Author: NZHarnessNews

By Adam Hamilton Caretaker trainer Cran Dalgety admits Thursday night will be a big learning curve for Aussie raider Rock N Roll Doo. The former Victoria Cup and Len Smith Mile winner opens his NZ campaign from a back row draw in the star-studded $60,000 McMillan Equine Feeds Pacers Flying Mile at Cambridge, against the likes of Don’t Stop Dreaming and Merlin. It’s a key race, just eight days out from the $1m Race by Grins, also at Cambridge. “He hasn’t been here long, but he’s a big, raw, rubber-neck…

The fields are out for this Friday’s Racing Rewards Easter Showcase at Addington. There are three races for the pacers and two for the trotters, each worth $30,000. The top 42 ranked pacers and top 32 ranked trotters nominated have been split into fields, based on ratings. The pacers will contest three races with 14 acceptors each, while in the trotting races there will be two races, with 16 acceptors each. Now in its third year, the very popular Showcase is all about rewarding intermediate grade trotters and pacers. To…

By Jonny Turner The biggest danger to Muscle Mountain in the Fred Shaw Memorial New Zealand Trotting Championship at Addington on Saturday could be himself. The star trotter clearly looks the horse to beat in the Group 1 event and is set to start at red-hot odds in the vicinity of $1.20. Muscle Mountain is such a clear-cut favourite that the biggest danger to his winning chances could be himself. On occasion, the seven-year-old has goofed around when clear at the end of his races and been nabbed on the…

The Whale reckons he’s found some winners at Wyndham today.  

By Jonny Turner A bigger and stronger Ukraine returns to Southland following his scintillating debut with the Group 3 Kindergarten Stakes in his sights. The two-year-old turned heads when unleashing a scorching 26.0sec final 400m to win his first start at Winton in February. Ukraine travelled to Southland on Tuesday ahead of his Kindergarten tilt at Wyndham today and he is stationed with Brent Barclay and Lauren Pearson at Winton. After arriving, Butt got a second opinion on just how well his horse has progressed since his debut. “I probably…

Check out this week’s Box Seat with hosts Greg O’Connor and Michael Guerin. 

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk The country’s biggest punting club is heading into new territory at next month’s Night of Champions at Cambridge, and everyone’s invited. For the first time Boys Get Paid (BGP) will run a Punters Club dedicated only to harness racing. And they are hoping to have some serious cash to throw around. “We would love to get a pool of between $250,000 and $300,000 – that would be a great result,” says BGP’s Dan Rack. “If that happened it would translate to around 4000-7000…

By Michael Guerin The next phase of Hayden Cullen’s training career is building momentum and he hopes that continues at Addington’s twilight meeting today. Cullen and wife Amanda reset their business after leaving the All Stars and then Team Telfer but have good numbers around them now. “When I went out on my own there was a few racehorses but it was mainly breaking in a lot of young horses,” says Cullen. “But we have built up a nice team now of 20 and getting some lovely outside horses and…

By Michael Guerin A change of plans for a key rival and a seemingly perfect barrier draw may have combined to hand Saturday’s $110,000 Fred Shaw Memorial NZ Trotting Championships at Addington to Muscle Mountain. The wonderful trotter will be long odds-on for the 2600m mobile which he has won in two of the last three years after drawing barrier 1. He won in 2021 and 2023 and was second to Sundees Son in 2022. He has stablemate Midnight Dash alongside at barrier 2 and while there is gate speed…