NZ Premiership Race - The junior ranks

It’s proving to be a competitive junior driving premiership this year.

Here we look into those that are impressing this season and who is making a late bid to challenge for the title.

As we head into the middle of May John Morrison continues to head the standings. His winning tally of 45 wins so far meaning his lead is currently nine. Notable recent victories include a winning turn on the flying Lifes A Beach at Addington and his Wyndham Cup winning steer while behind Memphis Tennessee.

The real mover in the ranks has been Sarah O Reilly who now finds herself leading the chasing pack after a successful last two months or so. Her partnership with Michael House trained runners has paid handsome dividends of late with wins coming aboard Rake, Abadabado and Smokin Annie at Manawatu along with an impressive front running display on Changearound at Invercargill. O’Reilly has also piloted home the likes of Spanna, who was able to get over the top of rivals at Methven,and Ideal Invasion who surprised them all at Waimate, the horse paying an attractive $30.10 dividend.

If there’s such a thing as premiership momentum then it most certainly lies with O’Reilly currently.

The sound form of known stand-starter Homebush Lad adding a couple of wins to the tally of Hope alongside his memorable driving display to snare his first Group One success when guiding Muscle Mountain to a win in the Fred Shaw Memorial NZ Trotting Championship when beating out the reining king of the squaregaiters in Sundees Son.

Luke Whittaker and Alicia Harrison are currently locked in the tightest of battles for Northern honours with the pair each on 16 wins for the season so far .Whittaker recently pulled of a brace of driving wins at Cambridge on the 15^th of April aboard Pull The Other Leg and Bankers Gold while Harrison answered that threat to her premiership aspirations by guiding home Emmber and Sarandon at Cambridge on the 6th of May.  It’ll be exciting to see how this riace plays out over the coming weeks.

In the South Ellie Barron has enjoyed 13 wins this season with Sheree Tomlinson and Mark Hurrell also plying their trade across the Southern parts of the Country with success.

As for impressive UDR figures Devon Van Til is a notable performer.

While only the single victory has been achieved by Van Til (the memorable win coming aboard High Flying Harry at Banks Peninsula) a further 6 minor placings mean her UDR is a strong .2292. and you’d have to think that more wins aren’t too far away either.

Alana Cameron, with her strong association with the M Purvis stable, continues to see her season be a successful one and her UDR remains a competitive.2083 with 9 victories so far from the 72 starts. Tristan Larsen has also been driving well of late with two wins behind King Of The North and Stoneyroyd coming on the 23th of April. His UDR is currently .1437 in only his second season within the junior ranks with 8 winning drives and 14 minor placings from just under one hundred race day drives.

A dynamic premiership that’s still got a few twists and turns to come yet.

Ben McMillan