Horse racing: Super stable chasing national record but TAB aiming high

Bettors Anvil was a winner at Cambridge in April and is part of Team Telfer's powerful spring assault. Photo / Harness Racing New Zealand

New Zealand’s leading harness stable have revealed their ultimate goal for the season – and it falls well short of TAB expectations.

The brother-and-sister training partnership of Steve and Amanda Telfer go into the weekend leading the national trainers premiership by 40 wins, with 123 victories for the season compared to Michael House’s 83.

They are so far in front that the TAB bookies have already paid out on them winning the premiership, which ends on December 31.

But senior partner Steve Telfer says with the premiership seemingly secured, they have another goal set by their boss, Stonewall Stud owner Steve Stockman.

“Stocky has challenged us to try and break the New Zealand record for wins in the season,” Telfer said.

That is the 168 wins set by the late Roy and Barry Purdon in the 1994 season, a number that has never looked in danger.

“Now we have 123, the record is the new target, even though obvously we’d love to win more.

“I actually thought the record was 169 so our goal is 170. If we get that and set a new record, that is great but we’d love to win as many races and big races as possible for our owners.”

Once they had paid out on the premiership, the TAB bookies opened a new book on Team Telfer’s total wins for the season, with three options of 200-plus, 191-199 or 190 and under.

The higher number seemed possible at their winter rate of training six or seven winners a week but with the major stables all back in action now, Friday night racing has rarely been tougher and the 190 or less option has now moved in from $2.80 to $1.50.

“Somebody mentioned it to me last week and I’d really struggle to see us getting to 190,” Telfer admitted.

“A lot of our horses have won their easier races like maidens or in winter fields and you can see how much harder it has become to win races, particularly at Addington on Friday nights.

“We won’t be sending big teams down south [Southland] and while we will go to the remaining Manawatū meetings [three] and even to the West Coast circuit, we aren’t sending our elite horses there.

“So if we get to 170, it will be a great year for us and a new record but we also fully understand how hard it is going to be to win races through October and November.”

If Team Telfer are to break the 190 barrier, they will need to train 4.25 winners a week every week until December 31 – and that target looks achievable this weekend at least.

They have two hot favourites in Bettors Anvil (Race 5, No 7) and Tact Teva (Race 6, No 4) at Addington tomorrow night, the latter odds-on in the $50,000 Woodlands Stud Sires’ Stakes Harness 7000.

“He is a very smart young horse who would have been in the good 3-year-old races earlier this season, had he not got injured in a paddock,” Telfer said.

“He won really well last time and should be even better for that outing so he is our top chance.”

Telfer has no qualms about Bettors Anvil’s class in his comeback race but admits tactics could be tricky in a race with hard-running rivals like Rustenburg drawn inside him.

“But I think he should have too much speed for them late.”

There are harness racing meetings on Thursday at Invercargill (day) and Cambridge (night) as well as the usual Addington and Alexandra Park double on Friday night but the major race of the harness weekend is the Hannon Memorial meeting at Ōamaru on Sunday.

New Zealand trainers premiership

1: Steve and Amanda Telfer, 123 wins

2: Michael House, 83 wins

3: Robert and Jenna Dunn, 60 wins

4: Mark Jones, 48 wins

5: Michelle Wallis and Bernie Hackett, 40 wins.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.