Eastern Bay trainers eye success at Te Teko races

Eastern Bay of Plenty trainers are hoping for good wins this Sunday in the Whakatane Racing Club's annual winter meeting at the Te Teko Racecourse.

Thornton trainer Peter O'Connor will have two locally owned horses running. Saint Molua, owned by a racing club officials Danny and Meredith Deegan is hoping for his first start in the maiden 1200m. Isti Bee owned by a local syndicate will be running in the maiden mile.

O'Connor is expecting a good race from Isti Bee.

"He has placed in the last two starts and is now stepping up to the 1600m, which is really suited to him, so we are expecting a win on local soil."

O'Connor, who has had a dozen race starts himself, worked with his father Kevin in Te Awamutu before moving to the Eastern Bay in 1999.

He has five horses under his care.

A second Whakatane trainer, Craig Finn hopes to have four of his horses out on the track on Sunday.

"We always like to support the local racing. It is good to have it back here. It is not so costly for the local owners."

Finn is hoping home turf will also given him a maiden win.

Of the four horses, locally-owned Me Texan will be having its first race start in the maiden 1200m.

"He is my best promise on the day. It would be good to see him win here for his first outing."

The other horses expected to be fielded by Finn are He's a Tiger, Yes You Can and Sprightly.

Club secretary Meredith Deegan said the feature race would be the Wealleans Winter Cup over 2000m.

She said the club was looking at a good field for this event, as well as reasonable fields for the remaining nine races on the 10-race programme.

The first race starts at 11.20am with the Winter Cup scheduled to get under way at 3.05pm.

A feature of this meeting will be that all proceeds from the gate charge - $2 for adults - will go to Project Hope2 - Eastern Bay, while money raised by a barbecue being run by the Kopeopeo Lions Club will also go to that project.

Deegan said there will be plenty of TAB betting facilities oncourse for the punters while the children should be kept amused by a bouncy castle and rides in carts pulled by miniature trotters.

O'Connor said he expects the track to be easy to firm with the weather having cleared.