the 2024 INTERDominion is underway

[Gammalite]

No NZ trained horses after the hard exertions of Cup week at Addington.

BUT there is a few Kiwi Owners involved. 

MINSTREL winning his heat quite impressively last night . trained in the wild West but a lot of NZ connections including Robin Butt.

MINSTREL NZ	$ 15,400		Fr1	1	G F J Bond, S A Bond	Deni Roberts		$ 1.70 fav	PRBT GS L BL 1 SWAB
	BROWN GELDING 7 by ROCKNROLL HANOVER USA out of OVARIDE (NZ) (MACH THREE CA) Owner(s): Team Bond Pty Ltd, Birchbrook Breeding Ltd, R D Butt, J R Butt, A J Hickman, P M Hickman, The Running Camel Pty Ltd Breeder(s): Birchbrook Breeding Ltd, P M Calder, J R Butt

 

Another heat winner a horse I always admire Cantfindabetterman . Still with a heap of kiwi owners. and Diane Reilly too. Here's a photo of the tough old boy too when trained down South NZ. Graeme Anderson (who purchased this horse for just $41k ) also enjoyed racing millionaire Spirit Of St Louis. 

CANTFINDABETTORMAN NZ	$ 15,400		Fr4	4	Isabel Walsh	Chris Alford		$ 4.20	PRBT 3WM WF BL 2 L SWAB
	BROWN GELDING 5 by SWEET LOU USA out of BETTOR BE A LADY (NZ) (BETTORS DELIGHT USA) Owner(s): D E Reilly, A D Gow, S R Pulley, G J Anderson, R Chalkin, D P McHugh Breeder(s): Woodlands Stud Ltd

 

A Trotting Heat Winner last night was Queen Elida for her swag of Kiwi owners , and ex-pat kiwi trainer Brent Lilley. Hope she can Win the Grand Final  without Just Believe around ? 

QUEEN ELIDA NZ	$ 10,400		Fr5	5	Brent Lilley	Chris Alford		$ 2.40 fav	PRBT GS L BL 1 SWAB
	BAY MARE 6 by LOVE YOU (FRA) out of QUEEN KENNY (NZ) (MONARCHY USA) Owner(s): G J McKenzie, G J Mckenzie, B A Mckenzie, B E Mckenzie, T R Barron, C L Barron Breeder(s): G J McKenzie, R Dixon

 

'The Locomotive' (out of Rowe Cup winning mare La Coocaracha)  won the other trot heat for Brad Hewitt.  Brad also winning the other Pacers heat with 'Captains Knock'. Brad knowing these NSW tracks like the back of his hand will be hard to beat in both the trot and pacing finals. Would be an ASTOUNDING Double if he could do it. 

 

But cheering for this gorgeous old Southland horse. What a real tryer he is. Can'tfind a betterhorse lol

[Gammalite]

2nd Round completed at Bathurst Last night.  Alas there was some driving rain during the program.

But it slowed them down none. Luke McCarthy the most impressive with DON HUGO . He won the richest race in the country in September The Eureka and a $1,000,000 in one go as well.

DON HUGO Might just  add the Interdom Final to that Tally shortly too.

MINSTREL broke up,  with a gear Malfunction . so no points for him and the NZ connections this time round . 😢

NZ Cup winning Trainer Jason Grimson had a better night with 'Nerano' 1st, 'District Attorney' 2nd and 'Cya art' 3rd in their heats through the night. 'Curly James' back a bit though. 

the NZowned Trotting Queen of the track QUEEN ELIDA won her 2nd heat easy enough , as did her  arch rival from Vic The Locomotive.  they are on track for a Big Showdown in the Final.

Here's the Queen in one of her wins. one of Aus best in Chris Alford normally drives her for her swag of Kiwi owners.

Ex-pat kiwi Brent Lilley has done a wonderful job with her through her career. She can be the NZ rep this time round with herself foaled in NZ and a expat kiwi trainer, and owners. Hope she brings home the bacon 🍟

 

[the galah]

6 hours ago, Gammalite said:

2nd Round completed at Bathurst Last night.  Alas there was some driving rain during the program.

But it slowed them down none. Luke McCarthy the most impressive with DON HUGO . He won the richest race in the country in September The Eureka and a $1,000,000 in one go as well.

DON HUGO Might just  add the Interdom Final to that Tally shortly too.

MINSTREL broke up,  with a gear Malfunction . so no points for him and the NZ connections this time round . 😢

NZ Cup winning Trainer Jason Grimson had a better night with 'Nerano' 1st, 'District Attorney' 2nd and 'Cya art' 3rd in their heats through the night. 'Curly James' back a bit though. 

the NZowned Trotting Queen of the track QUEEN ELIDA won her 2nd heat easy enough , as did her  arch rival from Vic The Locomotive.  they are on track for a Big Showdown in the Final.

Here's the Queen in one of her wins. one of Aus best in Chris Alford normally drives her for her swag of Kiwi owners.

Ex-pat kiwi Brent Lilley has done a wonderful job with her through her career. She can be the NZ rep this time round with herself foaled in NZ and a expat kiwi trainer, and owners. Hope she brings home the bacon 🍟

 

i saw queen elidas win.Racing into the first bend, it had a half a length advantage over the $2.15 favorite who was to its inside and in in the middle of queen elida and the horse on the inside.Chris alford driving queen elida allowed her to drift in and had to correct at the last moment,the inward direction she was travelling in and you could see him do that by turning its head to the side.But as you see more often than not,especially with trotters,the horse in the middle anticipates it will get a bump and moves in itself ,becoming unbalanced and breaks.

they showed the head on and that was what appeared to happen,but because queen eldia made no contact,nothing was said to chris alford.

personally i can't see why that type of driving has no consequences.

If your driving a car and someone half a car length in front of you starts encroaching into your lane ,obviously you are going to react to avoid a collison. Thats exactly what horses do. They,like the car driver aren't going to work on the assumption the fella encroaching into their lane will correct his inward movement.

 

[Gammalite]

52 minutes ago, the galah said:

.But as you see more often than not,especially with trotters,the horse in the middle anticipates it will get a bump and moves in itself ,becoming unbalanced and breaks.

I think that young fella was kicking up in the centre there too much Mr Galah. 

I can see what you're saying with Queen Elida bearing down on them 3 wide and coming in, but the champion driver (Cam 'the-swayzee' Hart)  drawn the pole was Never Ever gunna hand up to anyone but Queen Elida in that trot.

Young Will Rixon is only 23 years old and showed his inexperience by being a Cam Hart/Chris Alford Sandwich. 

he should of backed off to third, and kept trotting on that Keayang Trotter. It probably won't make the Grand Final now. A harsh lesson for the young bloke there. 

[the galah]

1 hour ago, Gammalite said:

I think that young fella was kicking up in the centre there too much Mr Galah. 

I can see what you're saying with Queen Elida bearing down on them 3 wide and coming in, but the champion driver (Cam 'the-swayzee' Hart)  drawn the pole was Never Ever gunna hand up to anyone but Queen Elida in that trot.

Young Will Rixon is only 23 years old and showed his inexperience by being a Cam Hart/Chris Alford Sandwich. 

he should of backed off to third, and kept trotting on that Keayang Trotter. It probably won't make the Grand Final now. A harsh lesson for the young bloke there. 

i get what your saying,as you could see will rixons horse would end up breaking 50m before it did, because his horse always was going to anticipate getting a knock and therefore would move in  and break either,to avoid the knock or as happened,despite alfords late correction, it got off balance. 

rixon was driving the$2.15 favorite so i would guess cam hart would have been just as happy to see him lead and park queen elida.

So i think Alford gambled on being able to intimidate rixon enough for rixon to back off,rixon wasn't,but his horse understandably was.

I actually think alford probably thought ,it he was in the same situation as rixon was,he would back off.People anticipate others should behave as they would,but everyone is different.

Its something that occurs from time to time and the stipes always seem to decide,well no  physical interference occcured,lets give a warning to the galloping horse ,with no consequences for the horse or driver moving in.

If stipes want to reduce the number of horses breaking and possible injury,they should reevaluate their interpretation to those situations,and take a more cause and effect approach,in  my opinion.

[Gammalite]

11 minutes ago, the galah said:

i get what your saying,as you could see will rixons horse would end up breaking 50m before it did, because his horse always was going to anticipate getting a knock and therefore would move in  and break either,to avoid the knock or as happened,despite alfords late correction, it got off balance. 

rixon was driving the$2.15 favorite so i would guess cam hart would have been just as happy to see him lead and park queen elida.

So i think Alford gambled on being able to intimidate rixon enough for rixon to back off,rixon wasn't,but his horse understandably was.

I actually think alford probably thought ,it he was in the same situation as rixon was,he would back off.People anticipate others should behave as they would,but everyone is different.

Its something that occurs from time to time and the stipes always seem to decide,well no  physical interference occcured,lets give a warning to the galloping horse ,with no consequences for the horse or driver moving in.

If stipes want to reduce the number of horses breaking and possible injury,they should reevaluate their interpretation to those situations,and take a more cause and effect approach,in  my opinion.

It's just because of the starting points really. That was an old track at Bathurst and the corner comes up on them quick. Saturday night they will be at Menangle , (where they should of had All the Heats) and they can stride out well. 

To avoid the '3 wide issue' of a horse squeezed at the first corner they put the mile start out to 1660m  decades ago here at Albion , so nearly everytime now they have made a decision and only 2 deep first corner and in formation Very Quickly every race . At a mile there was still  a lot of that Sqeezing and 'Encroaching ' that you mentioned , and incidents all the time. Auckland Alexandra is even better and put it out to 1700m to avoid trouble. 

Bathurst ran them 1730m Wednesday night , but the corner just too close for these fast horses.  there was tightening in the pacers races too first corner. Should of just been at Menangle and avoided all that . 

Next 3 Interdominions are at Brisbane each July for 3 years. Excellent !!! 

winter holiday's for all the BOAY harness folk?  and don't forget to bring your horses .   

 

[Gammalite]

Well the finals are ready to Go.

Luke McCarthy powered away with Don Hugo to win another Heat . The Eureka Winner looks poised to give the Champion harness man of Australia his first Interdominion Win in his 2 decade career as a trainer, and 11 attempts.

NZ owned Minstrel and another good double heat winner last night Captain's Knock are both on the 2nd row. 

Gives DON HUGO a Huge advantage. from the 3 Alley. 

INTER DOMINION FINAL BARRIER DRAWS

PACERS

Front row: Jilliby Nitro ($9), Dangerous ($4.60), Don Hugo ($2.60), My Moonlite Dream ($16), Curly James ($12), Terry ($81), Jimartee ($101), Nerano ($26).

Back row: Captain Knock ($5.50), Max Delight ($18), Minstrel ($5.50), Petes Said So ($51). Emergencies: Cantfindabettorman

old mate 'Cantfinda betterhorse' didn't make the field. went very average last night sadly. 

DON HUGO powers away with his heat , after sitting 3 wide first half then working to the lead. He is going like a train at the moment. here he is striding away from the field easy as. 

[the galah]

I've found this interdom series a good watch.

All the racing has been very competitive,perhaps because it started out with no really dominant horses and the 3 different tracks.

don hugo's price of $2.60 seems quite generous to me.

by the end of the third nights racing he seems to have 2 to 3 lengths over his nearest rival and he has the ideal draw.

Luke mccarthy is the best in australasia for working his way to the front without burning early,then dominating and he seems perfectly drawn at 3.

I would imagine my moonlite dream will cross and lead and mccarthy doing enough to not allow any others of those wider to cross him,then it would just be a matter of either the 2 horse(dangerous) pressing on to lead if it holds up early, which may be debateable,and then don hugo takes over or don hugo gets there first. That seems the most likely scenario to me and on last weeks form they most likely can't catch him.

the same with the trotting final,the locomotive($1.55) just seems too good for the others and should work its way to the front and just win as well.Queen elida's only chance would be to burn to the front,but if she did that you would think its winning chances are gone and if it goes back you would think it couldn't win either.Maybe it runs 3rd or 4th at best.

Edited December 9 by the galah

[Newmarket]

Will be remembered for the weakest Inters ever…. Quite sad

[Gammalite]

3 hours ago, the galah said:

the same with the trotting final,the locomotive($1.55) just seems too good for the others and should work its way to the front and just win as well.Queen elida's only chance would be to burn to the front,but if she did that you would think its winning chances are gone and if it goes back you would think it couldn't win either.Maybe it runs 3rd or 4th at best.

An interesting bit of History for you Mr Galah. (and anyone interested) for a small bit of trot trivia. 

Ex-pat kiwi Brent Lilley did win the Interdominion Grand Final about 20 years ago , with GAME BID. while he was a NZ based Trainer. catch driven by Gavin Lang as Anthony Butt who had won the Heat with Game Bid was also winning with his brothers horse defending Champion  Take A Moment (the GF winner at Brisbane the year before) , but he finished down the track on this occasion . might have galloped.  

Game Bid defeated the Raging hot favourite LA COOCARACHA who was caught 3 wide for about 3 laps off the 25m Handicap back Mark at Harold Park.  I think Kerryn Manning was only defeated once with her in the 12 months up to them she had been driving it. She had won 10 straight.  was a Huge run. 

So this year Brent (now based in Victoria for many years)  is Training the Nz owned mare Queen Elida , and looks set to be probably conquered by THE LOCOMOTIVE as you suggest above . The Locomotive is a foal of the very mare Brent defeated in 'La Coocaracha' in a NSW Grand Final 2 decades ago. He's on a winning streak of 7 straight too. 😅

  La Coocaracha has left several good winners including big Great Southern Star winner 'Dance Craze'. 

Perhaps Brent can Hope to once again Upset the Hot favourite with his star 'Queen Elida'  ?  and once again push the La Coocaracha family back into 2nd place like he did 20 odd years ago? . 😆 chance of a history repeat ?  

 

 

[TAB For Ever]

The big nite Gamma , and not much Interdom chat from your Kiwi pen pals on here.

I see Mufasa Metro in Trotters final.......is he worth an each way nibble at 25/1 ?

Good to see a Kiwi win the Junior Drivers title ,certainly drew a useful horse tonight !

[Gammalite]

41 minutes ago, TAB For Ever said:

The big nite Gamma , and not much Interdom chat from your Kiwi pen pals on here.

I see Mufasa Metro in Trotters final.......is he worth an each way nibble at 25/1 ?

Good to see a Kiwi win the Junior Drivers title ,certainly drew a useful horse tonight !

Cheers mate . I just got home and ready to check out the 2 Interdominion titles shortly. 

The kiwis have won the first 4 races I see !! excellent stuff.

My pick for the Pacing Grand Final unfortunately just winning the Consolation this time round. CantFindaBettorman that I had a picture of earlier in this thread. shame he didn't quite make the GF..

TACT McLoed winning for Mark Jones and Sam Thornley.

MIKI PINS ,  the next  big thing for Bootsey and Grimson. NZ bred horses broke 1.50 barrier already last month. yet another Grimson miracle.

and of course THE FALCON , now winning in 1.50 for Grimson too. Dramatic improvement on his NZ form. Grimson keeping a share in that one himself to race with Boots. Should win quite a few.

'MUFASA'  ran 2nd exactly a year ago TABman to JUST BELIEVE in the last Inter  trot Final  TABman. could improve one place this time ? Looks like THE LOCOMOTIVE has been going like a Train old mate  😁🚂🚂 could be too hard to beat with Brad Hewitt getting him going exceptionally well.  

[Gammalite]

Track record by about second for Luke McCarthy and DON HUGO.  1.50 for the 2300m.

the Eureka winner is now the Interdominion Champion. 

Congratulations Luke McCarthy, Australia's best horseman and finally wins the Biggest Race . Drove an Outstanding race that even Mark Purdon probably couldn't of bettered. fantastic Win. 

MINSTREL 2nd for his NZ owners so the kiwis got some consolation as bridesmaids. 

Also Brad Hewitt clean Sweeping the Trot Interdom series with The Locomotive , and winning by lengths easy.

Both those 2 look like they will be hard to beat here in July at Albion in the next Interdominion? . (It's switching to a mid year date) Definitely No Excuse for the kiwi's Not to turn up.

 

[the galah]

On 14/12/2024 at 11:58 PM, Gammalite said:

Track record by about second for Luke McCarthy and DON HUGO.  1.50 for the 2300m.

the Eureka winner is now the Interdominion Champion. 

Congratulations Luke McCarthy, Australia's best horseman and finally wins the Biggest Race . Drove an Outstanding race that even Mark Purdon probably couldn't of bettered. fantastic Win. 

MINSTREL 2nd for his NZ owners so the kiwis got some consolation as bridesmaids. 

Also Brad Hewitt clean Sweeping the Trot Interdom series with The Locomotive , and winning by lengths easy.

Both those 2 look like they will be hard to beat here in July at Albion in the next Interdominion? . (It's switching to a mid year date) Definitely No Excuse for the kiwi's Not to turn up.

 

i thought the pacers final turned out to be a contest befitting of and interdom final.

luke mccarthy had to go to plan b,when a couple of drivers made decisions at the start that backfired on their own chances.

ryan sanderson, driving dangerous ,interviewed pre race by brittany graham,at that point indicated he would press out of the gate a little,but not overdo it,due to the speed of others outside him. But turned out he executed his own pre race plan poorly,with him going out harder than he should and seemingly attempting for 150 metres to hold out the fast beginner in moonlite dream. Problem for him,was moonlite dream was always going to have the speed to cross him and all sanderson achieved was making the horse he eventually trailed, work too hard and you could tell after 250m sandersons horse would get stuck behind moonlite dream when it stopped and thats what happened. A better drive may have seen him run a place but the horse did well to still run 5th.

the other driver who chanced his arm early was Cam hart driving curly james. He must have been working on the scenario that he could get in front of don hugo and then trail him. To me that didn['t make much sense either as that would have meant he would have to burn too hard to achieve that,and thats what he did,with hart seemingly resigned to finishing down the track after 400m and just attacking moonlite dream because he didn't get his way.

i had  thought it was a race where obviously the horse who ended up parked early would get cover as minstrel was always going to come round at some stage mid race. just like it did and he would have been the ideal horse to follow.

also on the first bend,brad hewitt ,who had driven well to win the trotters final the race before,made a poor tactical decision and attempted to come off when the head on showed he didn't have enough room. i'm surprised he wasn't given a suspension for that as he took himself and another out of the race when they locked wheels and considerable ground.

meanwhile,luke mccarthy made all the right moves at the right time,but his horse still had to dig very deep as minstrels driver also drove a clever race,realising don hugo had gone a bit harder than ideal early,tried to outstay don hugo and minstrel fought a valiant battle from a long way out,but came up just short.

The locomotive won the trotters final through just sheer power. Brad hewitt rated his well and he was just too good. queen elida went pretty much like she did in the final heat. a battling 5th by her standards,after chris alford gave her the best run he could in the 1/1,given he was always going to end up outside the locomotive at the start.

all in all a very good series in my opinion.

Edited December 16 by the galah

[Gammalite]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

meanwhile,luke mccarthy made all the right moves at the right time,but his horse still had to dig very deep as minstrels driver also drove a clever race,realising don hugo had gone a bit harder than ideal early,tried to outstay don hugo and minstrel fought a valiant battle from a long way out,but came up just short.

Definitely a trend these days because of Swayzee and Leap To Fame. (and Just Believe trotting)

Luke poured it on down the back (2nd last quarter in 26 seconds ) with Don Hugo and had them all struggling except Minstrel . and then outstayed them . Exceptionally well judged by Luke. yes Minstrel was tremendous too.

Swayzee (in the 2 NZ Cups wins) , Leap to Fame (nearly every race)  , Don Hugo (lately each race)  ,

Trotters too, Just Believe( in the Dominion Hcap) , Keayang Zahara( in the trotting Derby and that.)  The Locomotive in recent runs, They all get balanced early , while the others duel for the front. And when they've settled for a moment mid-race, they come calling for the lead and then really' let rip ' in  the second last quarter and get everything off the bit completely nearly .

none of them burn straight to the lead at the start going flat out or anything. A heap of the feature races are run and Won this way these days, as demonstrated beautifully by Don Hugo. 

Duchess Megxit tried it in the Fillies Final Cup day but was caught late by Treacherous Baby. The last quarter in All these races was SLOWER by about 1 to 2 seconds on the 'second last quarter' where the action is really happening  these days , when All these Top horses put the rivals To the sword with a 26 or 27 sec burst . 

I quite like this style really as quite exciting viewing, and has been better than just watching the 'Traditional' last quarter dash after stacking them up. 

 

 

[the galah]

38 minutes ago, Gammalite said:

Definitely a trend these days because of Swayzee and Leap To Fame. (and Just Believe trotting)

Luke poured it on down the back (2nd last quarter in 26 seconds ) with Don Hugo and had them all struggling except Minstrel . and then outstayed them . Exceptionally well judged by Luke. yes Minstrel was tremendous too.

Swayzee (in the 2 NZ Cups wins) , Leap to Fame (nearly every race)  , Don Hugo (lately each race)  ,

Trotters too, Just Believe( in the Dominion Hcap) , Keayang Zahara( in the trotting Derby and that.)  The Locomotive in recent runs, They all get balanced early , while the others duel for the front. And when they've settled for a moment mid-race, they come calling for the lead and then really' let rip ' in  the second last quarter and get everything off the bit completely nearly .

none of them burn straight to the lead at the start going flat out or anything. A heap of the feature races are run and Won this way these days, as demonstrated beautifully by Don Hugo. 

Duchess Megxit tried it in the Fillies Final Cup day but was caught late by Treacherous Baby. The last quarter in All these races was SLOWER by about 1 to 2 seconds on the 'second last quarter' where the action is really happening  these days , when All these Top horses put the rivals To the sword with a 26 or 27 sec burst . 

I quite like this style really as quite exciting viewing, and has been better than just watching the 'Traditional' last quarter dash after stacking them up. 

 

 

duchess megxit's race that it won last friday at auckland,was a race where bob butt tried to just outsprint them with a quick last quarter. They ran a 28.7 second last quarter in that one,last quarter in 27.2 an overall time of 2.41.3.

Bob Butt must have been thinking he had the fastest horse. I don't mind seeing a driver just sprint them home if it suits his horse,but given the overall time and where duchess megixt was positioned out the back,it appeared butt not rolling quicker from the 800m meant duchess megxit got into a challenging position much easier than it really should have. Maybe duchess megxit would have won anyway,whatever butt did.But i think that was a race which showed how the tactics you refer to gammalite,could have been effective if applied.

Edited December 16 by the galah

[Gammalite]

11 minutes ago, the galah said:

duchess megxit's race that it won last friday at auckland,was a race where bob butt tried to just outsprint them with a quick last quarter. They ran a 28.7 second last quarter in that one,last quarter in 27.2 an overall time of 2.41.3.

Bob Butt must have been thinking he had the fastest horse. I don't mind seeing a driver just sprint them home if it suits his horse,but given the overall time and where duchess megixt was positioned out the back,it appeared butt not rolling quicker from the 800m meant duchess megxit got into a challenging position much easier than it really should have. Maybe duchess megxit would have won anyway,whatever butt did.But i think that was a race which showed how the tactics you refer to gammalite,could have been effective if applied.

That was a very very interesting race. I nearly was going to ask you what you thought of it.

Bob had trucked out to take the lead at the start. with Princess Meritaten. and yeah , was quite late cutting her loose.

And she veered out coming up the home straight . 😳. Holy cow. I thought Bob was doing it on purpose to try and hinder Duchess Megxit who was finishing very well out wide , with the fast quarter you mentioned.

But when Stipes questioned him , he said she (Princess Meritaten)  was hitting her knee , going right handed at Alexandra Park. ( One of the real downfalls of that place that no-one talks about much ) and why they should sell it lol .😆 as well as to clear the massive ATC debt.

Anyway , Thats the reason she veered out , as was unbalanced, and probably why she wasn't 'Cut loose' on the home bend earlier as you would of liked. so I'm not blaming Bob for changing line now in the home straight.  She sprinted from the back out very wide the previous week to show what a great filly she is .

Princess Meritaten and Duchess Megxit could both verywell be the next Ardie's Express'es.? . great racehorses.