O’Reilly leads NZ Junior Champs after Day One at Methven

You can’t beat grass track harness racing action on a glorious sunny day, especially when your backdrop is the snowcapped Southern Alps.

The Methven Trotting Club always turns on a fantastic meeting for participants and punters alike, and while the day started out a little dreary and overcast, as the racing heated up, so too did the weather for the Friday afternoon twilight meeting at Mt Harding Raceway.

Short course racing was the main course of action for the ten-race programme with the menu also including the first of the heats for the 2022 McMillan Horsefeeds New Zealand Junior Driver Series.

The junior ranks are rife with an abundance of talent at present, and it’s always fantastic to see their hard work and dedication to the craft rewarded with an opportunity to get together and do battle.

Mile racing on the grass surface is not something you see every day, and it certainly posed an exciting challenge for our nation’s juniors, testing their skill and guile in getting the best from their randomly drawn runners.

With the competitive juices flowing, the heats promised to be action packed affairs and the first heat certainly delivered with the fourth on the card going the way of Motor Mouth (Sportswriter) and Ellie Barron.

It was an inch perfect drive from the Southland product with Barron taking Motor Mouth back from his wide barrier draw early. They were at the back of the pack smoking the pipe while the rest of the field jostled for handy position and when they joined the three wide train with 600m to run, it was clear the pair were travelling well albeit wide into the final bend.

Motor Mouth unleashed a withering burst to reel in the rest of the bunch and get the series started on a fantastic note for the young reinswoman.

“I was confident of the race panning out how I thought it did,” said Barron to Nigel Armstrong of Harness Racing Unhinged after the race.

“When it unfolded early, I was watching them go hammer and tongs up front, so it was a good watch, and I was just lucky enough to have the horsepower to get over the top of them at the finish,” she said.

Barron noted how the National series with the randomly drawn runners and points allocation bringing out a more aggressive style from her peers then they are perhaps usually accustomed too on race day.

“It’s sort of different racing you know because usually we are driving for our employers or owners, and we are trying to look after the horse. Today it’s a bit more rip, shit and bust and everyone is trying to get that win and I think that’s what happened early. Everyone was going for the same position, and I am just lucky that it panned out for me.

MOTOR MOUTH REPLAY

“I was happy with my book of drives in terms of consistency, I thought they were all good chances to run in the first four or five and that’s good points towards the finish but getting a win on the board early is great because it’s a lot more points than second. But hey the wins have been few and far between for me lately so I’m really happy with that result,” she said.

Motor Mouth’s West Melton trainer, Joseph Gray was naturally delighted with the penalty free win for his five-year-old pacer who picked up his second win on the track since being transferred into his care.

“It was a race I actually targeted for him being a penalty free race. I’ve always been a big supporter of the juniors and have junior drivers who drive for me a lot including Scott Iremonger and Olivia Thornley. It was great we drew Ellie in this race because she is one of the best and she got the job done for us which was great.

“He’s always been saved best for one run and all I said to Ellie was just to come wide with him because he’s never been great coming up the inside. They went so hard-up front, and he was just sitting out the back and angled down the outside and they managed to get the job done, it was a great job.

“I was fortunate enough to be able to get Motor Mouth, we paid $500 for him, and he’s done a super job for us. The biggest highlight was running third in the Summer Cup, I wish we had more horses like him. He was caught up in a few scandals with various trainers and we got a phone call asking if we would take him because his future wasn’t looking bright. We took him and we haven’t looked back, he’s done a super job for me. Everyone loves ‘Mo’, it’s been great,” he said.

Motor Mouth paced the one-mile journey in 2:02 which was tidy given the track was rated dead for the meeting. It was the third win of his career from 38 starts with 10 placings to go alongside his $33,005 in stake money.

Having been beaten a short margin in the first heat aboard Onedin Hurricane (Mach Three), two-time winner and reigning champion Sarah O’Reilly was another that was off to a promising start in the series.

The countries leading junior driver for the season (54 wins) was drawn the pole in heat two with the Dean Halliday trained, Arizona Wildcat (Ohoka Arizona).

The pair were quickly away from the stand and with only 1700m for the journey, getting a forward position and handing up to a favoured runner was always going to be recipe for success.

When North Island junior Zev Meredith came looking for the top with the Graeme Anderson & Mike Lowe trained Ariella (Art Major), O’Reilly did just that, and sat patiently in the trail and waited for the passing lane run up the long Methven straight. Once presented with clear air, the pair were far too good and picked up maximum points in the process, placing O’Reilly firmly atop the standings after day one of the series.

“I’ve been pretty lucky with the draw and the horses that I have got for the series. They weren’t exactly the favourites but they are pretty honest horses,” she said.

“I thought all my horses they all looked pretty good. They weren’t standouts but not the worst horses either. I haven’t got a drive in the trotter’s race at Kaikoura and that might be my undoing, but we will wait and see.”

West Melton trainer, Dean Halliday, was thrilled to pick up the fourth training win of his career (all with Arizona Wildcat) having only taken his license out last year after a 20-year hiatus as a license holder.

ARIZONA WILDCAT REPLAY

“My first win was this time two years ago actually, Samantha Ottley drove him, and he drew the nine hole but it was my first win as a trainer.

“He can go alright this guy, he went a 1:56 mile rate at Addington and was running on really good. I thought he might be the horse to beat tonight. We got one of the best junior drivers on him and she’s got a great pair of hands.

“I didn’t give her any instructions, I just said if you could try and get one of the starters to hang on to him because he can be a bit skittery at the start. I see she done that and boom, away they went,” he said.

The competition now heads to Kaikoura on Sunday where unfortunately the meeting has failed to give every one of the juniors an equal chance due to insufficient nominations. The programming needs to be seriously looked at to give the future of our industry the opportunity they deserve, as this is not the first time this issue has reared its head.

For complete Methven results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink