Rough And Ready wins Cambridge Christmas Cup

Arna Donnelly laughs when she talks about Rough And Ready (Somebeachsomewhere).

The gelding turns nine next week but made it career win 22 when he bolted away with the $25,000 Cambridge Pacers Christmas Cup on Wednesday night.

Fresh back from another winning trip at Palmerston North, Rough And Ready was sent on a mission by David Butcher in the middle stages, got the lead and that was that.

He was way too strong to the line for Iron Brigade, who capped another frustrating day for Team Telfer as they seek that one more win to give them the outright New Zealand single season training record.

But this race was about Rough And Ready because not many horses win 22 races and Donnelly admits she never thought she’d have one who did.

“That is a lot of wins, he is an old marvel,” she smiles.

“When you think what he has done in his career. All those wins here, then he went  to Australia where nothing went right for him.

“But he picked himself up off the canvas, has come home and won something like eight or nine more races.

“You’d love it if every horse was like him.

“Sure, he has times when he goes out of form but he always come back to it, often in the summer when it is hotter.

“It is really incredible what he has done.”

ROUGH AND READY REPLAY

Donnelly says Rough And Ready can find himself a penalty free race again some time soon but she sees no signs he is losing his appetite for racing.

She now moves on to the more serious New Year’s Eve business of the Auckland Cup with Jolimont and Little Spike.

But she can look back on 2025 fondly with her 46 wins just six shy of her best ever year and with some very talented two-year-olds to look forward to in 2026.

“I have got some really nice two-year-olds who haven’t been over raced and I like the yearlings I have as well.

“It is pretty exciting to have good open class horses but also the depth of those young ones coming through.”

The other feature on Wednesday was won by Pantani, who overcame a brief home straight gallop to win the Trotters Cup for new trainers Mark and Nathan Purdon.

He still has plenty to learn before being the finished product and some easy kills would help his confidence but he has the motor to at least be mentioned in the group of horses who will eventually take over when our older open class stars start to retire.

There were also two-year-old wins on Wednesday for Pantani’s stablemate Crippa Max and the Sheryl Wigg-trained filly Little Lily.

Wilson House won the first race to bring the junior driver’s premiership back to 88-all with Carter Dalgety with House tipping over $1million in stakes for what has been a wonderful season whatever the outcome of their premiership battle.

For complete race results, click here

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand