The Kiwis are back and ready to cause a stir

It feels a bit like the good old days.

Those heady times in harness racing through the 1990s and early 2000s when we would watch with a mix of excitement and trepidation when the Kiwis stars crossed the ditch to chase Victoria’s biggest races.

The Kiwis won every Hunter Cup from 1993 to 1997 and a whopping 13 of them between 1993 and 2016.

They were similarly dominant in the Victoria Cup with 10 wins between 1993 and 2017.

And there’s some great names on those Honour Rolls, like Chokin, Lazarus, Master Musician, Desperate Comment, Yulestar, Holmes DG, Blossom Lady and Christen Me.

Victoria’s trotting landscape has changed with the introduction of the Great Southern Star, but before that it was the Australasian Trotting Championship the Kiwis came to win. And win it they did.

They won it five times between 1994 and 2001, including Lyell Creek and Buster Hanover twice.

The great Pride Of Petite was another Kiwi to plunder Victoria’s trotting riches around the same time.

You argue the success of the then “Nights Of Glory” in Victoria was built on the Trans-Tasman rivalry.

It’s waned over the years for a variety of reasons, most recently the pandemic and a decline in the depth and quality of open-class Kiwi pacers and trotters.

But this year marks a genuine revival of that rivalry.

We’ve already got Tact McLeod here. Sure, he’s not a star yet, but he’s got that sort of potential.

It’s the next wave, three absolute proven topliners, who are most exciting

NZ’s best trotter, the old and remarkable Oscar Bonavena, will chase the marquee trotting race of this Summer Carnival – the Group 1 Great Southern Star – at Melton on February 1.

He’s been here before and for the same race, but it was a staggering five years ago. He ran fourth to the then local champ, Tornado Valley.

For all the greats Mark Purdon has trained – think Pride Of Petite, Buster Hanover, etc – he ranks Oscar Bonavena right up there with them for talent.

But old Oscar has been to hell and back (a few times) with injury, which has limited his impact.

Despite that, he’s ticked over $NZ1 million in earnings with a dominant Cambridge win last Thursday night and is absolutely flying.

“It’s the soundest we’ve had him and he deserves another chance (at the Great Southern Star),” Nathan Purdon said.

With Just Believe and Callmethebreeze (who ran the quinella in the Great Southern Star last year) sidelined, Oscar Bonavena will likely be favourite.

On the pacing front, two of NZ’s best three pacers – Dont Stop Dreaming and Republican Party- are coming across to chase the Group 1 Hunter Cup on February 1.

They ran the quinella, with a narrow margin to Republican Party, in the Flying Stakes at Cambridge last Thursday.

We’ve already seen what Dont Stop Dreaming can do. As a raw four-year-old last year, he came from midfield and dared to give the great Leap To Fame a bit of a scare when a slashing second in the Hunter Cup.

He hasn’t quite kicked-on since, but if Mark Purdon thinks he is worthy of the trip back over, that’s enough for me to respect him.

Republican Party has always shown plenty of talent, but he really looks to have matured and strengthened-up this campaign.

The five-year-old followed a strong NZ Cup placing with a recent Auckland Cup win, where he beat hot favourite and NZ’s other pacing star, Merlin.

Whether the Kiwis can win one or both “majors” is debatable, but just having them coming back over and adding spice to the races is a win in itself.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Victoria