Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
After a horrid run of 34 tips that failed, Marvellous Merv has finally broken the drought. Granted he did it with an odds on pop, but as my old mate the Poo always used to say, any price a winner. Merv’s got another one for you on Thursday night at Auckland. His great pacer Copy […]
Patience is a virtue. Copy That’s owner Merv Butterworth and his trainer Ray Green have plenty of it. The Champ resumed in a workout – our version of a trial – at Pukekohe Raceway this afternoon, against three top class horses. BD Joe is a Group 1 winner, OId Town Road is a rising star […]
Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) has backed down on it’s plan to make this year’s NZ Cup and Dominion Handicap handicap stand starts this year. So they should too. But just to illustrate the problems with conflict of interest on the board, I wonder how HRNZ Directors Colin Hair and Robert Dunn – the owner […]
These are the words of Catherine McDonald, HRNZ General Manager of racing, marketing and communications, as contained in a letter send to club officials yesterday explaining the reasons for the changes in the conditions of five of New Zealand’s major harness races, four of them Group 1’s (the Invercargill Cup is a Group 3, and […]
At a time when the sport is struggling and desperately needs unity to fight against oblivion, harness racing in New Zealand is being ripped asunder by internal fighting. Clubs are fighting clubs, associations are fighting associations, Auckland is fighting Cambridge, the North Island is fighting the South Island, we are fighting the scourge of drug […]
How can a horse who won the most money, the most races and the New Zealand Trotting Cup not win the Horse of the Year title or at the very least the Pacer of the Year? The only explanation is that Harness Racing New Zealand made an administrative blunder. In May, HRNZ announced it was […]
This vile abuse reproduced above was hurled at a long time harness racing owner and participant who six months ago dared to suggest that NZ trainer Cam Jones incredible success and world class strike rates achieved during his first 3 months in the pro ranks may have had more to do with injections of PED’s […]
If the winner of the 12th race at Addington on Cup Day wasn’t chemically assisted, then Francesca Cumani is without doubt the ugliest woman that I have ever seen, and Rachel Hunter runs a close second. No Time Like Now is the horse’s name. It started at a price of $40, and won by almost […]
Ray Green has just given an interview after the NZ Cup and declared Copy That as the best horse he has ever trained, better even than King of Swing. That’s some wrap by a man who would know. What a shame that thanks to the Leyland Brothers style programming he’s not coming to the Inter […]
Copy That had to beat COVID-19, the North Island hoodoo, a stunning team drive by Nat and Mark, and the 2nd best horse in Australasia to win the NZ Trotting Cup today. And he did it! Congratulations to Merv Butterworth and his wife Meg. Merv has been telling me for more than a year now […]
