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Zed Em retired after Pakenham mistake
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Horse Racing History: Today In Racing 19th April
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New rules to provide better national consistency
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Harris caps superb day with Riverton Cup victory
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Bonny Lass back on track for Te Rapa assignment
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NZ Racing and Breeding News – 18 April 2022
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Aussie News – April 18th
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Thornley to keep up family form
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Horse Racing News: This Day In Racing 18th April
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
By Michael Guerin This one meant just that little bit more. Maybe it was because Merlin’s win in the $200,000 Allied Security New Zealand Pacing Free-For-All came at the end of a statement day for trainers Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan. They had earlier won New Zealand’s first $500,000 slot race, the Hill Lee and Scott THE VELOCITY with Better Knuckle Up and the $120,000 IRT Sires’ Stakes Trot with Meant To Be, both also driven by Zachary Butcher. After a frustrating last fortnight that felt good, the exclamation mark Butcher’s rare salute at the line. It also feel that little more special because Tuesday had not gone how the stable had dreamed, their horses good but not good enough. “I said to the boys on Wednesday this is Cup week and the best of the best are here so it is a privilege to win any race so let’s go back on Friday and try and do better,” said Purdon. They did. But Merlin’s win also meant that little but more to Purdon and his two partners/mates because of how he won it and what had happened in Tuesday’s Cup. Merlin was expected to finish closer than fourth in the Cup, which shows just how highly he is rated that fourth in a Cup isn’t good enough. It appeared the searing pace of the Cup didn’t suit Merlin but Purdon is adamant it wasn’t from a lack of staying ability. So to see him sit parked and beat Better Eclipse and Catch A Wave spoke to his determination albeit over the more-speed based 1980m mobile. “Nobody will convince me he can’t stay,” says Purdon. “I have put sulkies on too many good horses to know the difference and he tried his heart out up the straight on Tuesday. “That is why we are still happy to aim him at the Auckland Cup (Dec 31) because I know he will be able to get 3200m. “And as he gets older maybe he can handle the 3200m of the Cup here, even though it is a very different 3200m.” Merlin was all muscle and power after sitting parked on a cold and bleak Friday night, one which kept the spectators inside but the action was red hot on the track. Merlin will now stick around Canterbury for the new $200,000 Christian Cullen in December before that Auckland Cup and then and eventual defence of the $1million slot race at Cambridge he won last year when it was known as the Race by Grins. His last leg of that major race treble on Friday may have capped a frustrating fortnight in which the stable has lost the services of Cold Chisel with injury while a few others have had no luck or lost their best form. But often perception and reality are two different things. Because in the last three weeks the Purdon/Phelan team has won nearly $1million worth of races. And they have now won the only two pacing slot races run in New Zealand this year. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
By Michael Guerin There was a lot of head shaking going on in the Addington stabling block after Oscar Bonavena finally restored some level of New Zealand harness racing pride on Friday. The reigning Trotter of the Year raced like it for the first time in months when he sling-shotted Aussie hero Just Believe in the $100,000 New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All. After Muscle Mountain led and kept running Just Believe had to race parked and a pearler of a drive from Blair Orange saw Oscar Bonavena stalking him on his back. At the 400m it looked like Muscle Mountain had them all in trouble before his lack of recent racing saw him peak and Just Believe gathered himself and raced to the lead . But if there is one open class trotter in Australasia you don’t want sitting on your back in that situation it is a healthy and happy Oscar. When he let down he was simply too fast, reminding us what a weapon his raw speed has been during his rollercoaster career. There have been times it felt like we would never see the best of Oscar Bonavena and entire years when he struggled to win a race. So to bounce back to something like that best and beat a champion had both his trainers Mark and Nathan Purdon shaking their heads. “It is so satisfying to see him race like that again, he has been such a wonderful old horse,” said Nathan Purdon. Oscar Bonavena will now return north with Mark Purdon this weekend and spend much of the summer being trained at the Matamata galloping track, where Purdon believes he can keep him soundest. “We have the soft surface there to work him on and the pool to swim him in,” says Mark Purdon. “So he can race around Alexandra Park and Cambridge. But we are so proud of him because he just keeps turning up after all these seasons.” Also shaking his head was Greg Sugars, driver of Just Believe who knew a day like this had to come. “Eventually he was going to have to race parked with the wrong horse on his back and today was that day,” said the Victorian. “But he was very brave and at least he wasn’t on Tuesday,” he said in reference to the Dominion they won on Cup Day, worth four times more than Friday’s 1980m mobile. Sugars and his wife Jess now have some thinking to do because they are torn between staying in New Zealand for the next month and heading back to Sydney to try for an Inter Dominion threepeat. “We are going to need to think about that and quickly,” said Sugars. “The other day we were certain we were staying but we have a few other things to weigh up so to be honest I don’t know what to do now.” View the full article -
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By paleface adios · Posted
WILL THIS GUY EVER MAKE A COME BACK TO HARNESS RACING . AS UNWANTHED BY HRNZ AND WERE DOES THIS CLOWN THINK HE GOING TO GET OWNERS FROM
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