Trotters races moving ahead in New South Wales

The recent injury to New South Wales’ best trotter The Locomotive is a body blow to harness racing fans and he won’t be able to return until about June this year. However there is reason for optimism for trotters in general in New South Wales.

Apart from a small core area harness racing’s events for trotters have had limited scope in New South Wales but that may be about to change given a number of regional initiatives to revive interest in the squaregaiter.

Currently the centre for trotters in New South Wales is at Menangle where sometimes at their day time midweek meetings they can stage up to three trotters events.

Club Menangle Racing Manager David Wonson remarked

It’s something we’d like to see expand. We’re seeing breeding opportunities for New South Wales. The quality of breeding for trotters has improved for example Yabby Dam getting the best sires in the world.

We’re pleased with the Foundation Series, this year the three year olds will kick off in March (coinciding with the Gold Coronet at Bathurst, the two year olds in June and the four year olds in April.

Two of the major features are the $125,000 Group 1 Hammerhead Mile run on Miracle Mile night on 14 March and the Macarthur Mares mile on 2 May with the same group 1 status and prize money.

Unfortunately neighbouring Penrith doesn’t seem to have any luck when programming a trotters event.

The news is better with Goulburn. Secretary Mark Croatto recalls

It started off a few years ago when we had Grant Forrest near the track. We found after a while that we were able to get races to stack up. We are supported by Menangle trainers and Steven Lee. We moved the Trotters Cup to 1 Feb which this year is worth $15,000 in conjunction with the Tom and Angela Hewitt Memorial Day. This is open to trotters up to Class 80.

Nearby Canberra has also staged trotters races in the past but recently there have been occasions when they have not been run.

The resumption of the Bathurst Gold Coronet is one of the most important initiatives in enhancing young trotters. Prominent breeder Pat Driscoll who previously had runners in the Foundation series saw an idea in sponsoring the return of the Gold Coronet. Agreement was reached with Yabby Farms, the Bathurst Harness Racing Club and Harness Racing New South Wales.

The event will be worth $60,000 and should attract visitors from not just Sydney but from Victoria as well as part of the Gold Crown Series.

Bathurst is also hoping that their Trotters Cup which was scrapped due to lack of nominations at their Shirley Turnbull meeting will be attempted again next year.

Newcastle has also added interest to harness racing with the running of the inaugural Newcastle Trotters Mile on their big night on 27 February.

Manager Kim Treweek is hopeful that this initiative may kick start interest in trotters in the Newcastle area.

Melissa the daughter of our chairperson Kym Carpenter has started to breed some trotters and it was put to our committee to see if there was interest in running a few events. It’s really a tester to gauge the reaction out there. We get a lot of support from Menangle and Penrith areas for our pacing races so hope the same interest might apply to trotters races.

The week before we’ll be running a Trotters race on 20 February so let’s hope that all goes well.

However it is the introduction of the Nutrien Equine Sales Series Finals to be staged at the Riverina Paceway, Wagga that could spark the most interest. The two year old finals, one for the fillies and the other for colts and geldings will each command a stake of $50,000. The Three year old finals will be each worth $125,000 and all events will be staged at Wagga on 30 May.

With its convenient location it can be expected to attract attention from Sydney and Victoria which could spark interest for further events to be staged over time. The breeding scene is also expanding with the standing of Fast As The Wind (Cantab Hall) at Wingate Stud in the Wagga region.

They also have had the renowned Hambletonian winner On A Streak (Cantab Hall) and much credit should be given to Pat Driscoll for expanding the increased potential for trotting sires in the nation as a whole.

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink