Category: Meeting Previews

Cup day turnover increases  Turnover from yesterday’s IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup was over $7m, up four percent on last year. Latest figures from the TAB show that total turnover was $7.2m for the 12-race programme, the second highest over the past decade, just behind the $7.5m from two years ago. The New Zealand Cup itself attracted turnover of $1.8m, with the Renwick Farms Dominion second at around $600K, up nearly 40 percent on last year. Final crowd attendance numbers have yet to be confirmed though Addington reports a sizeable…

By Michael Guerin The biggest gamble in New Zealand Trotting Cup history paid off at Addington on Tuesday. Just. Australian bully boy Swayzee outmuscled the locals to defend the title he won last year, fighting off Don’t Stop Dreaming in the iconic $1m IRT-sponsored  race. The pair surged four lengths clear of Republican Party and a slightly disappointing Merlin, who after tracking the first two found this particular 3200m just a little outside his comfort zone. That Swayzee was in the race at all was a surprise and a stroke…

By Jonny Turner  Two great mates from Wyndham completed their climb to the top of New Zealand harness racing with Marketplace’s sensational win in the Group 1 Woodlands Stud Sires Stakes Series Final on New Zealand Cup Day. Marketplace proved himself to be a class above New Zealand’s two-year-old colts and geldings with his powerful winning performance for trainer Regan Todd and driver Craig Ferguson. Todd and Ferguson followed the same path into the harness racing industry, growing up in Wyndham and jumping the Menzies College fence to go and…

It’s NZ Cup day – harness racing’s biggest and most important meeting of them all.  Today there’ll be 12 races, starting at 12.08pm, and there will be race by race coverage of them all as they happen. Be sure to check out hrnz’s social media channels as well to keep up to date. RACE 1 : $30,000 SAUNDERS ROBINSON BROWN HANDICAP TROT (3200M) Cup day 2024 is underway with a big wide open field of trotters over 3200 metres and fittingly it was seven-time New Zealand Cup-winning driver Ricky May…

By Adam Hamilton  Trainer Jason Grimson is thrilled with the way Swayzee has handled his hectic schedule ahead of today’s $1m IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington Raceway (5.46pm). The defending Cup champion arrived at the Butt family’s Woodend Beach stables at 9pm Sunday night, after flights from Sydney to Auckland and then a connector down to Christchurch. “Looking at him, he seems great,” Grimson said yesterday. “It doesn’t look like he’s lost much weight at all. “I had him really well before we left and it’s just about…

Hotshot Australian trotter Keayang Zahara has drawn perfectly, at three, for Friday’s inaugural running of the Majestic Horse Floats LP THE ASCENT at Addington Raceway. The draws for both THE ASCENT and the Hill Lee Scott THE VELOCITY were made today. Keayang Zahara heads to this side of the Tasman after winning 11 from 11 since debuting in April this year and she is the clear top pick at $1.60. Drawn one Empire City is next at $5.50, with Paramount Kiwi, who’s drawn behind her, third favourite at $8.  In…