Opunake Cup defending champion Justaskme.
One of the wildest seasons in New Zealand racing history is set for a busier-than-expected final chapter after some hectic weekend juggling.
Thoroughbred racing has been through an incredible season with Entain’s arrival into New Zealand bringing record stake increases, the sometimes complicated re-opening of Ellerslie and the launch of Champions Day and the $3.5million NZB Kiwi for next term.
Add in Imperatriz’s Aussie sprint domination and the now almost certain win of South African star Warren Kennedy in the jockey’s premiership less than two years after arriving in the country and it has been a season of incredible storylines.
It was starting to look like the racing year was going to stagger to the finish line of July 31 though after four abandonments last week, three because of weather and one at Pukekohe because of starting gate transportation issues.
That meant last week was a very, very rare one (Covid-era restrictions aside) with no galloping action in New Zealand.
But New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing has done an admirable job of re-allocating the meetings and racing fans will go from famine to feast with eight meetings in the next six days.
That starts at Hawera today with the $100,000 Opunake Cup meeting that was to have been held at New Plymouth on Saturday, while Cambridge holds its scheduled synthetic track meeting with four $30,000 MAAT races tomorrow.
Thursday sees a double-up with the Arawa Park meeting, that was abandoned last Saturday because of surface water, being run with new fields, alongside the Awapuni synthetic meeting.
Roll into Friday for Riccarton, both Otaki and Te Rapa on Saturday and Waverley on Sunday and the back end of this week will be the busiest winter racing period ever in this country.
“It took a bit of juggling but we are thrilled to get all the meetings off the ground after last week,” says NZTR’s Head of Racing Operations, Tim Aldridge.
“We really got the bad luck quaddie last week with four meetings being canned. I can’t remember anything quite that bad before and, apart from when we stopped racing because of Covid, I can’t remember another week when we had no race meetings.
“Rescheduling meetings is a lot harder than some people might realise, with the potential clashes and, of course, we have to work with Trackside to make sure they can cover the races.”
Today’s move from New Plymouth to Hawera is a prime example of NZTR having to be flexible as the New Plymouth course was already pre-booked for a trade fair so another track had to be found.
“We are lucky to be able to use Hawera and wanted to run the meeting as soon as possible as quite a few of the horses in the Opunake Cup are being aimed at the Winter Cup.
“That is at Riccarton obviously and on August 3, so we want to give the trainers as big a gap as we could between the two races. A lot of trainers like two-week gaps but at least 11 days gives them a chance to start in both.”
Local trainer Allan Sharrock says the move to Hawera could be both good and bad for Opunake Cup defending champion Justaskme.
“His home track on Saturday would have been better because it would have been the real heavy he likes,” explains Sharrock.
“Hawera doesn’t get quite as heavy as at home but, in saying that, the track circumference will suit him better. He can still win but it is quite an open race.”
That is for sure with proven winter stars like Belardo Boy and Justaskme lumped with big weights in a race with plenty of lightweight chances, with Wessex still looking good each-way value at $6.
As for the premiership, the busy end to the season won’t greatly aid Michael McNab’s improbable hopes of catching Kennedy, who is nine wins clear.
They can only ride at one of the three double-up meetings each and both miss today’s meeting as, with the fields carrying over from Saturday, so too do the riding engagements and both men weren’t originally down to ride there.
So barring a miracle, Kennedy will wear the jockey’s crown after the final meeting of the season at Tauranga on July 31.
But there is one premiership still very much alive as Lily Sutherland and Niranjan Parmar go into the final eight days of the season locked on 49 wins each in the battle to be the leading apprentice.
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.