Harness 5000 hot topic

The Ashburton Trotting Club will host a new Harness 5000 series in December of this year and qualifying races for the series will get underway next month.

Harness 5000 targets horses sired by New Zealand based stallions that stand for $5,000 or less and it will culminate in a $720,000 race day at Ashburton Raceway on December 21^st.

“We want to make sure there’s a pathway for foals from all spectrums of stallions. We’ve looked after the top and now we’re looking after the next tier down as well,” Harness Racing New Zealand Head of Racing and Wagering Matthew Peden said.

The twelve “Harness 5000” finals for both gaits will be for three, four and five year olds and older and for fillies, mares, colts, geldings and entires.

Like the Harness Jewels, qualifying for the Harness 5000 Finals will be done solely on stake money won with the top fourteen in each category making their respective final.

Each final will carry a stake of $60,000 and be run over 1700 metres.

“It’s a real grass roots series and it’s there to drive engagement for breeders and owners.”

This year the qualifying period will be between July 3 and December 9 2025 and to be eligible, horses must compete in at least five race day starts within this period.

Owners and trainers will be able to view their horse’s current standing with leaderboards run over all twelve categories.

HRNZ have made a commitment to run this series for at least the next five years and the qualifying period in 2026 will be between January 1 and November 29.

“If you breed this year, we’ll give a commitment that this will still be there when you turn three.”

Macca Lodge, one of the south’s biggest breeders which owns 30 plus mares is positive about the change.

“It’s positive in that they’re trying to look after the so called lesser lights in the breeding game,” Brent McIntyre said.

Their marquee stallion Perfect Sting is currently just above the stallion fee threshold, but McIntyre said that could change.

He says serving their mares with stallions that have a service fee of $5,000 or less will definitely be in the conversation.

“I think it’s positive, but I hear there’s a bit of angst about it being at the same time as the Invercargill Cup meeting.”

Young Ashburton trainer John Morrison also thinks the series is positive but would like to see more done for horses that are in the middle rating band.

“I think it’s good, but I worry more about our rating 50 to 80 horses. If you’ve got a horse that’s rated 50 or below you can get three runs a week for it but when you’ve got a horse that’s 55 or faster, it’s very hard to find a race for them. There are not a lot of penalty free races either. We’re catering for those lower grade horses, but it would be good if something happened for those middle grade horses too,” Morrison said.

Southland trainer Nathan Williamson is also positive about the new series but says the timing of the series final three days out from the Invercargill Cup meeting was a big surprise.

“It’s just a bit of a shock, that’s one of our biggest days of the year. Not only have we got a million plus race night in Auckland the week prior but we also have to deal with a three quarter of a million race day six hours up the road,” he said.

HRNZ figures from last year’s Invercargill Cup meeting show that thirty nine horses from Canterbury raced at the meeting of which only six horses would have been eligible for Harness 5000.

“It’s a really minimal impact. There’ll be horses in Canterbury that want to race that week but won’t be eligible for the series and hopefully some of those will go down there and race. It’ll just rejig the regions a bit for that week,” Peden said.

Williamson says it’s important that Canterbury horses are present for Southland’s big days.

“I think everyone would agree that these sorts of initiatives are good but it’s also frustrating for us in the south that December was going to be our month in the sun.”

Peden says HRNZ did take into consideration the proximity of Invercargill Cup Day to Harness 5000 dates.

“Given we have repurposed a current race date rather than introducing a new one and noting individual circumstances and data and their impacts, we were comfortable with the Harness 5000 running on this date.”

HRNZ also considered excluding Group One winners but decided against the move.

“Given what we are trying to achieve with the series there needs to be a pathway for these horses should they not maintain Group One winning form across consecutive years. To counteract this we included the clause:

12.e: All horses that won a race with a published stake of $100,000 or more in the current season or in the 2024 season are excluded from The 2025 Harness 5000 Series.

“This is crucial given the series caters for five year old and older horses. A horse who wins a Group One at two, but not at three, then has a pathway back at four. There are other races included through this clause such as sales series,” Peden said.

He says the list of eligible stallions is currently being worked on and should be made public this week.

HRNZ statistics show the number of horses available to race in the entire racing pool is 2992 and horses eligible to race in the Harness 5000 (not including unqualified or exported horses) are 840.

“I’d rather be having it than not having it. I think it’ll be good. All Southland trainers that fit the criteria will be trying to be there as well as supporting our local day,” Williamson said.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink