Team Telfer to double down on premiership domination

Semba has won at Alexandra Park before and gets the perfect draw tonight. Photo / Trish Dunell

Even for the man with a plan, Steve Telfer is stunned how quickly the New Zealand harness racing trainers’ premiership may have become a one-stable race.

Telfer and his sister/training partner Amanda go into this weekend’s racing 16 wins clear in the premiership after being 16 behind Michael House just two months ago.

It has been a staggering turnaround but one Telfer all but predicted, just not at this record speed.

“We had a plan to race a good team through winter, when the stakes are almost as good as summer but the opposition isn’t as tough,” says Telfer.

“We had good numbers and a lot of horses coming back on ratings they were going to be competitive at so I was confident we were ready to hit some form.

“But I couldn’t have quite predicted what has happened. We have had a huge run and look to be in a pretty good position to win the premiership.”

While the harness racing season doesn’t end until December 31, over five months away, Team Telfer are paying $1.02 to win the title after being $2.80 less than two months ago.

That imposing lead could extend significantly tonight, as they have up to six potential favourites between Alexandra Park and Addington.

“We had a quieter week last week [two wins] as it had been very wet so some of the horses didn’t get as much hoppled work, so we chose to let them miss a week.

“But we have some really strong chances tonight.”

That starts in the opener at Alexandra Park, for which Beachbreak is favourite after close seconds in stronger fields lately.


“He is a logical chance but our other horse Princess Lisa was unlucky last start and could even get a better run so she is right up there with him,” says Telfer.

Turn O The Tide is rated the stable’s better hope of three winning chances in Race 4, with Telfer suggesting the big, strong horse can make it to the verge of the better three-year-old races later in the season.

The stable again has two reps in Race 5, one of the strongest races of the night and Telfer warns punters to forgive Twista his lazy effort at Cambridge last Thursday.

“He is so laid-back he can be a bit funny and he was like that last week, so he will go better this week but I really like Semba over the 1700m.

“He has gate speed and the short trip suits him so maybe him narrowly on top out of our two.”

Telfer says their best winning chance at Alexandra Park would be Captain Moonlight, if he produces his best in Race 7.

“We thought he’d win last start as he works way better than a maiden at home and we were stunned when he raced that poorly.

“There was nothing majorly wrong with him and he had a nice quiet trial but please excuse last week and if he races up to his work, he should get the chocolates.”

J T Boe goes on top as the stable’s best chance of their two hopes in the last race.

They have almost as powerful a presence at Addington tonight, with at least four winning chances.

“Miki Flybye [R1), Riptide [R3], obviously Slots [R8], C C Arden [R9) can all win and so could a few of the others but if I had to name one as our best chance down there it would be Arden Seascape [R3, No 7], who had no luck last start.”

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.