New Zealand
Matamata is set to host the Gr.1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) for the second time in three years after a slippery track forced the abandonment of Saturday’s blockbuster race meeting at Hastings. The second day of the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival had promised so much, with quality
New Zealand
Love Poem propelled herself up the fixed-odds market for the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) with a dominant first-up performance at Te Rapa on Friday. The highly talented Snitzel filly was a stakes placegetter in all of her three starts as a two-year-old. She was runner-up to Captured
New Zealand
Nine-year-old warhorse Times Ticking (NZ) (Tavistock) upstaged his younger rivals with a brilliant first-up performance in Saturday’s Marshall Batteries Open Handicap (1400m) at Riccarton. The $50,000 feature marked the beginning of a seventh season of racing for the Tavistock gelding, who had not been seen on raceday since
New Zealand
Spring racing in the South Island has been a happy hunting ground for Te Akau Racing throughout the last couple of decades, and that trend is set to continue with another strong team of seven runners at Riccarton Park on Saturday. New Zealand’s leading trainers Mark Walker and Sam
New Zealand
Several years have passed since Joanne Surgenor last competed in a Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival, but the Ardmore Lodge trainer is heading back to Hastings on Saturday with a pair of well-credentialled runners. Surgenor has trained 55 winners in a career that started during the 2006-07 season, and according
New Zealand
Stephen Marsh believes the El Vencedor (NZ) (Shocking) that is heading to Hastings for Saturday’s Gr.1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) is barely recognisable as the same horse that has competed during the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival in previous seasons. The son of Shocking was very much a
New Zealand
A pair of classy three-year-olds from last season made a bold return to racing at Ellerslie on Saturday, with Cambridge Stud homebred Luberon digging deep to just pip Pericles in the Sistema (1200m). Luberon has been a first-crop flagbearer for Cambridge Stud stallion Embellish, starting with a black-type placing in
New Zealand
Hunterville gelding Jay Bee Gee is going from strength to strength as a spring seven-year-old, collecting the first two black-type wins of his career within the first two months of the 2024-25 season. The son of Complacent had showed promising signs with five wins from 17 starts as a five
New Zealand
Victories with a pair of promising first-starters at Wanganui on Saturday provided jockey Kelly Myers with the 50th and 51st wins of her career at the track. Myers brought up her Wanganui half-century with a hard-fought win aboard Landlock in the opening race on Saturday’s card, the Pilet Contracting/
New Zealand
Prisca capped a consistent and improving formline with a commanding maiden victory in Friday’s Taupo Vet Centre (1800m). The Puccini mare kicked off her career with an unplaced finish over 1400m at Matamata in May, which she followed up with sixth placings over the same distance at Taupo and
New Zealand
Sunday’s Thomas Green Handicap (1600m) at Oamaru could put Southland trainer Lisa Vaughan on a path towards saddling her second Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) runner in the last three years. Vaughan ran accomplished mare Asathought in the time-honoured Riccarton staying showpiece in 2022, finishing a creditable seventh.
New Zealand
Last weekend’s New Plymouth abandonment has forced Allan Sharrock into a change of plans with his Group One winner Ladies Man, who is entered to kick off his seven-year-old season in the H&T Agronomics/Agricom Open (1200m) at Wanganui on Saturday. The Seaton Park (1400m) at New