Racing: Cambridge could become permanent home of Harness Jewels in big industry shake-up

Akuta driven by Mark Purdon winning the Harness Jewels at Cambridge earlier this month. Photo / Trish Dunell

Cambridge could become the permanent home of the Harness Jewels as one of the key shocks of a radical new programme for harness racing's feature races.

That could also see the industry's second-biggest race day moved to February for warmer weather and to tie in with the annual yearling sales, which have their banner day at Karaka at that time of the year.

Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) are working on a draft of how their new feature-race programme could look after the recent decision to follow Australia into a calendar year system for horse's birthdays.

Australian harness racing has changed its season to a calendar year so horses change age on January 1, meaning the new season starts then and give the option of season-ending championships such as the Breeders Crown being held in summer.

HRNZ have aligned the date horses change age with Australia so the racing calendars in the two countries can marry up but, oddly, the harness racing season here will still officially run from August 1 to July 31 because to change it would require a change to the Racing Act.

"We aren't going to change our official season but we have changed the date the horses turn a year older and then we can work our racing programmes around that," explained HRNZ chief executive Gary Woodham yesterday.

HRNZ put together a working group to create a new draft feature-race season with the proviso that New Zealand Cup day (the second Tuesday in November) is sacred but everything else is up for discussion.

That includes the Jewels which were a great success at Cambridge last week but most inside the industry want moved to summer.

There had been some fears the Jewels may not survive the re-shaping of the industry and while no concrete decisions have been made, Woodham said he expected them to continue.

"I think they will, but it is by no means final," he added.

The Jewels have alternated between the South Island (firstly Ashburton, but for the last one Addington) and Cambridge but Woodham says it is possible Cambridge could become its permanent home.

"We are not trying to pre-empt anything and everything is up for discussion."