Hunter looking for first Addington driving win

Ryal Bush trainer/driver Peter Hunter heads north to Addington tomorrow (May 19) hoping to pick up his first winning drive at the South Island headquarters of harness racing.

Hunter will drive Raklou (Sweet Lou) in the $18,000 Woodlands Stud Bionic Chance Bracelet.

After winning at Rangiora last weekend the two year old filly was left in Canterbury with Hunter’s sister in-law Megan Swain. 

“We’ve had to travel to get the right races for her and thought it’d be a good experience for her to be away from home as well. It’s worked out well. I’m thankful to the Rangiora and NZ Met for putting these races on with only six runners in each,” Hunter said.

He says winning is not going to be easy.

“There’s a couple of nice fillies that are on the up on the inside of her. Ken Barron’s one (Sporty Miss) goes alright. She’s raced against maidens and will be pretty streetwise.”

The filly’s feature is named after Bionic Chance (Majestic Chance) which was trained by Alistair Kerslake.

As a two year old she won seven races in her fourteen start season. Her wins including the 1986 New Zealand Golden Slipper Stakes at Waimate, New Zealand Kindergarten Stakes, Welcome Stakes, Cheviot Two Year Old Fillies Stakes and New Zealand Sires Stakes Two Year Old Final. She only ran out of the money once as a two year old and many of her races were against the males.

In total, Bionic Chance won eighteen races. Patrick O’Reilly drove her to win nine times, Mike DeFilippi eight and Kerslake once.

She was named 1985/1986 Two Year Old Pacing Filly of the Year and 1987/1988 Four Year Old Pacing Mare of the Year.

Racing at Addington gets underway at 5:18pm and races will be screened on Trackside One.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink