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    DM: Chilling contest awaits

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    ‘Immunity’ for Saints

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    Kiwi double for Doudle

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    Take The Deel wins Waimate Cup

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    • Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky., is saddened to report that 1997 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner, Touch Gold, has been euthanized at the age of 31 due to the infirmities of old age. View the full article
    • By Michael Guerin Nobody loves consolation prizes. They are nice and all and even more so when they come with winning part of the $200,000 stake Friday’s Allied Security NZ Pacing Free at Addington did. Leap To Fame won that lion’s share with his lion’s heart carrying him to the winner’s circle just days after his humungous second in the IRT New Zealand Cup. Most horses would have still been at home, having an nice nap in the Canterbury sun, but Larry did what Larry does. He got up, went to work and as almost always happens when he is able to lead he won, holding out Republican Party and Merlin. This was a Group 1.  No small deal and yet for Leap To Fame it was the “other” race he wanted to win this week. You could tell as much as co-trainer Trista Dixon got Larry ready to leave Addington, as well as herding the kids while husband Grant was out on a catch drive in the last race. “It has been a great week and obviously we didn’t get the Cup but he still went so well so we were really proud,” says Dixon. “It is lovely to pick up this race and show everybody he still has it, which we never doubt. “But I think he is looking to get home. He will fly to Sydney and have a night at Robbie’s (Morris) stables and then be home by I think Wednesday. “He has been away from home for a long time and has done such a wonderful job.” Leap To Fame looked like a horse who had been away from home for ages. We all know how it feels. You get tired, miss your routine, things just become that little bit harder. And sitting parked for 3200m in a New Zealand Cup wouldn’t have done a lot for his sense of humour either. So yes we didn’t see the absolute best of Leap To Fame in the Free-For-All on Friday.  But even below his peak, tired after Tuesday and ready to go home, he won a Group 1 beating the best pacer in New Zealand this spring and the Free-For-All defending champion. He achieved most horse’s career highlight as an afterthought. Thanks for coming Larry, get home safe. View the full article
    • By Michael Guerin There isn’t much Robert Dunn hasn’t achieved in his career. He was winning the biggest pacing Cups decades ago and Diamond Racing then started adding big trotting success to their arsenal just a few years ago. But now, when he should be in the twilight of his career, the man known as “RJ” has found another special horse, this time to share with daughter-in-law and training partner Jenna and his son John. Because Got The Chocolate is the real deal. He has to be because he shouldn’t have been able to do what he did in The Velocity at Addington on Friday, sit three wide then parked and beat a very good horse in Marketplace. And for good measure tear 1.4 seconds off the 1980m mobile three-year-old national record, all after never seeing the marker pegs. It was the third straight time Got The Chocolates has bested Marketplace after playing second fiddle to him for the first year of their careers. Make no mistake, there are no excuses and no arguments: Got The Chocolates is our best three-year-old pacer.  Not by much, but by enough. “That was very special because it was such a great race, what racing needs,” said Dunn. “He has always been a good horse but when he had no gate speed it made it so hard on him. “But we added a nose roll to his gear which helps him concentrate better behind the gate and that has helped him get handier early. “But of course he is also bigger and stronger. He is just a better horse than he used to be.” The pair will clash again in next Friday’s NZ Derby for which Got The Chocolates is now incredibly the $1.45 favourite, with Marketplace at $3.20, odds which would have seemed impossible at the start of this campaign. “We are so thrilled to have a horse like him for Ross and Angela (Gordon, owners) and we will get him home tonight and get him into the surf tomorrow to help him recover.” Safely through the next Friday’s Derby, Got The Chocolates could even tempt Team Dunn to look at a race like the Chariots Of Fire at Menangle in March, a track that would suit his racing style but might charge his some hefty tax for his lack of gate speed. “We haven’t campaigned one in Australia for a long time but maybe this horse could change that,” says RJ. HIs incredible form resurgence also suggests that whoever wins next Friday’s Derby could be named New Zealand Three-Year-Old Pacer of the Year. Just another unbelievable possibility this most wild of Cup Weeks has raised. View the full article
    • By Michael Guerin The hesitation in Pete McMullen’s voice suggests there could be relief in sight for New Zealand’s beleaguered open class trotting stars. Because after driving Gus to a massive Cup week Group-1 double the Queenslander says he may not be back for the first half of 2026. McMullen was all controlled aggression to add the NZ Trotting Free-For-All to the Renwick Farms Dominion Trot from Tuesday, sitting parked to hold out Muscle Mountain and Oscar Bonavena in another no-argument performance, with leader Jilliby Ballerini fading out. It capped a mammoth week for McMullen and wife Chantal Turpin, who trains Gus, but while they have loved their time in Christchurch and all going well will be back for next Cup week, McMullen wasn’t sure whether an autumn campaign up north will be in the offing. “We have had discussions about the slot race (TAB Trot at Cambridge in April) but not very seriously and haven’t really got into it yet,” said McMullen. “So we will see what happens but I am not sure his owners will be buying a slot.” They probably won’t have to as after his dominance of the two huge trots at this carnival Gus will be at the top of many slot holders shopping lists if the Turpin/McMullen team are up for another Trans Tasman trip in April. What would help is if they are able to get Gus to trot well right-handed, which would open the door for races like the Rowe Cup at Alexandra Park a few weeks later and make the trip a multi-target campaign. But considering how long it has taken them to get Gus close to faultless left-handed, the Queensland couple may not be rushing to start tinkering with him to go the other way around. And any New Zealand autumn campaign is complicated by the fact the Inter Dominions are now based in Queensland during the winter, on Gus’s home track and after this week he, and Victorian star Keayang Zahara, might scare most of the Kiwis away from making that trip. Muscle Mountain was brave in second and Oscar Bonavena again flashed home for third but as good as they were this week of open class trotting belong to the horse with the little name and big heart. View the full article
    • By Michael Guerin For a few tear-soaked minutes at Addington on Friday there were no borders. No Australia, no New Zealand, no nationalistic racing pride, no sides. Tracy The Jet may have lived up to her name leading throughout in the $500,000 Ascent to continue the total Australian domination of this week at Addington yet that wasn’t what was on anybody’s mind.  This was about brave trainer Jess Tubbs and her late husband Greg Sugars. Tubbs trains the Victorian trotting filly and brought her back to Addington, the place Greg drove their champion trotter Just Believe to win the Dominion this time last year. But Greg wasn’t there on Friday. He died in his sleep in April after a shock medical event in New South Wales where he was campaigning the couple’s horses. Tubbs had understandable trepidation about coming back to Addington, last year’s carnival having meant so much to her and Greg. “It was hard coming back after what we did here last year,” says Tubbs. “I watched the race in the stable and straight away there were tears, tears from everybody. “It means a lot to do this, to come back here and have something nice happen. But of course it makes me think of Greg.” While nothing can compare with what Tubbs has been through these last seven months the gravity of the moment was felt around Addington, nowhere more so than in the stabling area that houses the close-knit harness racing participants. There was admiration, for trainer, horse and driver James Herbertson, the young Victorian superstar who has been a rock for Tubbs in recent months. As it turned out, after the incredible sentiment of the build-up, the race itself was a stroll. Tracy The Jet rolled along in front as her Kiwi rivals played dodgem cars in behind and at the end it was left to fellow Victorian filly Gatesys Gem to chase her home after sitting in her slipstream. Tracy The Jet will stay in Canterbury for a week and compete in either the New Zealand Trotting Derby or NZ Oaks at Addington next Friday. She will be favourite in either. The man who was missing at Addington would be proud. View the full article
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