NZ Premiership Race – The Trainers

It’s a part of the New Zealand harness racing scene that’s often a little overlooked. That’s the fact that there are a number of premierships in progress as we work our way through the harness racing season.

Here we provide an update and look into the current NZ training premiership.

The Robert Dunn stable (looking to go back-to-back in the premiership after a chart topping effort last season) currently holds a strong lead in the premiership race of 20/21 having already surged past the 1 million in stakes earned.

The stable, who combines both quality and healthy numbers on the track, has experienced a decent winning run of late with their favoured Nelson swing once again proving a nice enough hunting ground. The recent form of Mataderos, Got You Covered and Off N Gone helping things too. With 70 winners so far from a touch over 400 starts they find themselves in a strong leading position and able to dictate the mid-season premiership tempo. Their strong presence in the feature mares events alongside top trotting races should ensure a continued competitive trend going forward.

At the moment they’d be a prohibitive favourite in premiership betting markets.

With the ever-competitive stable of Mark and Natalie Rasmussen no longer in operation it’s been left to others to head up the chase.

Michael House, a shrewd operator who enjoys both success and racing numbers across most of the main centers of racing, will need to continue to use all of his guile and placement abilities if he’s to pull with earshot of the Dunn juggernaut.

His stable clocking up 35 wins so far this season.

His stable headline act of late being the big son of Rocknroll Hanover in Kruizr, a horse that’s proven very hard to beat while racing on a grass surface over the past month or so. While there’s a long way to go and fortunes can change House looks on track to threaten his best season earnings mark of 2019 when his stable secured over $700’000 in stakes won.

Kruizr in action on the West Coast 

The fight for the top North Island spot is a tight affair with the Steve and Amanda Telfer and Arna Donnelly stables both enjoying strong seasons. The Donnelly stable has been finding its strength from a number of progressive pacing types with the likes of Taipo, Kango and New York Minute all notching up impressive wins lately.

At the moment only a handful of wins separate these stables with the Donnelly team enjoying the stronger UDR from their appreciably smaller number of starts.

When we look further South it’s all about a surname, that of Williamson. The father and son duo of Phil and Nathan can not be separated with both barns saluting 23 times each this season (NZ Wins) as of the start of this new month. The recent wins of both Pembrook Playboy in the Invercargill Cup and Majestic Man in the VL Dullard Cup providing both stables with career highlights.

It’ll also be an interesting watch to see if Matthew can add further success for the family Williamson in coming months as his own team numbers have been increased by the arrival of several runners formerly under the guidance of Geoff and Jude Knight, most of who are tried and tractable types with the ability to press on and garner further wins.

And as for UDR figures?

Stables that should hold respect in that department would include the Logan Hollis and Shane Robertson team, the stable producing 10 winners and 11 other placings from just 35 starters this season resulting in a strong UDR of .4222 . Zachary Butcher, operating a small team, doesn’t lack for quality with the trotter Call Me Trouble looking a revelation of late providing Butcher with 3 of his 4 wins this season. Alister Black, Chelsea Faithful and Lauren Pearson alongside the forementioned Nathan Williamson would be Southern trainers punters and fellow trainers need to respect given their habit of getting the best out of their starters.

And one to watch for?  The performance of the Matt Purvis stable. His “winners to other placings” ratio a whooping 1.72:1 which would surely be a leading number when compared to his training peers.

The North Canterbury based trainer has produced 19 photos for the wall against the eleven 2nd or 3rd placings over the course of the season so far. This very forward showing comes on the back of a recent treble of wins from Quarterback along with a couple of runaway victories accomplished by both Rocknroll Mama and Jenabella.

In the coming weeks we’ll endeavor to give some insights into both divisions of the driving premierships, those being open drivers and the juniors.

Ben McMillan