Bits and Bridles
Bits and Bridles
The Night of Champions will be held at Cambridge this Friday night.
The two feature races on the card are the $530,000 TAB Trot and the $1,000,000 The Race by Sport Nation Mobile Pace – both slot races.
This will be the third year the TAB Trot has been held and since its inception Australian runners have completely dominated.
In 2024 four Australian trained trotters made the cut with Just Believe winning, Callmethebreeze finishing second, Queen Elida third and Arcee Phoenix fourth.
Last year Australian trotters dominated again with Arcee Phoenix winning, Queen Elida finishing second and The Locomotive third.
The pacer slot race has been run since 2022.
Three Australian pacers had slots in the inaugural year with Majestic Cruiser finishing second, Stylish Memphis sixth and Alta Orlando seventh.
In 2023 Jess Tubbs trained both Australian entries. Better Eclipse ran fourth and Triple Eight was pulled up.
Two Australians fronted up in 2024 with Better Eclipse finishing fifth and Speak The Truth eighth, while last year Australian champion Leap To Fame smashed the clock to win the $1,000,000 feature.
Australian horses look set to dominate both races again this year.
The Corner Shop and Who’s Drivin Syndicates which are Central Otago and Southern based, are on a winning streak at the moment.
Both groups own trotter Jordan Anne (Pegasus Spur) which won at Winton on 26th March for Oamaru trainer Matty Williamson. And their aged pacing mare Penny Weight (Prodigal Seelster) scored for Ashburton trainer Ben Waldon at Timaru last Friday.
Chapter Seven stallion Helpisontheway sired his first New Zealand winner when Help Me trained by Warren Stapleton won at Timaru last week.
Helpisontheway stands at Northern Rivers Equine in Victoria and only has eight foals on the ground in New Zealand.
Our Twinkle’s (Ultimate Machete) winning margin of seven and a half lengths at Ascot Park last Thursday was impressive. Nevertheless it doesn’t come close to David Moss’s forty one length win on the same course in September 1990.
Two feature races will be held at Winton this weekend.
The Winton Cup is a time-honoured race in the area, dating back to at least the 1950s and names on the honours board include Trevira, Prince Rashad, Whanau and Bondy.
The race record of 2-55.5 for the 2400 metre stand is held by the 2017 winner Delightful Memphis.
The second feature race, the Southern Belle Speed Series, was first run in 2008 with Artishake trained by Jamie Gameson, the inaugural winner.
The race for mares has been dominated in the last few years by Steve and Amanda Telfer, with Darling Me in 2022, Sweet Diamond in 2024 and Seaside Rose in 2025 winning the feature.
Seaside Rose’s winning time of 1-53.1 is the current race record.
by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink
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