Kiwi trotters Bet N Win and Oscar Bonavena set for Aussie wins

Oscar Bonavena (blue) winning at Addington last November. Photo / Race Images

A trio of harness racing rarities could all pay dividends on either side of the Tasman this weekend.

While tonight has the usual Friday Night Lights meetings at Addington and Alexandra Park, the eyes of harness racing fans are starting to be cast overseas as the Inter Dominions in Brisbane are now three weeks away and New Zealand participation across the Tasman is ramping up.

Rowe Cup winner Bet N Win is a rare Canterbury-trained trotter starting at Menangle tomorrow night, while Oscar Bonavena, who is chasing a double at Albion Park after winning there last Saturday, would undoubtedly be the first Matamata-trained trotter to be successful in the big time in Australia.

More on them later, as the harness racing weekend starts tonight with the best race of the night at Alexandra Park being the opener.

It offers a rarity of another type with American Me being a Mid Canterbury-trained open class pacer spending his winter in Auckland.

Horses of American Me’s class aren’t usually racing at this time of the year, especially South Islanders at Alexandra Park as usually there aren’t suitable races for them.

Trainers Brent and Tim White found the perfect race last Friday when American Me smashed his rivals off a 25m handicap but they won’t be able to believe their luck that he is in an easier race tonight.

American Me returns to mobile conditions over 2200m and while he has drawn the outside of the six runners, only Mantra Blue (R1, No 5) would be considered remotely in the same class so the TAB’s opening $1.70 quote seems a fair multi-bet starter for the weekend.

The Alexandra Park fields, while light on numbers, are holding up well class-wise for this time of the season, with one of the other better bets for the night also early with Treacherous Baby (R2, No 8) also backable at even money.

Across the Tasman, Bet N Win will attract the most Kiwi attention as he stops in at Menangle outside Sydney for a fitness-building run on his way to the Inter Dominions, which begin in Brisbane on July 5.

Bet N Win hasn’t raced since winning the Rowe Cup in May but Sydney free-for-all trots are rarely strong and with NSW’s best trotters not even in the field Bet N Win (R7, No 5) should win.

Earlier in the night, Canterbury pacer Pinseeker (R1, No 4) makes his Australian debut in a race he could dominate but punters should be careful as New Zealand-trained horses often struggle with the searing Menangle miles the first time they tackle them.

At Albion Park the star of the show will be local hero and one of the best pacers in the world, Leap To Fame, who should jog around to win Race 2.

But the New Zealand flag will be flown, probably successfully, by Oscar Bonavena in the main trot.

The veteran won his Queensland debut last Saturday by having too much speed for his rivals and that should be the case again in a field containing plenty of former Kiwis as Oscar Bonavena prepares for an Inter Dominion he can win after young Aussie heroine Keayang Zahara pulled out.

That has left the series with its A$500,000 final on July 19 as a perfect target for Oscar Bonavena and Bet N Win, ensuring plenty more Kiwi harness racing fans’ eyeballs will be cast across the Tasman over the next six weeks.

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.