Bits and Bridles

The drought broke when Kerry Hadfield trained and drove Royal Belle (Gold Ace) to win at the Cheviot meeting recently. It was his first win as a driver since Amelia Rose won at Akaroa in 2022 and his first training win since Royal Paradise won at Ashburton in May 2023.

His first winner was Hoppy’s Hero for Mike DeFilippi at Banks Peninsula in December 1990.

As a junior he won two New Zealand Junior Drivers Champions – in 1993 and 1994.

Hadfield was associated with Sur Sambo which won nine races for Fred Morris with Hadfield in the cart for all of those wins and also reined Matthew Lee in four of his fourteen wins.

In his thirty five year driving career Kerry has driven 165 winners including two feature race winners – Holm For Xmas in the 1999 G2 Sapling Stakes and Payson’s Moneymaker in the 1994 G3 Otago Three Year Old Series Final.

Captaintreacherous stallion Capt Midnight left his first New Zealand winner at Addington last night when Admor Ella trained by Simon Adlam won at her first start.

Bred by John and Judy Stiven of Arden Lodge, the three year old filly was back early, looked to be battling and under a drive, but got going up the passing lane to beat favourite Tee Ball by half a head.

Admor Ella is out of the four win Net Ten EOM mare Countess Of Arden and is one of twenty five foals by her sire.

Face Time Bourbon, the son of Ready Cash also sired his first Australian winner when the Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan trained Duke Of Bourbon impressively won at Alexandra Park.

The $240,000 sales purchase was bred by Yabby Dam Farms and is out of Muscle Hill mare Dance Craze, a daughter of champion trotting mare La Coocaracha.

Face Time Bourbon has eleven foals on the ground in Australia and four in New Zealand.

The Griffins Syndicate has possibly had more success than any other syndicate when it comes to racing trotters in New Zealand.

Their latest winner was Isabel (Majestic Son) at the Cheviot meeting earlier this month.

The majority of the syndicate horses stem from a breed developed by the Grice brothers of Mid Canterbury over decades.

Although some of their 115 New Zealand winners have been raced solely by the group, some have been in partnerships.

Their first winner was Rugged Cross at Ascot Park in April 2011 while their flagship horse for a few seasons was Majestic Man who won 24 races and $839,980. His three Group One wins were all in Australia; The Dullard Trotters Cup, the Trotting Grand Prix and the Aquagait Equine Mile.

Four Group One features will be run at Alexandra Park tomorrow night:

The Northern Derby is 110 years old and some of the great three year olds have won the feature. Elsu, Changeover, Courage Under Fire, Lazarus, Holmes DG and Roydon Glen just to name a few.

In recent times Marketplace, Cold Chisel, Merlin, Akuta and Krug are on the honours board.

Marketplace’s winning time last year of 3-14.9 is the race record.

The Northern Pacing Oaks is not quite as old, dating back to 1966.

Mark Purdon has an outstanding record, winning seven of the last thirteen Oaks.

The race record of 3-15.9 was set last year when Arafura won for Hayden and Amanda Cullen.

The trotting feature on the night is the Northern Trotting Derby.

Race winners include the mighty Sundon who won six of his seven starts as a three year old, including the Northern Trotting Derby.

Australian trotter Blitzthemcalder won for Ross Payne in 2013 smashing the race record by over 4 seconds when he took it out by six and a half lengths in 3-21.4. That record stood until 2022 when Highgrove ran the Derby distance in 3-20.7 and this remains the current race record.

The Roy Purdon Memorial has been held for four years. The prior winners were Self Assured, Kango, American Me and Republican Party, who holds the race record of 2-42.0.

Roy trained 556 winners in his own right and a further 1,463 with his son Barry.

He was the first trainer of either standardbreds or thoroughbreds to accomplish 2000 wins in New Zealand.

He won the New Zealand Premiership a record 22 times and in 1988 was the recipient of an MBE for his services to harness racing.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink