantastic form but she is going to the mobile and we don’t know what she is going to do off the mobile, but we don’t think it…

Craig “The Whale” Thompson looks at today’s meeting at Kaikoura.   

By Michael Guerin A week after thinking Copy That couldn’t overcome a 55m handicap at Alexandra Park trainer Ray Green is now more confident he can win from a staggering 70m behind at Cambridge tonight. The defending NZ Cup champion finds himself in the scarcely believable position of being favourite to win the great race at Addington on November 8 again after his massive win last Friday while plenty of the other big names had form or manners issues in the Flying Stakes at Ashburton on Monday. That is just…

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk A three-peat beckons for Sarah O’Reilly in this week’s New Zealand Junior Drivers Championship, starting at Methven this afternoon.  The Canterbury reinswoman has won two editions of the series (2019 and 2021), joining a select group including Zachary Butcher, Simon Lawson, Anthony Butt and Tony Herlihy. She is hoping to go one better than her predecessors when she competes in this year’s series where she is hoping to join Maurice McKendry as the only other driver to have won three titles, with the veteran…

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk Hot And Treacherous has slipped three spots in the Group 1 IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup (3200m) rankings to sit in 16th position, one place outside of a guaranteed spot in the time-honoured race. He will have one last-ditch effort of making the cut when he lines-up at Cambridge Raceway on Friday in the Dunstan Horsefeeds Handicap Pace (2700m). He cost himself last start when making an early error, but trainers Brian and Gareth Hughes have put a line through that run and are…

By Jonny Turner Brett Gray brings fast horses to the fast meeting at Ascot Park on Thursday. Quickfire action awaits punters with the Fast10 harness racing concept back in action for the first time this spring across an eight-race card. Making a fast beginning will be the priority for the Gray trained Peregrine when she starts from a 30m handicap in race 3. That mark is no easy feat over 2200m at Ascot Park, but on the mare’s side she takes on just five rivals and she is usually a…

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk Don Morrison and Stephen Doody have held a great friendship over several decades and they are hoping they can toast a victory together at Manawatu Raceway on Monday with their mare, Our Pegasus Pearl, in the Season Opener Handicap Trot (2500m). Doody has been a pillar of Central Districts harness racing for many years and struck-up a friendship with Morrison during the latter’s university years in the eighties. They have continued to remain close friends and have raced several horses together during that time,…

By Michael Guerin Rock n Roll Doo may be one of the most feared Australian horses to come to New Zealand in years but trainer Michael Stanley is warning punters not to expect his best work in the $50,000 Ashburton Flying Stakes today. The last-start stunning winner of the Victoria Cup makes his New Zealand race debut in his homeland (he was bred here) up against most of our leading pacers in what will be the pivotal lead-up race to the IRT New Zealand Cup at Addington on November 8.…

By Jonny Turner The horse known as The Beast From The East is back and he is eyeing another Tuapeka Cup. A two-time winner of the spring feature and runner-up in the event last year, Robyns Playboy is back from Australia and ready to get his career back on track. New South Wales wasn’t the horse’s cup of tea, but the early signs trainers Ross and Chris Wilson are seeing suggest their Group One placegetter feels like he is ready to race like his old self again. “We were hoping…