Southern Surge a success

The recently completed Southern Surge has been deemed a huge success.

“I’m more than happy. It just shows how much a little bit of extra money can make a difference to the region and trainers are happy to carry on training their horses for a wee bit longer than they would have,” Southern Harness General Manager Jason Broad said.

Broad says the horse numbers going into the next months may be affected by racing through the winter but he’s encouraged by the strong numbers at local workouts.

“Hopefully that’ll help compensate for some of the horses that will go out for a break.”

The series was held over three meetings at Winton, Invercargill and Gore. With $15,000 heats and $25,000 finals there has been strong sponsorship support from Diamond Creek Farm and Southern Bred Southern Reared (SBSR).

This time last year Southern clubs were getting sixty horses accepting at local meetings, whereas the Southern Surge numbers have been between one hundred and twenty and one hundred and thirty horses.

Broad says HRNZ have indicated they’re happy for the Southern Surge to be run again next year.

“That’ll be an added bonus for the region as well and it would be great to have another series at some part of the season as well.”

Turn over for the three meetings has been between the high $700,000s to the low $800,000s.

“I know HRNZ is happy with the turnover figures. Not just ours but throughout the country. It may have something to do with the Geo blocking that happened.”

There will be some changes around the eligibility conditions for the Southern Surge and handicaps may have to be looked at for the trotters.

“It was a wee bit tough on those trotters like Bring On The Muscle. We may have to have a maximum back mark of twenty metres instead of thirty. It’s something I need to sort with HRNZ.”

Finals day at Gore yesterday produced super quick times with six track records broken.

Aint No Angel’s time of 2-01.7 for the 1700 metre mobile was the first record to fall. Her time beat the previous record of 2-02.8 set by Sky Fawkes in December 2023.

Hobb’s time of 2-50.3 for the 2200 metre stand was a new trotting mares record, lowering Larix’s 2011 record time of 2-50.7.

Mixed Faith later lowered Hobb’s record, running 2-47.2

Smart two year old filly Lizzie Borden’s time of 2-01.3 was a new two year old fillies record. The old record was recorded in 2015 by Jodi Direen.

Tarragindi at 2-50.5 for the 2200 metre stand, She’s Crunchy at 2-40.2 and Always Dreaming at 2-38.6, rounded out the record breaking day.  All were three year old records and all-comers records.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink