Honolua Bay to miss 2023 Inter Doms

He was one of the harness racing stars of last year’s series, but injury will see Honolua Bay (Somebeachsomewhere) miss the 2023 Inter Dominion Pacing Championships in Queensland.

Trainer Emma Stewart was forced to scratch her horse from the recent Victoria Cup at Melton and has now sent the horse to the paddock for a spell.

“His quarter crack has been giving him a little bit of grief, so we are just going to give him some more time,” Stewart said.

“He’ll miss the Inter and be back next season.

“He had been fine, we hadn’t really screwed him down much and then the hit-out before the Cup… his foot really didn’t handle it and we didn’t want to risk him hurting himself even more.”

Honolua Bay was one of the standout performers of the Victorian ID22 carnival, winning all three of his heats at Ballarat, Shepparton and Geelong before running fourth in the final behind I Cast No Shadow.

He then went on to place second in the Ballarat Pacing Cup, win the A.G. Hunter Cup and Allied Express Sprint before grabbing third in March’s Miracle Mile.

While Honolua Bay won’t be there, Stewart has a list of nine other horses in contention for the ID23 pacing series. It is headlined by Victoria Cup champion Act Now, TAB Eureka winner Encipher and last weekend’s Geelong Pacing Cup victor Mach Dan.

The 2023 pacing and trotting heats kick-off on December 1 at Albion Park, with the finals set down for December 16.

You can view the latest round of rankings for both divisions click here.

by Tim O’Connor, for Harness Racing Victoria