Marketplace Vrs Got The Chocolates

[Newmarket]

How good has it been watching these 2 race against each other. Marketplace clearly the better early on, but Got The Chocs now has the edge and the staying power.

Reminds me of Starship Vrs Tuapeka Knight in the 80s, Starship had edge early but Tuapeka Knight soon turned out to be better. I do remember Starship beating him one day at Addington, only to be relegated as Ian Cameron closed the gap. 
 

Sir Castleton Vrs Basil Dean, Gammalite Vrs Poppy…. What other match ups can you remember?

[Shad]

6 hours ago, Newmarket said:

How good has it been watching these 2 race against each other. Marketplace clearly the better early on, but Got The Chocs now has the edge and the staying power.

Reminds me of Starship Vrs Tuapeka Knight in the 80s, Starship had edge early but Tuapeka Knight soon turned out to be better. I do remember Starship beating him one day at Addington, only to be relegated as Ian Cameron closed the gap. 
 

Sir Castleton Vrs Basil Dean, Gammalite Vrs Poppy…. What other match ups can you remember?

The memories flood back, certainly was a great era of racing, from memory starships started off a long mark on the grass at Westport before heading to Auckland, being placed in the cup, Basisl Dean was one of my favorite trotters, how good was he.

[Newmarket]

10 hours ago, Shad said:

The memories flood back, certainly was a great era of racing, from memory starships started off a long mark on the grass at Westport before heading to Auckland, being placed in the cup, Basisl Dean was one of my favorite trotters, how good was he.

I remember well….

Also remember Montana Vance being the best early on, then Laud appeared and clearly was better. Laud sat parked outside it and clearly outstayed it with Peter Jones driving. 
Sadly, i think something happened to the horse soon after. 

[PeterLambFan]

5 hours ago, Newmarket said:

I remember well….

Also remember Montana Vance being the best early on, then Laud appeared and clearly was better. Laud sat parked outside it and clearly outstayed it with Peter Jones driving. 
Sadly, i think something happened to the horse soon after. 

I made a bit of money backing Just an Excuse when Elsu was always a hot favourite 

[Shad]

Another old favorite of mine from that era was no response, his storming finishes always a highlight, remember one race where he weaved his way through most of the field, may have been interdominon, we had some top liners back in the day, remember joyboy starting off a 120m mark in a Westport cup back in the day, was 3rd from memory, Trevor Thomas was his driver.

[Newmarket]

Fantastic, Marketplace turned the tables tonight, smart drive in front. These 2 are clearly the best of that age group. Great racing tonight, Harness in NZ os going strong. 

[Gammalite]

On 11/19/2025 at 6:12 PM, Newmarket said:

Sir Castleton Vrs Basil Dean, Gammalite Vrs Poppy…. What other match ups can you remember?

Sir Castleton v Aussie Scotch Notch as well. they nearly Quinellaed 3 Interdominion Grand Finals and were both tiny little trotters but big in heart.

Don't mention Poppy. that's 2 wins for Gamma and 15 for Popular Alm in 17 race clashes. (think he fluked some 😉)

Armalight and Bonnie's Chance had quite a few great clashes  and won a NZ Cup each amongst the action, during their races against each other. 

On 11/20/2025 at 6:45 PM, Shad said:

Another old favorite of mine from that era was no response, his storming finishes always a highlight, remember one race where he weaved his way through most of the field, may have been interdominon

yep . to win the Trot Grand Final at Addington. No Response had a great arch rival too, in Scotch Tar. They won a stack of races between them. (Wolfie drive Scotch Tar in that Interdominion Final that No Response won , but galloped to the back and ran 7th in the end unfortunately. he was a very difficult horse to drive) 

[the galah]

12 hours ago, Newmarket said:

Fantastic, Marketplace turned the tables tonight, smart drive in front. These 2 are clearly the best of that age group. Great racing tonight, Harness in NZ os going strong. 

yes,there was some good racing last night,but you have to be kidding if you think nz harness racing is going strong.

Every indicator,whether it be mares being bred,licenceholder numbers,public attendance on course ,turnover numbers,the number of small fiields we are seeing,etc,etc.

Every single indicator shows nz harness racing is the opposite of going strong.

then as to the nz horses performances. Have you ever seen the level, of dominance by the australians over the new zealand horses before?

the reason i point this out is because you have done  exactly what the powers that be and the media do and want you to do.

That is judge nz harness racings state of health ,on the one off nz cup meeting and the likely good crowd numbers (even if they are also in decline from previous years) at some of the country grass track meetings over the next couple of months,as long as the weather is nice,.

the positivity that happens over cup week and around xmas ,happens every year. But even those indicators appear to be going in the wrong direction.

So we get these,racing is going strong comments every year around this time,then its back to reality and for the remaining  9 months of the year the talk of industry decline continues. 

so  why is it,unrealistic comments about the state of the industry ,are damaging to the industry as a whole.

Well,its because,to those in charge such comments justify their poor decision making and perpetuates the poor decision making.

Edited 1 hour ago by the galah

[Nowornever]

I thought this was the best Cup Week for quality horse flesh in many years so Kudos to that.

The elephant in the room is the weak Cambridge and Auckland meetings nearing the peak of the season. Actually the Southern meetings have the same vibe. Same old horses going around each week and the fields getting smaller.

In contrast the grass tracks are still going strong with full fields of 12 races on Sunday at Banks Peninsula

Only way you can fix it is stop the horses leaving the Country, Breed more horses or lower the qualifying times and let more horses race.

I am all in favour of doing a bit of all three but mainly lowering the times and letting more race. Also spreading the stakes more evenly across the whole spectrum. Do away with slot races for a start.

[the galah]

28 minutes ago, Nowornever said:

I thought this was the best Cup Week for quality horse flesh in many years so Kudos to that.

 

fair enough to have that opinion, but  the difference was this year the cup carnival had several really high quality australian horses including the young trotters.

They dominated cup week like never before,winning the main pacing races,the main trotting races,the 2 and 3 year old trotting races. Everything they started in during cup week they won.The only ones they didn't dominate was the 2 and 3 year old pacing races,as they had no australian trained horses in them..

take out those aussies,and this year was not any better horse flesh than any other year.

I've been around long enough to hear people say,year after year.best racing ever.

And why did they come here more this year,because the stake money.Australia is in decline,so they come here to cherry pick while nz has administrators that throw millions at the high end races.And we all know that can't last.

Take a horse like gus.He had been going great in australia for the last 3 years.

But do you know what.He is  the best in queensland and had won 16 of his 42 starts over there ,in the last 3 years.

But he can earn more than double his lifetime earnings in just 2 start here.