News Briefs : September 21

The Box Seat returns

From today harness racing show, the Box Seat is back. The show, hosted by Greg O'Connor and Michael Guerin, will be recorded on Wednesday mornings and be available on Youtube and the HRNZ website from Wednesday afternoon/evening. It will also be shown on Trackside at 9am every Thursday.

Huge support for Murray Edmonds fund-raiser

The harness racing and business community have rallied around tomorrow's fund-raiser for Murray Edmonds. The dinner at Addington Raceway tomorrow night has long been a sell-out and now more than forty items have been donated to the cause to be auctioned on the night. They include signed All Blacks, Crusaders and Dan Carter rugby jerseys, dual sulky rides, a helicopter flight and lunch for four, and a lot more besides. The night has been organised by Stevie Golding, Sandi Curtin and Aimee Edmonds to raise funds for Murray and his family, after he was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour.

History repeats in Juvenile Stakes

How poignant was Watermelon Sugar's win at Oamaru on Sunday. He won the Juvenile Stakes for Cran and Chrissie Dalgety 25 years after the race was last raced at the course, and on that occasion it was won by Cran's father, the late Jim Dalgety. In 1997 the winner was Hilarious Heather.

One win away from major milestones

Two big milestones are on the brink of being achieved. Tim Williams is on 699 driving wins after both Aardie's Express and Allamericanlover won at Addington on Friday night. And Nicky Chilcott, New Zealand's first female driver to reach 500 wins, is one away from bringing up 500 training successes as well. On the driving front she now has 668 wins.

Lazarus two-year-olds dominate

The progeny of the great Lazarus continue to impress in North America, with his foals winning all four of the New Jersey Classic Finals for two-year-old pacers at the Meadowlands over the weekend. They were Alexa's Fantasy, Kraken Seelster, Two Pistol Annie and Voukefalas. Two Pistol Annie had the fastest mile rate of 1:51, winning by four lengths for champion Kiwi driver Dexter Dunn.

Hilary Barry's a winner again

Hilary Barry, the five-year-old Bettor's Delight mare who was named after the popular Seven Sharp TV presenter, has won at decent odds at Harrah's Hoosier Park in Indiana. She took out a fillies and mares race in 1:54.0. The mare headed to North America in 2019 after seven unplaced starts in New Zealand. The original Hilary Barry has since posted on her Twitter account, saying the horse was "a blooming beauty".