Dunns head new Seddon trainers' championship

Robert and Jenna Dunn have taken the early lead in the new Seddon District Harness Racing Group Trainers' Championship.

The championship, with a prize pool of $10,000, is designed to encourage trainers to bring their horses to the top half of the South Island over the next few months.

In all there will be eleven days of racing, with trainers needing to have starters at six of the 11 days to be eligible for the prizemoney.

After the opening meeting of the championship, at Kaikoura, the Dunns lead the way with a total of 25 points.

They got two points for starting horses on Kaikoura Cup day on Monday, 12 points for the wins by Nazareth and Sundees Son, one point for finishing fourth with Jimmy Arma, and 10 bonus points for having five starters in what are "designated" races.

Th All Stars stable of Mark Purdon and Hayden Cullen are currently second on 23 with Michael House (22) and Steve and Amanda Telfer (21) close behind.

Trainers receive two points for each race day they attend plus:

6 points for 1st
3 points for 2nd
2 points for 3rd
1 point for 4th.

An additional two bonus points will be allocated to the trainers of all starters in designated feature races – if a trainer starts more than one horse in a feature race they will receive two bonus points for each horse that starts.

The designated feature races are: 

Alabar Kaikoura Cup
IRT Trotters Cup
Pulse Energy Westport Cup
Caltex Westport Cup
FT Dooley Kawatiri Cup
Rosco Contracting Reefton Cup
Inangahua Grey Valley Cup
Nelson Pine Industries Nelson Cup Classic
Nelson Pine Industries Nelson Cup
Marlborough Cup Prelude
Marlborough Cup

The 11 race days are:

Kaikoura Trotting Club, October 30 & 31
Westport Trotting Club, December 26 & 28, March 10 2023
Reefton Trotting Club, December 30, March 12 2023
Nelson Harness Racing Club, January 13 & 15 2023
Marlborough Harness Racing Club, January 20 and 22 2023

The prizemoney, which is funded by Harness Racing New Zealand and each of the Seddon Group Clubs, will be divided between public trainers and those who have a licence to train, with $3500 to the winners of each, $1000 to the runner-up and $500 to the third place-getter.

To see the leaderboard click here