Bits and Bridles

A full brother to champion pacer Lazarus qualified at Ashburton on Saturday as a trotter.

Resurgamus is a five year old gelding and is trained by David Mitchell at Timaru.

He’s by Bettor’s Delight who in his stella career has left a stack of high-end pacers who’ve collectively won 5,062 races and more than $91 million dollars. He’s left just a handful of trotters – the most high profile being Australian squaregaiter London To A Brick which has won sixteen races and $426,017.

Stallion Poster Boy registered his third qualifier at Addington on Tuesday when Bold Excuse got his ticket.

The three year old filly trained by Andrew Stuart is out of a half-sister to I’m Full Of Excuses, the winner of the 2005 Southern Supremacy Stakes. After winning seven races in New Zealand he won a further fifteen in Australia.

Poster Boy has twelve foals on the ground including three 3 year olds, all of which have now qualified.

At the same trials the royally bred Cherish Me qualified for Cran and Chrissie Dalgety. The Captaintreacherous – Adore Me ($1.6 million) three year old filly is a full sister to All You Need Is Me and Just Remember Me, both winners of five races.

Peter Ferguson continued his long association with trainer Doug Gale when he drove Miki’s Moment (Always B Miki) to win at Manawatu on Tuesday night.

Ferguson teamed up with Kate’s First, trained by Gale, to win the New Zealand Oaks and Nevele R Fillies Series Final in 1987 and drove Anvil Gale to win the New Zealand Sires Stakes Two Year Old Final in 1996.

His biggest win for Gale was with Kate’s First in the 1997 Auckland Cup.

Tonight at Cambridge Raceway, both the tightly assessed trotters and pacers get to race for good money over a mile in two races that have plenty of history.

For some trainers these races will be used to fine tune their horses for the upcoming slot races which are now just eight days away.

Some of the greats in the sport won the feature in the seventies including Chequer Board, Holy Hal, Garcon Roux, Arapaho and Young Quinn.

Showy chestnut Captain Harcourt won the Pacers Flying Mile three years in a row 1976 – 1978 and is the only horse to have won the race three times.

Barry Purdon and his brother Mark have each won the feature nine times. Barry’s first winner was Luxury Liner in 1987 whom he trained with his father Roy while Mark’s first winner was Ouch in 2001.

Mark Purdon and Tony Herlihy share the record for the most winning drives – 6 apiece.

Last year’s winner Chase A Dream holds the race record of 1-51.4.

The biggest winning margin of eight lengths is jointly held by Chequer Board (1970) and Young Quinn (1975).

The Cambridge Trotters Mile has been held since 1967.

Both Tussle and Oscar Bonavena have won the feature three times while Mark Purdon is the most successful trainer in the race’s history with five winners. He’s also the most successful driver with four wins.

Two Australian trained trotters, Kyvalley Blur (2017) and Aldebaran Blur (2023) have won the race. Both were trained by Brent Lilley.

The race record of 1-54.5 is held by 2014 winner Stent.

Five eleven year olds have won the Trotters Mile – Scotleigh (1968), Uteena (1970), Tussle (1988), Admiral Soanai (1989) and Idle Scott (1995).

The biggest winning margin of eleven and three quarter lengths was recorded by Marcoola in 2016.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink