Five questions for 2025

By Michael Guerin

When Alta Meteor came stomping down the Addington home straight last Friday it felt like an early start to spring. Not if you were outside in the Addington cold of course, but if you like good horses and all they bring to our lives. So now the good horses are back and bigger, better races are around the corner, here are five questions whose answers could determine who were spend the rest of 2025 talking about

Will they come?
You know who. The half-brothers from the west island.  Swayzee (twice) and Leap To Fame (once) have already been here and won three huge prizes and the intention is for them both to return for the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup. If either or both come then the big shiny Cup and a nice chunk of change is probably going back across the Tasman again. Of course Leap To Fame was going to come last year and didn’t, nobody’s fault but still an indication of how tricky these things can be to predict.  And Swayzee absolutely wasn’t coming last year then did, and indication of how tricky these things can be to predict. They are both supposed to go to the Victoria Cup on October 18 then head our way and I hope they do, it would make for one of the strongest harness races in this part of the world in a decade. But we will see. Three months is a long time in any sport, especially one where you carry 500kgs flat out on skinny legs.

Who is our best pacer?
A year ago there were supposedly two contenders: Merlin and Don’t Stop Dreaming. But neither has been even in the same ball park, performance-wise as Republican Party since, who keeps getting things right when it matters. Merlin and Don’t Stop Dreaming might be flat out better than him but they both seem to have a hole in them: Merlin at 3200m isn’t as good as Merlin at half of 3200m while Don’t Stop Dreaming wins a lot less than a horse with his reputation should. Then there is Akuta. He is a bloody good horse who could have been a great one. With two or three hard runs under his belt we will know whether he is as good as Republican Party or whether 20 months on the sidelines has dulled his blade.

Who is our best trotter?
Easy answer is Bet N Win. He won the Rowe Cup and finished second in the Inter Dominion Final when having an off day. He looks to be the one of the big names with the most improvement still left and it is hard to believe there is anything coming up behind him who is better.
Which leaves us with the ones usually ahead of him on the pecking order in Oscar Bonavena and Muscle Mountain. Oscar could still win, or lose, any trot race we have on any day while Muscle Mountain is a wonderful horse slowly losing his boxing match with Father Time, who is of course undefeated. There appear few other serious contenders for the title before year’s end and few who will scare Arcee Phoenix off returning for the Dominion.

Will anything emerge to challenge Marketplace?
He looks every inch the next superstar of pacing here and completely dominates the market for the Velocity and the NZ Derby. While that will stifle betting and could have a few slot holders scratching their heads about what to do, the general public love great horses so even if he dents turnover he is worth it. His next battle with a now Derby-winning Rubira will ramp up the hype.

What actually is the World Driving Championship?
The name sounds quite self-explanatory but in reality we all know the series coming to New Zealand won’t actually contain all the best drivers in the world. Then again, invited jockeys and drivers series never do. But it is a whole bunch of other things, the most obvious being a series of opportunities. An opportunity to sell different storylines to punters and the public. An opportunity to showcase our unique race tracks and countryside to the rest of the harness racing world. An opportunity to the harness racing world, and ourselves, we know how to do things right. Ever watched Elitloppet footage and thought you’d love to go to Sweden? Well there will be people from plenty of other countries watching the World Drivers at New Zealand Cup week. Let's give them a show.