News Briefs – July 5

[Wandering Eyes]

100th win for Katie Cox

Katie Cox has chalked up her 100th driving success. It came with with debutant Palatable in race 4 at Addington last Friday night, only for Time Up The Hill to give her win number 101 later in the night. Both winners were trained by Michael Ward. Cox has had seven wins this year, including a Group 2 success with It’s Tough in the Welcome Stakes. The Canterbury-based Cox also has 30 wins as a trainer.

Top trotters now with Team Dunn

The premiership leading team of Robert and Jenna Dunn have just added some serious firepower to their stable, including two talented trotters. Delson, who’s back in New Zealand after three unplaced starts in Australia, previously had nine wins in this country mainly for the Graeme Rogerson-Dylan Ferguson barn, and joins Team Dunn as does eight race winner Andy Hall from Nathan Williamson. Another who’s joined the stable is Amore Infida (Captaintreacherous – Castellina Lover), an unraced half sister to Amore Vita, who was second to Mach Dan at Melton over the weekend.

Bartlett goes 10,000

Jason Bartlett has become the 20th North American to have 10,000 career victories. The milestone came after he won 13 races on two nights at Yonkers in New York last week. He has won more than $140m in stakes, the 12th most all-time. He’s the leading driver in North American this year with 293 wins and earnings of $4.9m. Ex-pat Kiwi Dexter Dunn is currently 21st in the earnings list with $2.1m in stakes from 534 drives, including 88 wins.

Artatac heads stateside

The well performed Artatac will do his future racing in North America. The Art Major five-year-old, bought for $25,000, has won $171,458 and 14 races from 99 starts. Trained by Mark Jones, among his biggest successes were the Cheviot Cup, the Mt Hutt Cup and the Timaru Winter Cup (twice). Artatac heads offshore after back to back wins at Timaru and Addington.

Marshall wins again

Former Cambridge trainer Kyle Marshall has had his fourth win since heading across the Tasman. His latest success came with stable star Son Of Mac winning at Kilmore last Thursday, pacing the mile in 1:57.5. Son Of Mac is Marshall’s third individual winner in Australia, along with Smoken Ace (two wins) and Wharewhiti.

The Joker’s winning run

Basketballing superstar Nikola Jokic just can’t stop winning. In June the MVP led the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA championship. And in the last week the avid harness racing fan has had two wins as an owner, with outsider Kubitsa and Kaiser de Montree both winning in France.

Entries open for sale

Entries for NZB Standardbred’s 2024 National Yearling Sale are now open, with the sales on in Auckland on Sunday 18 February and then in Christchurch on Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb 20-21). Entries close on Friday July 28 at 5pm. For more information contact grant.inglis@nzb.co.nz.

Harness Racing turnovers for the last week :

Auckland Thursday (June 29) $601,897, Gross Betting Margin 21.4% –  Winton Friday $618,695, 24% –  Addington Friday $842,608, 10.6%  – Addington Sunday $647,756, 19.5%.

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