The popular City versus Country Drivers Challenge will be a feature of the Carnival of Cups meeting at Junee this Sunday night.  Harness racing club secretary Joanne Judd has been busily preparing and was proud to confirm the ‘City’ team that will be making the trip to Junee.

“The five reinsman that will be travelling to Junee to represent the city are David Morris, Josh Aiken, Zac Phillips, Josh Duggan and Alex Ashwood,” Mrs Judd said.

“We are still awaiting the confirmation of the country team but we have four confirmed drivers David Moran, Corey Bell, Scott Osmond and Dennis Picker while Mat Rue will confirm whether he can be the fifth driver on Tuesday.”

The challenge has been highly entertaining in recent years with several Grand Circuit stars including Anthony Butt and Chris Alford having competed in previous years.

“The club tries to mix it up every year and have different drivers compete, Amanda Turnbull won it last year and we try to make it exciting for the on-course patrons that live locally who watch all of these drivers compete on the television but never get the chance to see them drive in person.

“Matt Harris came up with the idea a number of years ago and it is something that the Junee club enjoys running each and every year.”

Owners and trainers are reminded that each of the three heats in the City v Country Drivers Invitational are penalty-free events.

“Each of the races is worth $8,000 and being penalty free they are very attractive options for a number of trainers and owners who might be considering making the trip to Junee.

“There is a heat for C0 horses, C1 and C2 to C3 so we hope to receive strong nominations for the challenge.”

The feature race at Sunday’s meeting will be the Phoenix Accounting and Business Services Junee Pacers Cup.  The race is worth $14,280 and is for C3 to C6 horses.  The Trevor White-trained Hollywood Stride won the 2015 Cup in a big upset with odds-on favourite Business In Motion finishing ninth.

Greg Hayes