Successful start for Southern Surge

[Wandering Eyes]

The Southern Surge is set for an action replay in 2026.

The brand new series featured $15,000 heats at Winton (August 3) and Invercargill (August 10) before eight $25,000 finals as part of Gore’s big meeting on Sunday.

It’s been hailed as a significant success on a number of fronts.

Such was the calibre of racing that there were six new track records witnessed by a good-sized crowd at Gore and from a betting perspective the three-meeting series attracted turnover of $2.185m – that’s more than double the total from the corresponding meetings in 2024 ($1.1m).

The increase in turnover has been mirrored at other venues around the country of late.  

The number of people betting on the Southern Surge meetings also rose significantly – from 5930 to 10384 across the three meetings.

The breakdown :

Winton        $734,886  (last year $316,770)
Invercargill  $681,281  (last year $375,213)
Gore           $769,523  (last year $420,048)  

“The whole idea about the Southern Surge was to encourage racing in the south during the traditionally quieter months and it really worked well,” says Harness Racing New Zealand’s Head of Racing and Wagering Matthew Peden.

“With 162 horses racing at the three meetings that was 60 more than last year and the locals really came to the party with 42 trainers involved, up 10 on last year.” 

For Southern Harness it was also a 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.

HRNZ and Southern Harness will now do a thorough review to see what further improvements can be made before the Surge’s second installment in 2026.

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