Category: Meeting Previews

By Jonny Turner Winton racegoers may have thought they were dreaming yesterday when they witnessed one of the most staggering performances in Southland harness racing history from Dreams Are Free. After making a mistake behind the mobile and trailing the field by up to ten lengths for much of race 8, the two-year-old tacked near the 500m mark before somehow powering home to win. While he knows more than anyone how good Dreams Are Free is, trainer-driver Nathan Williamson admitted he was like many of those racegoers who were left…

By Adam Hamilton Just Believe has picked up where he left off. The seven-year-old was Australia’s champion trotter, largely through wins in the Inter Dominion and Great Southern Star, before heading to Sweden in the middle of the year. He was checked and broke on the home bend in a heat of the Elitlopp, then ran two fantastic placings at his other two subsequent runs in Sweden. Despite being first-up since the last of Swedish runs at Boden on June 17, Just Believe was brilliant winning the $30,000 Breeders Crown…

By Brigette Solomon Trainer Jason Teaz had a night to remember at Cambridge last Friday, taking out both Thames Country Cups. Ultimate Moment won the Thames Trotting Cup only for Brookies Jaffa to then secure the Thames Pacing Cup two races later. “It was an incredible night out and almost a perfect night with Noble Count running second in the last,” says Teaz. Driven by Andre Poutama, the five year old trotter Ultimate Moment stepped away well to lead from start to finish and ran away from the field in…

By Jonny Turner Wayne Adams heads to Winton on Sunday with two solid winning hopes – or in other words, most of his racing team. Adams doesn’t have the numbers he once did in his Ascot Park stable, but the horseman who has churned out a line of outstanding pacers still has a bit of quality to work with. Few would have missed the outstanding last-start performance of Forever Arden, who made a huge recovery from an early break to run second at Wyndham last week. Adams is hopeful of…

By Michael Guerin On face value Addington’s iconic Show Day meeting yesterday looked like any other major race meeting. It was anything but. Peruse the results and you would see superstar trainers Mark and Nathan Purdon trained the winners of both the $300,000 Dominion with Oscar Bonavena and the $200,000 New Zealand Pacing Free-For-All with Self Assured. Nothing unusual in that, after all they trained two Group 1 winners on Tuesday too and usually pick up a couple at our major meetings. That fact Oscar Bonavena finally won one of…

By Jonny Turner Nathan Purdon could only think of one person when Oscar Bonavena swept past his rivals to win the Group 1 Dominion at Addington on Show Day. The injury-plagued trotter was at his scintillating best when unleashing an incredible burst of speed to win the most sought-after prize in New Zealand trotting. Oscar Bonavena was raced by the patriarch of the Purdon harness racing dynasty, champion trainer the late Roy Purdon, until his death in February of last year. Nathan Purdon, who trains the speedster in partnership with…

By Mike Love  Oamaru trainer Phil Williamson was pleased but by no means surprised when Empire City was simply too good for her rivals in yesterday’s listed Macca Lodge Sires’ Stakes Fillies Classique at Ashburton. “The draw was my main concern. But I’m scared of nothing as far as the fillies go. She’s as good as any of them,” said Williamson. The Volstead filly had to avoid an early galloper at the dispatch before settling at the rear for driver Ricky May. May eased off the rail at the 1000m,…

By Jonny Turner It didn’t start as the perfect preparation but it will be if Southland trotter Smokin Bandar enters harness racing’s history books at Addington on Show Day. Southland-trained trotters have been unable to make their mark in the Dominion in the modern era, but Smokin Bandar gets the chance to buck that trend on Friday. When the flashy grey battled to match it with a middling bunch of Brisbane’s best trotters during a Queensland winter campaign, he didn’t exactly look on track to be a major threat to…