Speedy 11-race winner off to Australia

High-class northern harness racing pacer Hot And Treacherous (Captaintreacherous) is the latest open class regular to join the Australian mane drain.

The 11-race winner headed to Auckland airport yesterday to be flown to Australia and he will eventually end up in Queensland.

“I don’t know who he is going to up there but it is a shame to see him go,” says co-trainer Brian Hughes.

“It is too hard with horses like him up here, you often don’t know if their races are going to get off the ground.

“I think eventually, because of that, horses like him are being sold or sent to trainers over there.

“We got a fair offer for him so he is gone.”

Hot And Treacherous may never have won a Group 1 but he was second to Spankem in last year’s Taylor Mile, beating home Self Assured, won the Group 2 Cambridge Flying Mile and was third behind B D Joe and Krug in the Jewels at three.

He joins the likes of South Coast Arden, Mach Shard, Taipo, Major Jellis and Betterzippit to name just a few horses who have contested northern open class races in the last 18 months but have headed predominantly to Sydney.

Those numbers are daunting but with Self Assured and Akuta based in the north for the next few months, Alta Wiseguy, B D Joe and Krug soon returning from Sydney and Old Town Road, Kango and the two-time New Zealand Cup winner Copy That hopefully back soon if they are all up and around through March through to May there should be a solid nucleus of horses to contest the biggest races.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand