Motocross: Raetihi rider Karaitiana Horne a standout at NZ Junior Motocross Champs

Raetihi's Karaitiana Horne (bike No 394) won five races from five starts in the 12-16 years' 125cc/250cc girls' class at the 2023 New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships in Invercargill. Photo / Geoff Guthrie Imagery

Five wins from five starts saw Raetihi’s Karaitiana Horne totally dominate proceedings and easily win her class at the 2023 New Zealand Junior Motocross Championships in Southland.

The annual school holiday event was run over three days at The Sandpit track at Otatara on the southern outskirts of Invercargill, and it mostly took until the final lap of the final race before a title winner could be declared.

This was true in all cases, except for that of GasGas bike racer Horne, the 14-year-old so dominant she could have afforded to finish somewhere back in the pack in her final outing and still capture the junior girls’ 12-16 years’ 125cc/250cc class crown.

It was her second consecutive national junior girls’ title after she had taken an 85cc version of the distinctive red GasGas bike brand to win the younger age group title - in the 12-16 years’ 85cc/150cc class - last season.

In the end, Horne finished a solid 15 points clear of her nearest challenger in Invercargill, Mangakino’s Teagan Wilkin-Thom, with Taupō’s Mikayla Griffiths claiming the final podium spot, another 10 points further back.

Horne, a Year 10 pupil at Ruapehu College in Ōhakune, also raced against the boys in the 12-14 years’ 125cc class but was forced to settle for fourth overall in this 22-rider division, with Leeston’s Kase Thoms winning the title on an identical GasGas MC125 machine.

“The track was rough and it was pretty hard riding two classes, especially in the one against the boys,” Horne said.

“I was doing faster lap times than most of the boys but I was still satisfied with finishing fourth against them.

“I won all the girls’ races by quite a long way.”

The news just gets worse for the junior girls, with Horne still eligible to race for the title in her class for another two seasons before she eventually graduates to the senior women’s ranks.

Horne is now considering a trip overseas to race in the Australian junior nationals in Darwin in two months’ time.