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    • Trials were today, 6 October - got through all heats.  What was the verdict? Was anyone there? Anyone heard?  Watched a couple online - looked like a fair bit of matter chipping out & being kicked up?  A local trainer was quoted & mentioned it was shifty.  And silence so far from the powers that be is a bit worrying? (I feel like they'd be shouting from the rooftops if the limited return to the turf was a resounding success ...) Maybe the outcome is still being processed through the PR machine (Corporate Communications I believe they call themselves ...)  J.
    • I think it is great that horses get to race throughout NZ! The problem is that after the Entain money dries up they will not be racing for the stakes that they currently are! HRNZ should not be blowing the money they currently are and have nothing to show for it! They need to wake up and not try and pretend they are the heroes in keeping racing going with the stakes they are paying! The truth if the matter us that racing is really not travelling well at all despite what Brad Steele tries to tell us!  
    • Yes as long as the South Island meetings turnover are not used to keep propping them up.
    • By Mike Love  Rangiora trainer Tom Bamford can breathe a sigh of relief – at least for now – after Rakero Rocket showed he is on track for the second Tuesday in November with yesterday’s Alabar Methven Cup win.  The five-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven gelding has given Bamford a few sleepless nights recently with a few things not lining up how he would’ve liked. “It’s been well documented he had a bit of trouble after his trial leading into his first run. I spent a lot of time trying to patch him back up,” said Bamford in a post-race Trackside TV interview. “He had too hard a trial and may have had a bit of a bug or something that knocked him. We’d been real happy with him this week. His blood and heart rate have been good so we were confident.” Run in mud, the Group 3 event was blown wide open with the scratching of hot favourite Akuta due to the weather and track conditions.  The eight horse field raced mainly in single file with Rakero Rocket making a flyer from the tapes quickly diminishing his 10 metre handicap to lead briefly before settling for the trail behind Who’s Delight.  Driver Gavin Smith then played the patient game, conserving energy in the treacherous conditions until scooting up the passing lane. It briefly looked like the southern visitor Wag Star was going to run away with it, but Rakero Rocket found a stronger kick to take the win by a neck from Wag Star and Who’s Delight running third. “The start was key and he got into a good spot. Everyone knows he’s a class horse, so I’m glad he was able to show it again.” Immediate plans for Rakero Rocket appear to be somewhat cemented, presuming his race recovery is sound. “We will go to the Canterbury Classic then Ashburton or Kaikoura. This takes a bit of pressure off now.” Rakero Rocket, the winner of the first ever Group 1 Christian Cullen last year, has now nine from 26 starts. He is currently at $41 on the futures market for the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington on Tuesday, November 11. Other highlights on the day saw Swannanoa trainer Brendon Hill claim his 300th training success when Patiro took out the Methven Panel & Paint Mobile Pace with his son Seth Hill in the bike. Brendon Hill trained 21 winners when in a brief partnership with Mark Jones while his other 279 winners solo, including Monkey King’s two New Zealand cups (2009 and 2010) while his first training success was Brendan Marc at Alexandra Park in 2001. Ricky May drove a hat-trick of winners (Magical Max, Kairaki Spur and Rockcent) while Matthew Williamson scored a double (Carlin and Practical Magic). View the full article
    • By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk  Zoe Cobb was a casual follower of Mach Shard during his racing days – now they are the best of mates. The Waikato-based Cobb acquired the multiple Group 1 winner shortly after he retired this year and they have already had success in the Show Ring and have some big targets ahead. “It is the kindest and most gentle horse you would ever meet,” Cobbs says, “he’s been an absolute pleasure.” She first spotted Mach Shard with HRNZ re-homer Jo Ferguson at the North Island Standardbred Championships. “I said to her ‘I’d take him in a heartbeat. He’s just a lovely lovely horse.” She didn’t expect anything to come out of it until Ferguson took her up on her offer weeks later. “I went to Hamilton and hadn’t been on him for five minutes and I said ‘I’ll take him’,” says Cobb.  “Shady”, as he’s known, is Cobb’s fourth standardbred. She used to work at trainer Nicky Chilcott’s place and it’s there where “she fell in love with them”. During his racing career Mach Shard raced from a 2YO to a 10YO, on both sides of the Tasman. In 2024 he produced some of the year’s greatest moments with his back to back Group 1s in the Taylor Mile, paying $155, and then the Messenger a week later for Crystal Hackett. A $200,000 sales purchase he ended up winning 20 races and bankrolling $843,000. “I did follow him a bit especially after those two big wins,” says Cobb. Now his life is more sedate at Cobb’s place just outside Cambridge. “For a free-legged pacer he trots beautifully in the saddle – he hasn’t got quite the canter yet, his legs get confused!” Their debut together was the Harness To Hack event at the Equestrian Centre in Hamilton at the end of March. “He won the In Hand, the Ridden, and the Musical Equitation in the pleasure section, he was second in the dressage and was Champion Standardbred in his section.” But then things had a turn for the worse with Shardy getting an intestinal issue which saw him off the scene for six weeks. Once back though he was Champion Standardbred at the Winter Dressage Series in Hamilton and they went on to win the In-hand and they were Reserve Champion Standardbred at the Bonanza Breed Show. Then in late September the combo competed at their very first A and P Show (Te Aroha Hack and Hunters at Waihou). “He was foot perfect. We came away with three placings which I was very happy with.” They will go to November’s Waikato A and P show next and Cobb has big plans longer-term. “I’d like to see him progress in the show ring and be an open horse and compete against the standies potentially at HOY (Horse of the Year) in a couple of years and also progress up the levels in dressage.” View the full article
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