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Merlin magic in $1m Race by Grins

By Jonny Turner, HRNZMerlin was more than magical in his national record-smashing win in the $1,000,000 The Race by Grins at Cambridge tonight.The brilliant four-year-old’s star shone even brighter than ever before when he downed a classy field in emphatic style.Merlin drew outside his arch-rival Don’t Stop Dreaming which set him a huge task to win according to most of the pre-race hype.But it proved to be up a task the Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan trained star was well and truly up for.“...

Just Believe's "huge achievement" in winning the TAB Trot

By Michael Guerin, HRNZThe little Aussie horse who has been all over the world Just Believe needed to produce a world class performance to win Friday’s $600,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge.The Victorian overcame having the hardest run sitting parked to head home an Australian domination of the locals, clawing his way past Callmethebreeze and Queen Elida for a stunning victory in the 2200m mobile.He was driven to perfection by Greg Sugars, whose wife Jess Tubbs trains Just Believe, as he allowed the ...

Merlin too good in Flying Mile ahead of next week's $1m The Race by Grins

By Michael GuerinThe man who has achieved almost everything possible in Australasian harness racing now has a new target.Hall of Fame trainer Barry Purdon, and training partner Scott Phelan, have three shots at their first $1million race at Cambridge next Friday.And judging by the performance of their three starters in Thursday night’s Gr.2 McMillan Equine Feeds Flying Mile Pace at Cambridge, they are the stable to beat.Merlin showed he has gone to the next level when he sat parked to beat sta...

Mahia Dreamin overcomes heart issue to win at Cambridge

Mahia Dreamin’s big syndicate of owners are open to every description of her Cambridge win on Thursday night except “heart-stopping.”Even saying she showed plenty of heart to stave off Jaccka Cooper after a stirring early speed battle might touch a nerve.That’s because it’s taken six months for the Summer Fun Syndicate’s mare to regain her best form after first suffering an atrial fibrillation then a myriad of other issues in the interim.After fibrillating in a training run last Sept...

Coterie announced as headline act for Night of Champions

Coterie, winners of the prestigious Best New Artist award at the 2023 Rolling Stone Aotearoa awards, will headline the Night of Champions afterparty at Cambridge Raceway on Friday April 12. The band of four brothers, who were born in New Zealand and raised in Western Australia, were the first band signed to Six60’s music label Massive Records. The band has over 30 million streams, four NZ Gold records and their breakout hit “Cool It Down” reached platinum status in 2022, they’v...

Champion Australian trotter Just Believe takes TAB Trot slot

Champion Australian trotter Just Believe has been secured by Taylor St Racing Syndicate for the inaugural $575,000 TAB Trot (2200m) at Cambridge Raceway on April 12. The Jess Tubbs-trained square gaiter has an impressive resume. He’s a two-time Interdominion champion who just last week became the first Australian-bred trotter to earn over A$1 million in prizemoney after winning the Gr.2 BetaVet Dullard Trot Cup (2240m) at Melton. “We’re thrilled to have the best trotter in Austra...

Leap To Fame being set for The Race by Grins

Australia’s champion pacer Leap To Fame is heading to New Zealand.Leviathan owner Kevin Seymour said it was no longer an if, but a when Leap To Fame crossed the ditch to chase the $1 Million The Race by Grins at Cambridge on April 12.“The race is a target and we are well advanced in talks with slot holders,” he said.“We said a while back he wouldn’t be going to the Perth race and that NZ was the aim.“We’ve got a pretty clear plan in place and it includes taking him to Cambridge.“...

Sacred Mountain flys home in Cambridge Raceway feature

By BARRY LICHTER“We were running but I didn’t think we were going that fast.”It came as news to trainer-driver Nicky Chilcott that Sacred Mountain broke the New Zealand mares’ record for a mobile 2200 metres in Thursday’s $40,000 Cambridge Trotters’ Flying Stakes - but she described as “insane” the feeling she had while flying along in front.“It’s just the best feeling when you’re in front and charging," she said. “I like to look at the sectionals on the semaphore board b...

Dickie lands double at Cambridge

By Brigette Solomon, HRNZOnly recently back from a stint in Australia, Josh Dickie reined a double at Cambridge Raceway yesterday.Both winners were trained by Dickie’s new employers, Steve and Amanda Telfer, the first being Slots in Race 3.The three-year-old colt by Sweet Lou was too good for his rivals powering away to win by a margin of three and a quarter lengths. From his starting draw of seven, Dickie allowed the gelding to work around to the lead and from there he never looked like being...

Sacred Mountain puts on angelic performance

By BARRY LICHTERTrainer Nicky Chilcott credits Matamata vet Barbara Hunter with turning Sacred Mountain from the wicked witch of the west into an avenging angel at Cambridge on Christmas Eve. Chilcott was fizzing about how well the classy trotter had come up this preparation only to see her perform poorly in her first run back and fail to even go away in her second.“She got into a real state before that first race at Cambridge and felt terrible even in the warm-up. And at Auckland she had...

Leap To Fame could tackle Race by Grins

Newly crowned Inter Dominion champion Leap To Fame has surprisingly emerged as a likely runner in Cambridge’s The Race by Grins.It was long believed Leap To Fame would tackle Perth’s slot race – the Nullarbor – around the same, but owner Kevin Seymour ruled that out today.“He won’t be going to Perth, but we’re looking seriously at NZ,” he said.“We think it’ll be an easier trip and a more suitable race. If he goes to a slot race, it will be Cambridge.”Leap To Fame stamped hi...

Queen Elida and TAB chasing a crown at Cambridge in April

One of the best trotters in Australia is coming home to her country of her birth after Queen Elida was secured for the TAB slot in the TAB Trot Slot at Cambridge in April. The five-year-old mare, who is second favourite for the upcoming Inter Dominion Trotting Championship in Queensland, has established a brilliant career record, winning 30 races to date, including seven at Group 1 level. She is proudly Kiwi-owned by Canterbury trainer Tony Barron, part-breeder Gordon McKenzie and thei...

TAB Trot Slot holders confirmed

Eight slot holders for Australasia’s first slot race for trotters, the TAB Trot Slot, have been confirmed.The inaugural edition of TAB Trot Slot (2200m), which will carry an initial stake of $575,000, will be held at Cambridge Raceway on April 12, 2024.Waikato-Bay of Plenty Harness Inc. have today released the names of the slot holders who will be scouting for runners in the first edition of the ground-breaking race for trotters aged three or older. They are: TAB NZAldebara...

Filly rewards connections with Cambridge win

By BARRY LICHTERTrainer Nicky Chilcott says few moments can trump the feeling she had when bringing debut winner It’s Nae Or Never back to scale at Cambridge on Friday night.“There’s a huge syndicate that races her and so many of them were there. It was a fantastic feeling coming back to scale, the area was jam packed.”The big turnout on a wet night ended a frustrating wait by the two dozen odd owners in the filly whose hopes of seeing her race in the Young Guns series at Auckland were d...

TAB Trot Slot added to the Grins Night of Champions

Waikato-BOP Harness Racing, Entain Australia and New Zealand (TAB) and Harness Racing New Zealand are excited to announce Australasia’s first slot race for trotters, the TAB Trot Slot (2200m, mobile) worth $655,000.The ground-breaking race will be run alongside The Race by Grins for pacers on the illustrious Night of Champions at Cambridge Raceway on Friday April 12, 2024.“Our vision for the Night of Champions is ambitious,” Cambridge Raceway CEO Dave Branch said. ...

Mantra Blue goes three from three

By Michael GuerinHave we finally found a serious challenger to unbeaten filly Millwood Nike?Mantra Blue’s stunning recovery performance to win the Nevele R 50 Years of Success heat at Cambridge on Thursday night suggests we might have, even if trainer Zachary Butcher is trying to keep a lid on expectations.Having just her third start Mantra Blue not only looked in trouble having to start from the outside of the front line but her winning chances should have ended soon after the start as she wa...

Coastal Babe and Le Major take out Sires' Stakes heats at Cambridge

By Michael GuerinIf you think impressive Cambridge winner Coastal Babe still looks like a work in progress you should have seen her four months ago.The daughter of Downbytheseaside smashed some of the north’s best juvenile pacing fillies in her Dunstan Horsefeeds Sires’ Stakes heat on Thursday night, winning easily from a brave Ultimate Racy Girl and the favourite Kiss, who was three wide for the last lap.But as good as the placegetters were Coastal Babe won too easily in the hands of Matty ...

Clear Left gives Crystal Hackett her 50th win

By Michael Guerin, HRNZCambridge maiden winner Clear Left has a lot to live up to but he has at least started off on the right hoof.The son of Art Major was a winner at just his second start on Thursday night, clinging on to beat Rockafilly in the hands of Crystal Hackett, giving the in-form young driver her 50th career success, half of those this year.Trainer John Dickie says the win won’t be Clear Left’s last as he is at the improving stage of his young career but he also know he has some ...

Stable favourite gets home track win

Nobody on course at Cambridge on Thursday night was as excited about Prince Envy’s upset all-the-way win as trainer-driver Nicky Chilcott and her stable workers Leah Hibbell and Jordyn Bublitz.That’s because no horse is more loved around the White Star barn than the gentle seven-year-old black beauty they call Envy.“He’s a gorgeous looking horse but more than that he’s such a darling,” says Nicky. “You wouldn’t get a lovelier animal. He’d never kick or bite.” If you happ...

Branch decides against trans-Tasman move

Leading harness racing administrator Dave Branch has decided his immediate future will be in New Zealand.The chief executive of Cambridge Raceway and the key figure behind the $1m Race by Grins had been “seriously considering” a move to Australia. He’d been linked to a high profile job in Queensland he called “tempting”.“But in the end I feel there is a job that’s only been half done at Cambridge and I feel a lot of loyalty to the team there.”“We are on the cusp of a really exc...

Browns' golden run continues

By Michael GuerinWaikato trainer Peter Brown could barely have had a better month and not just because he is now the country’s leading strike rate trainer.If you don’t know Brown he has been knocking around the northern harness racing scene for years, never over playing his hand, a happy, respected guy.“The horses are just a hobby for Ros (wife) and I and we have waited a long time to have a couple of good ones,” explains Brown.What Brown should have said was the harness horses are just ...

Berger keeps racking up the wins

Mike Berger may joke these days about his age but that experience is helping him still train plenty of winners with his small team.Berger captured the first race at Cambridge on Thursday night when trotter Quik Sharnie made it two wins on end in the hands of Ben Butcher, downing leader Del Shannon via the passing lane. It was his seventh training success this year.But the Waikato trainer wasn’t there to see the win, watching from Canterbury where he had Cos I Can finish eleventh in Friday nigh...

Copy That again shows his class in the $1m Race by Grins

By Michael GuerinFor the little pacer who can Copy That the winning isn’t the hard part.He proved that again in the $1million Race by Grins at Cambridge on Friday night as he led and raced away from Old Town Road to record a paint by numbers victory in New Zealand’s richest harness race.Nothing new in that, Copy That was always going to be the horse to beat after drawing to find his favoured pacemaking role, his little legs spinning in a happy rhythm being when he is most potent.That is how ...

The Race by Grins Barrier Draw to be Live on SENZ radio Monday 6 pm

The all-important barrier draw for the 2023 The Race by Grins will be broadcast live on SENZ on Monday the 10th of April at 6pm.“With the four favoured horses unable to be separated by the bookies, it shows just how crucial this draw is going to be,” said Cambridge Raceway CEO Dave Branch.“The draw will be hosted by Michael Guerin and Greg O’Connor and overseen by RIB CEO Mike Clement. Horse names will be randomly drawn from a hat, and the corresponding connection will be called from the...

Self Assured rewards punters with Cambridge gem

By Michael Guerin, NZ HeraldNatalie Rasmussen was back doing what she does best at Cambridge on Thursday night, and the punters who stuck with Self Assured loved every second of it.Rasmussen, who had not driven in a race this season until Thursday, produced a gem of a drive to get Self Assured home in the $45,000 Flying Mile even after he started from the outside of the front line.The race was the final lead-up to the $1 million The Race next Friday and the defending champion did exactly what he...