News Briefs : November 3

Box Seat Cup special

Harness racing show The Box Seat will be producing a New Zealand Cup special. Regular hosts Greg O’Connor and Michael Guerin will give their take on the big day on Tuesday November 9 with analysis and tips. It will be broadcast on Trackside at 8am and 8pm on Monday night and at 9am on Tuesday. It will also be available on ww.hrnz.co.nz.

Cup guide on HRNZ

HRNZ will also have a special New Zealand Cup lift-out on its website. It will feature fields, articles and everything you need to know about the big day. On Tuesday we will be all over Cup day with coverage of every race on www.hrnz.co.nz as well as regular updates on our social media channels.

$20,000 for Gore features

The Gore Harness Racing Cup’s decided on the stakes for its two big features on December 27. The Club's committee met this week to discuss stakes for the meeting and decided both the MLT Gore Pacing Cup and the Kim McDowall Gore Trotting Cup will be worth $20,000 each. The meeting will be part of a busy time in the south that includes the always popular Central Otago, Roxburgh and Cromwell meetings.

Bob Butt’s treble

With all the attention on Classie Brigade and Muscle Mountain’s heroics at Kaikoura’s meeting at Addington it was easy to overlook a first for Woodend trainer Bob Butt. He trained three winners at a meeting for the first time. He trained and drove trotters KD Hawk and Phoebe Onyx to victory, and also trained Taste of Honey who won for junior driver Carter Dalgety. And Scott Iremonger had his first placing as a trainer when Brandy And Ice was third in the opening trot at Methven last Friday. It was just his fifth starter as a trainer and it paid $18.90 a place!

Trainor in record breaking drive

Former Kiwi driver Jack Trainor has continued his superb relationship with star filly Anntonia at Menangle. The pair combined with trainer David Thorn to win the Group 1 NSW Oaks earlier this season and have now added the Group 1 NSW Breeders Challenge 3YO fillies’ final. It was a breathtaking front-running display with Anntonia smashing the Australasian mile record by a three-year-old. Her 1min 49.8sec took 0.5sec off Cheesy Fingers’ mark from 2015.

Hat-trick for former Kiwi

Former Kiwi four-year-old Mach Da Vinci is loving Queensland. The son of Art Major made it three brilliant wins on-end when he sloshed through driving rain and a soaking track to win by 20m in the opening race at Albion Park. The three wins have been by an aggregate of 46.2 metres.