Saturday night’s a great night for harness racing

Harness racing across the Tasman cranks up another level on Saturday (Feb. 4) with both Melton and Menangle serving up top end racing, and no doubt many kiwis will be locked in to the coverage.

The much anticipated $500,000 Group One Hunter Cup is the feature race at Melton with plenty of New Zealand interest in the race.

Spirit Of St Louis’s (Sweet Lou) odds have shortened dramatically since he was handed barrier one. He’s raced by a large group of owners which include his former New Zealand trainer Graeme Anderson and some of the original owners, Trevor Casey, Tony Gow, Steve Pulley, Ray Calkin, Edwin Corby and Kieran Corby.

Pinelea Farm is offering a half-brother to I Cast No Shadow (Shadow Play) at this month’s NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales so the Interdominion winner’s run will be watched with interest. He draws barrier three.

New Zealand Cup winner Copy That (American Ideal) has a wide draw (6) to overcome but he’s in the form of his career and the connections don’t seem to be overly worried about the draw.

Southern Bred Southern Reared Major Meister (Art Major) has a wide second row draw to contend with. Southlander Tom Kilkelly who bred and raced the gelding in New Zealand still has a share in the horse.

Having had a number of bad draws in his short open class career Old Town Road (Bettor’s Delight) owned by Wanaka based couple Ben and Karen Calder, unfortunately he gets another bad one in the Hunter Cup  – the outside of the second row. 

“Someone had to get it and unfortunately it was us. It’s out of our hands and we can just do the best we can,” said trainer John Dickie.

He knows that at some point Old Town Road is going to have to get a cart up into the race.

“There’s no horse going to come from last and win with the type of horses up front. Whether we get a drag up I don’t know because the first horse that goes is going to get crucified.”

Dickie says he thinks the Aussie style of racing has changed in recent years and after the early rush not much else generally happens, unlike the way it used to be.

“They go out the gate, establish where they are, and just sit. I think Copy That has been getting uncontested leads and you’d like to think that with the money up, drivers will be making some moves if he (Copy That) happens to lead again.”

Other than the draw, Dickie says his horse is primed to go.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with him. He just needs a bit of luck because if he does, he can get over the top of them.”

In his early days Old Town Road wasn’t the best traveller but he handled the trip to Christchurch for Cup Week well and Dickie says he’s handled the journey to Australia even better.

“He’s handled it amazingly well and I know he’ll be able to handle it in the future without a glitch. We’re coming home after this race. If he’d had thirty starts maybe he’d have gone on to Sydney, but we’ll wait until next year to be doing things like that.”

On the brighter side Dickie says friends from New Zealand have provided the stable with some light relief.

“We’ve got friends of ours over here  – David Kaa and his son Kerryn. Kerryn went to school with Joshua (Dickie) and likes a punt. We think he’s the worst punter in New Zealand, actually the World. When the draw came out he told Josh that we couldn’t win. That’s the only thing we’ve got going for us because when Kerryn Kaa says you can’t win you’ve half a chance (laughter).”

In the last thirty years New Zealand trained horses have won the Hunter Cup fourteen times with the last being Lazarus in 2018 (Bettor’s Delight) for Mark Purdon. Waitaki Hanover (Garrison Hanover) was the first kiwi to win the race in 1967.

There’s plenty of intrigue and with the big dollars up for grabs it’s going to be a great watch.

In the supporting card, former kiwi trained pacer Invitation Only (Bettor’s Delight) debuts for his new trainer Jason Grimson. He draws nicely at one, but faces the might of rising super star pacer Captain Ravishing (Captaintreacherous) in a real baptism by fire. Invitation Only is still owned in New Zealand and Southlanders Stu and Pauline Gillan are part of the ownership group.

In the Group Two Ladyship, Amore Vita (Art Major) is back in winning form for new trainer Emma Stewart but she gets an inside second row draw in the $100,000 feature. She’s owned by Canterbury trainer Steve Dolan and the estate of Grant Adamson.

Other kiwi horses to race on the night include AG’s White Socks (Rock N Roll Heaven) and Cranbourne (Sir Lincoln).

Across states to Menangle there’s plenty of New Zealand interest in their eight race card with Mach Shard (Mach Three), BD Joe (Rolling With Joe), Alta Wiseguy (Mach Three) and Cash N Flow (Mach Three) all having kiwi owners while Perfect Stride (Bettor’s Delight) is an SBSR horse bred by John and Katrina Price.

The Prices also bred Republican Party (Bettor’s Delight) which debuts in the $50,000 Group Three Hondo Gratton Stakes. Trained by Cran and Chrissie Dalgety the now four year old last started in the New Zealand Derby at Addington running second to Akuta (Bettor’s Delight).

There’ll be plenty to watch and write about in the next few days.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink