World Drivers Championship picks , tips and credits

[Shad]

Tough gig, no pun, who draws the fastest horses will generally do well, how many more heats till we find a winner,

[Gammalite]

19 hours ago, Shad said:

Tough gig, no pun, who draws the fastest horses will generally do well, how many more heats till we find a winner,

well there's no fast horses at Cambridge 😉, so the winner should be the Best driver lol. 5 heats tomorrow.

Blair Orange has drawn a couple of outside barrier draws so will be very hard indeed for him to get in the frame.

The driver's that draws well as far as barrier goes,  gets a luckier run usually.

JAMES MACDONALD the Canadian has a few handy barrier draws in the 5 Waikato heats tomorrow.

Gary Hall Jnr is the current leader on points after 5 races,  but my guess is James will over-take him at Cambridge.

I quite like the macDonald drive 'Sans Au Revoir' in the 9th heat as well , even drawn the 2nd line , as she is a bit more experienced than her rivals (and I won off her a couple of times previously lol 🤣) 

But the World drivers Championship will take these five heats to see who is a chance at Addington and Winton of becoming the next   World Harness driving Champion.

 

[Brodie]

Just as well they arent holding races at Auckland as they more than likely couldnt provide enough horses for the heats!

Friday night field numbers just keep getting worse!

6 horse maidens and 5 horse 2 year olds is just giving hope that they can survive.!

Waiting for Spatchcock lol

[mikeynz]

16 minutes ago, Brodie said:

Just as well they arent holding races at Auckland as they more than likely couldnt provide enough horses for the heats!

Friday night field numbers just keep getting worse!

6 horse maidens and 5 horse 2 year olds is just giving hope that they can survive.!

Waiting for Spatchcock lol

Looks like they have over extended the numbers at Cambridge, no room for 2 meetings a week, yet they keep running them.

Manawatu next week, Monday and Thursday, might not be the smartest in Cup Week, we will see in time I guess.

[the galah]

watching the racing at cambridge tonight.

Those world drivers champs races have really lifted the bar by a long way as far as racing quality goes.

Each driver out to achieve the best possible placing with no pre conceived plan to help anyone else,every horse being driven well and all punters clearly able to understand their drivers every moves.Also 10 starters instead of the normal 6 we see at the average meetings up there.

It just goes to show that cambridge can provide a high quality product to bet on even with the horses that race mid week and on the track they have. 

Edited Wednesday at 06:00 AM by the galah

[Gammalite]

3 hours ago, the galah said:

watching the racing at cambridge tonight.

Those world drivers champs races have really lifted the bar by a long way as far as racing quality goes.

Each driver out to achieve the best possible placing with no pre conceived plan to help anyone else,every horse being driven well and all punters clearly able to understand their drivers every moves.Also 10 starters instead of the normal 6 we see at the average meetings up there.

It just goes to show that cambridge can provide a high quality product to bet on even with the horses that race mid week and on the track they have. 

Was great to see BlairO win a heat for the locals. in heat 10 tonight. 

MATS DJUSE from Sweden has got juiced up with a couple of winners nicely tonight ,

and the Canadian James MacDonald has taken the lead as most were predicting with 2 winners as well.  he could of won on 'Sans Au Revoir' for me which would of been just dandy , but missed by a head. 

Here's the latest points then , with Blair up to 4th.  Gets to his favoured Addington now too. so should do well. 

 

[the galah]

11 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Was great to see BlairO win a heat for the locals. in heat 10 tonight. 

MATS DJUSE from Sweden has got juiced up with a couple of winners nicely tonight ,

and the Canadian James MacDonald has taken the lead as most were predicting with 2 winners as well.  he could of won on 'Sans Au Revoir' for me which would of been just dandy , but missed by a head. 

Here's the latest points then , with Blair up to 4th.  Gets to his favoured Addington now too. so should do well. 

 

its shaping up as heading towards a close 3 way finish between orange ,hall and mcdonald..

the tab odds are still very short for all 3  and not really worth investing on.

even the odd of the drivers who have little chance seem way too short.

but looking at the horses the drivers have drawn,it could be any of the 3 i mention winning. Orange has the better upcoming drivers but still is a way off the leaders and mcdonald and hall both have some handy drives and they could keep accumulating the points and hold the lead. the german may keep accumulating,but really the horses he has drawn count him out of any chance of winning. 

the final heat on tuesday,orange,hall and mcdonald all look like they are on horses who would be unlikely to run in the first 3. That last heat has quite a difference in recent form of the runners and its not really a fitting final race to finish on. You would think hrnz should have programmed something more even on cup day  to be fair to the drivers..

Edited Wednesday at 08:38 PM by the galah

[Gammalite]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

he final heat on tuesday,orange,hall and mcdonald all look like they are on horses who would be unlikely to run in the first 3. That last heat has quite a difference in recent form of the runners and its not really a fitting final race to finish on. You would think hrnz should have programmed something more even on cup day  to be fair to the drivers..

Blair O , Gary Hall and JMAc look set for the trifecta as always seemed the case from the start nearly,  with their Intricate knowledge of Pacing Gait horses , and these type of race tracks as well.

The Europe boys have been pretty 'Clean' though , and put up a good show too. They are just used to driving Trotters only, so were always at that huge disadvantage. 

HRNZ put on plenty of trotters races for them accordingly to try and help out. And are finishing with rather a lame duck one (slow trot)  on Tuesday in Race 3 , where I agree that is a little disappointing way to finish.😢

I would of stuck them on the JUNIOR FFA in race 6 , and give em' a real show on some great kiwi horsepower.  Would of been a wonderful Way to finish the Championship up,  on some real nice horses . 😁

[TAB For Ever]

4 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Blair O , Gary Hall and JMAc look set for the trifecta as always seemed the case from the start nearly,  with their Intricate knowledge of Pacing Gait horses , and these type of race tracks as well.

The Europe boys have been pretty 'Clean' though , and put up a good show too. They are just used to driving Trotters only, so were always at that huge disadvantage. 

HRNZ put on plenty of trotters races for them accordingly to try and help out. And are finishing with rather a lame duck one (slow trot)  on Tuesday in Race 3 , where I agree that is a little disappointing way to finish.😢

I would of stuck them on the JUNIOR FFA in race 6 , and give em' a real show on some great kiwi horsepower.  Would of been a wonderful Way to finish the Championship up,  on some real nice horses . 😁

Thanks Gamma for keeping us up to date with the WDC. Keeping the tag team on track !!

I see Aussie GHall Jnr has got the plum drive on Rachmaninov on Friday...I love that horse , now 290 odd starts and often run good races out of its class rating etc.

Seems like the drivers getting a good look around the country and many have friends and family with them.

And great the way NZ folk have put their horses forward to race.....my syndicates have put a couple in ,one horser not surprisingly as its a bit tricky gave the driver a shocking drive ,going rough on the bends .

[Gammalite]

that is amazing achievement by Blair.

wins Heat 11 and the commentator said that was 3000 career wins . excellent stuff indeed. he drives all over the place in Big fields sometimes. congrats to him on a fine innings so far !  🏆

my fav Aus driver , who might be at Addington tuesday with Gus in the Dominion, has about 3400 winners and is only 34 years old , so will end up with a huge total ultimately. Pete Mcmullen drives fast Metro class winners that he trains nearly every week but are standard one mile and 2100m races  so a bit 'formulaic' . should of popped him on Don't Stop Dreaming and he would of really 'Livened Up' the Cup on Tuesday  🤣  (hope SamO does ok though )

[Gammalite]

On 11/6/2025 at 12:30 PM, TAB For Ever said:

I see Aussie GHall Jnr has got the plum drive on Rachmaninov on Friday...I love that horse , now 290 odd starts and often run good races out of its class rating etc.

had a 2nd placing at Kaikoura in this Championship already , so hope Gary can get the old boy home this time. 

He's 20-1 odd too. so well worth a run in a Quinella or trifecta as well.

Blair Orange is on the favoured 'Sand Fly Bay' so lets go for a Down-Under Quinella 👍💰

[the galah]

i'm really enjoying watching these drivers champs as each driver does whats best to get the best possible placing. Punters certainly can't say they haven't got a run for their money with any of them.

perhaps one or two have driven beyond the recent form of their horses,but then again some of the drivers have gotten more out of their drives than we normally see by driving them to win.

actually as i type this i watched the auckland race and it looked pretty obvious d butcher sacrificed any chance he had to assist his stablemate to get the win.. Good to see that his stablemate didn't win. It defintely was not a good look when you have driving like that. But thats what happens up there more than it ever should and why people like myself say the north island product simply is not as appealing for punters.

Edited 14 hours ago by the galah

[the galah]

the final heat another ripper of a race.Some of the most competitive race driving we have seen in nz for quite a while.

mats djuse seems to have been the dark horse and has slipped into 3rd and pushed orange back a place.

he has a couple of handy drives coming up so you just never know. Hall keeps nipping at the heels of mcdonald. so iit will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[the galah]

23 minutes ago, the galah said:

i'm really enjoying watching these drivers champs as each driver does whats best to get the best possible placing. Punters certainly can't say they haven't got a run for their money with any of them.

actually as i type this i watched the auckland race and it looked pretty obvious d butcher sacrificed any chance he had to assist his stablemate to get the win.. Good to see that his stablemate didn't win. It defintely was not a good look when you have driving like that. But thats what happens up there more than it ever should and why people like myself say the north island product simply is not as appealing for punters.

i see at auckland the reason d butcher sacrificed his own drive to assist his stablemate was because  his stablemate got a penalty free win if it won.

Edited 13 hours ago by the galah

[Gammalite]

1 hour ago, the galah said:

i'm really enjoying watching these drivers champs as each driver does whats best to get the best possible placing. Punters certainly can't say they haven't got a run for their money with any of them.

perhaps one or two have driven beyond the recent form of their horses,but then again some of the drivers have gotten more out of their drives than we normally see by driving them to win.

yep. I always enjoy international competition (in any sport really) and we just get a few chances to enjoy it with harness racing as too far away America and Europe. 

 

1 hour ago, the galah said:

the final heat another ripper of a race.Some of the most competitive race driving we have seen in nz for quite a while.

mats djuse seems to have been the dark horse and has slipped into 3rd and pushed orange back a place.

Blair still looks a chance. trotter 'Sand Fly' was disappointing and the other trotting one 'Switch On' of Jones in race 5 could barely trot. it looked terrible in it's action and gave him a poor drive. 

NevertheLess Blair still in 4th spot . with 5 races to run. an outside chance he could still win 

POINTS UPDATE  

J MacDonald (Canada) 130 pts ,  Gary Hall Jnr (Aus) 121,  Mats Djuse (Sweden) 111  and Blair 4th on 107.  

The other 6 drivers are all still under 100 points and seemingly out of contention.

[Blackie]

Was at the races last night and all the drivers bought a real buzz to the event, stables were alive with them yarning to connections and all the cheer teams following their representatives. You’d have to say it’s been successful.