Sapling Stakes Snippets

The time honoured Sapling Stakes is the oldest two year old harness race in New Zealand and this Sunday at Ashburton it’ll be run for the105^th time.

Noted winners have been Lordship in 1961, Holy Hal 1966, Young Quinn 1972, Noodlum 1974, Hilarious Guest 1981, Tuapeka Knight 1987 and Terror To Love 2010.

When Terror To Love won the race it was to become the first of thirty one lifetime wins. He paid $17.80 – his largest ever win dividend.

Robert Dunn won the Sapling Stakes with Lyndon Robert in 1982. He and co-trainer Jenna Dunn have three runners in Sunday’s Group Two feature – Bruntwood Brigade, Got The Chocolates and Malakai.

If Got The Chocolates wins on Sunday he’ll be the fifteenth two year old to win the Welcome Stakes-Sapling Stakes double. Previous winners include Pacing Major (2016), Ohoka Arizona (2007), Advantage Attack (2004), Light and Sound (2002), Tuapeka Knight (1987), Noodlum (1974) and Lordship (1961).

In this year’s Sapling Stakes Mark and Nathan Purdon are represented by Renaldo who’s owned by Jean Feiss. She also owned previous winners Chase A Dream (2015) and Smooth Deal (2019).

Phil and Glenys Kennard, part owners of Marketplace who’s to line up in this year’s race have been part owners of three Sapling Stakes winners in Isiah, Follow The Stars and Pacing Major.

The shortest priced winner in recent times was 2020 winner Krug who paid $1.50 while the longest priced winning dividend of $42.90 was paid out when My Ultimate Chevron won in 2021.

Between 1999 and 2021 the race was run over 1609 metres but for the last two years it’s been raced over 1700 metres.

The largest fields in recent times were in 1985 and 1991 when fifteen runners lined up for the race. The smallest fields with just six runners were in 2003, 2016 and 2018.

With six wins Blair Orange is the race’s most successful driver.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink