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Punters were left in awe of High Energy after her heroine-like performance in winning the Group 1 Canterbury Spa & Pool Ace Of Hearts 2YO Filles Mobile Trot (1980m) at Addington Raceway on Sunday.

From her wide draw (7), High Energy was eased off the gate by co-trainer and driver Mark Purdon but was stuck three wide behind The Fiery Countess, where they were forced to remain.

Heading into the back straight Purdon elected to make his move four-wide and was able to find the back of The Ivy League, who gave the pair a cart into the race.

Despite expending a fair amount of energy during the running, High Energy lived up to her name down the straight and found a new gear to flash by the leaders and post a remarkable 2-1/2 length victory and beating her own New Zealand record in the process.

“It was a great run. It didn’t go to plan, but she was good enough to overcome it,” said Purdon, who trains in partnership with Hayden Cullen.

“I tried to get one off the markers but the horse’s legs were just there so I had to come back out.

“The horse I was following (The Fiery Countess) was going nowhere, so I thought ‘once we get into the back I will just have to take my chances and make a move’.

“I knew the possibility that I could be racing wide from then on, but I was lucky enough to get cover off Blair Orange down the back and around the corner, and that was probably the difference in winning.

“Around the last corner she picked the bit up and I thought ‘she is going to win this’. She gave me great confidence and she won on her own.

“She is a great little trotter.”

With the victory, High Energy joins her dam High Gait as a Group 1 winner, cementing her spot in the breeding barn.

Bred and raced by Breckon Farms, High Energy extended her undefeated record to five, with her victories including the Group 3 2YO Trotting Stakes (1980m), Group 2 Sires’ Stakes 2YO Championship (1980m), and now the Ace Of Hearts.



Credit: By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk

His second-line draw may have kept him out of favour with favourite punters, but it proved no issue for Don’t Stop Dreaming who led home a sea of blue in the Group 1 Ace Of Spades 2YO C&G Mobile Pace (1980m) at Addington Raceway on Sunday.

The Mark Purdon and Hayden Cullen-trained juvenile had won five of his previous six starts, including the Group 1 Sires’ Stakes Final (1980m) last start, however it was stablemate Sherlock who was backed into favouritism after he drew the one marble.

Purdon kept his faith in Don’t Stop Dreaming and elected to stick with the colt, with the knowledge he would have to show his superior qualities in order to defeat his favoured stablemate.

Purdon eased his charge off the gate to settle at the rear of the field before pressing forward and assuming control of the race off Sherlock with a lap to go.

Don’t Stop Dreaming didn’t relinquish his advantage and saw off a late challenge from Sherlock to win by a neck, with a further 2-1/2 lengths back to Sinbad in third, while Final Collect and Vinke B completed the first five for the All Stars barn.

Touching on his driving tactics, Purdon said he felt he needed to make his move when he did otherwise he would risk getting boxed in.

“Johnny (Dunn) was outside me early and when he got to the death I could hear others coming and I thought the three-wide line would block him in, so I opted to make a quick decision to get out and get going with him,” Purdon said.

“He was clearly well today and once he made the front he was going to be hard to beat, and he held Sherlock off well.”

Purdon was rapt for his winning connections, which include well-known owner Ian Dobson.

“Ian is an elderly gentleman now, but he is getting a great thrill out of his horses,” Purdon said.

Don’t Stop Dreaming was purchased by Purdon out of Studholme Bloodstock’s 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock Standardbred National Yearling Sale draft for $250,000.



Credit: By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk

The least talked about of Paul Nairn’s incredible talents as a horseman shone through when Confessional ran to a commanding win in the Group One Ace Of Clubs at Addington on Grand Prix Day.

All of Nairn’s skill with a young trotter was on display when the youngster powered away from his rivals in a national-record breaking victory.

Nairn’s drive was as good as his horse’s brilliant performance.

Over the years, the trainer has handed the reins of his star horses to a line up of top class drivers including David Butt.

These days it’s Butt sitting in the stands as a successful part-owner and breeder of Confessional as Nairn is tasked with making the decisions on the track.

The result was Nairn producing a steer as good those Butt produced for him behind his champions of the past in Stig and Call Me Now.

Though in typical Nairn style, the trainer-driver downplayed his effort.

“Davey was happy enough for me to drive him, especially with young trotters it is an advantage to train them and drive them”

“Everything worked out good today.”

“It was a privilege to have the drive, actually.”

Confessional not only beat his rivals, he effectively gave them a head-start in doing so by starting from the unruly.

Though he had broken in just one of his five prior starts, the horse is far from foolproof and wears plenty of gear to help him get around.

“It has been a wee bit of trial and error, he just wasn’t very solid in his gait,” Nairn said.

“He was galloping and we were never quite sure why, that is the reason he wears the gear.”

“We are still not sure why, whether it is the grit or something else but he has got a lot more solid.”

Given he will eventually get even better in his gait and come off the unruly, Confessional will be an even bigger force for his rivals to contend with.

The trotter is the third foal from David and Catherine Butt’s brilliant trotting mare Habibi.

The Butts bred and race Confessional with Bolty and Lynne Paterson.

Confessional stopped the clock in 2-25.5, smashing the previous 1980m New Zealand record of 2-27.7 held by Ultimate Stride.

Paul Nairn just missed out on the quinella in the Ace Of Clubs with Tectonic just a neck behind runner-up Southern Diamond.



Credit: By Jonny Turner

Next level is the only way to describe Millwood Nike following her record-breaking win in the Ace Of Diamonds at Addington on Grand Prix Day.

The brilliant filly’s performance was so good, it just about had to be seen to be believed.

On a national-record-breaking speed, the star Mark Purdon and Hayden sat parked throughout before breezing by her rivals at the top of the straight as if that sizzling pace had meant nothing to her.

Clearly a champion of her year and unbeaten in eight starts, Millwood Nike is simply made of different material to the average horse.

And Mark Purdon thinks it is the filly’s top-two inches that sets her apart.

“She has just got all of the attributes, she didn’t take anything out of herself sitting parked.”

“That is very important when you are racing at this level and things don’t quite go your way.”

“We did think it might work out that way, that she would be left parked, but she relaxed nicely and was able to quicken when I asked her to.”

Sunday’s win was Millwood’s Nike’s third at Group One level following her record breaking win in the Sires Stakes Fillies Championship last month.

Though she was clearly there before the race, her stunning victory clearly pushed Milwood Nike higher into rarefied air, occupied only by some of New Zealand’s greatest ever two-year-old fillies.

“Eight for eight at the end of the year, to run a national record at the end of the year and the way she did it,” Purdon said.

“She is the best filly.”

Aardiebytheseaside and Kahlua Flybye filled the placings behind Millwood Nike as they did in the Sires Stakes Fillies Final.

Aardiebytheseaside worked to the lead, setting up Sunday’s national-record breaking time before fighting on bravely.

The Steve and Amanda Telfer trained filly still lead passing the 200m before she was reeled in late by the winner.

In any other year, the filly may have been a two-time Group One winner, but she has come along at the same time as a champion filly in Millwood Nike.

The winner stopped the clock in the Ace Of Diamonds in a 2-20.3 time for 1980m.

In doing so, Millwood Nike broke the 2-21.2 national record time she set in the Sires Stakes Fillies Championship on Show Day.

Millwood Nike is raced by rugby league identities Frank and Shane Endacott, and Stephen Byrne, Steve Thompson and Bruce Irvine, following her purchase at the National Yearling Sales.



Credit: By Jonny Turner

Krug’s superstar qualities turned pre-race concern into post-race jubilation as he left his rivals in his wake in a brilliant New Zealand Derby win at Addington on Friday night.



Driver Blair Orange seized the opportunity to control the Group One feature in front and in the process delivered the quickest of answers following a week of pontificating by fans and pundits over how the Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trained colt would handle his wide front row.

The result afterwards was both predictable and a delight to the three-year-old’s army of fans as Krug and Orange never gave their rivals even a slight look-in in the home straight.

In winning, the star colt joined a select group of winners of both the New Zealand and Northern derbies.
After taking his camp on a wild ride during his incredible Northern Derby win, Cran Dalgety admitted this time relief was one of his overriding emotions.
“It is actually a thrill just to win one, let alone two.”

“Coming into tonight expectations were high that he would perform – that he would win and do this and that.”
“But as a trainer you just can’t take that on board until the job is actually done.”
“It is a big thrill and a big relief as much as it is a big thrill.”

Krug came to be a dual derby winner during a hectic three-year-old season, packed with two-year-old features rescheduled because of COVID19.

The Dalgety stable have expertly guided their star colt through a busy schedule and under their management Krug just keeps getting better.

Cran was modest when he and his wife were credited for an outstanding training performance.
“We planned to do this, we planned to get him fit and planned to get him healthy.”

“But the last percentage is in the lap of the gods and we were lucky in that respect.”
“Blair was able to drive him hard and he was still good enough to fight the others off.”

The Harness Jewels are the next target for New Zealand’s star three-year-old.

Beyond that the Dalgety camp are spoilt for choice with plenty of age-group features to target across the Tasman.

Though nothing has been confirmed, the Dalgety stable is leaning towards venturing to Australia rather than aiming their derby winning star at the New Zealand Cup.
“What to do next is a very good question and a very hard one to answer," Cran said.

“To answer it half-pie, sure we would love to be in the New Zealand Cup.”

“But I don’t want to miss the age-group racing on the way through because we can’t back-pedal on that.”
“The New Zealand Cup will always be there every 365 days.”

“You are only three once and to tentatively put it forward, I would love to have a crack at another derby or two in Australia.”

The Dalgety camp have the Rising Sun (July 10), the Queensland Derby (July 24), Victoria Derby (October 9) and the Australasian Breeders Crown (November 21) as possible targets.

B D Joe chased hard from the trail to run second behind Krug, his second Group One second placing following his runner-up effort behind It’s All About Faith in the Sires Stakes Final.

The Falcon followed the quinella makers through from three-deep on the markers to run third.


Credit: Jonny Turner

After his third in the IRT New Zealand Cup South Coast Arden has won this afternoon's Spring Back With Mediaworks Free For All at Addington in a new New Zealand record.

Driver Natalie Rasmussen hunted South Coast Arden out of the gate to go straight to the lead.



Laver, as he does, came up looking to add some mid-race pressure, before Self Assured made his move after being in the one-one.

Self Assured (Mark Purdon) actually led South Coast Arden a hundred metres from home but Rasmussen got him going again to win the Group One feature, cutting out the 1980m in 2:17.

That beat the old record of 2:18.5 set by Cruz Bromac in 2018.

It's South Coast Arden's 11th win in 26 starts. It continued an amazing run that both Rasmussen and Purdon have had during Cup week.


Credit: HRNZ News

WATCH ME NOW
Watch Me Now delivered the ultimate goodbye and the greatest moment of Kirstin Barclay’s harness racing career by winning the NZ Standardbred Breeders’ Stakes at Addington on Friday night.



Watch Me dug deep along the Addington passing lane to reel in star mare Amazing Dream to seal maiden Group One wins for both Barclay and her training partner Tank Ellis in the 2600m feature.

In her more than 23 years in harness racing Barclay had only dreamed of winning a Group One race.
But thanks to the incredible talent of her lightly raced mare it was a dream no more.

“I never thought I’d get the chance to drive a Group One winner, it is just so special.”
“Especially doing it with her in her last start for us.”
Barclay will now say goodbye to Watch Me Now with the mare being sold in a big-money deal to North American interests by agent John Curtin.
“The owners are definitely delighted to get her,” Curtin said.

“We didn’t think she could beat Amazing Dream from the 8-hole, but she was just incredible.”
Barclay went into her last race with Watch Me Now wanting to give it everything they had.
And she did that by blasting off the gate in a move that was clearly the winning of the race.
“Tank and I spoke during the week and every time I looked at the field I thought our one chance was if we could cross out of the gate and get handy,” Barclay said.

“Otherwise we were either going to have to sit parked or pull back and try and get around them.”
“You can’t do that when they are running those times.”
“That was the plan and luckily it worked out.”
After crossing to the lead shortly after the start, Amazing Dream and Mark Purdon came back around Watch Me Now and Barclay to hand them a perfect trip in the trail.
Though it looked like the leader had enjoyed steady sectionals in the middle stages, the pace can’t have been too slow.
Watch Me Now broke the national mares’ record for 2600m The Orange Agent set in the same race in 2017 with her 3-07.2 time.



Barclay praised Ellis for his careful planning that had Watch Me Now ready to peak for her Group One tilt.
“He has been really patient and he is really good at mapping out a path for them.”
“And he really did that to perfection.”
“And we have really got to thank Benny Hill, who has looked after her for the last two weeks.”
“You couldn’t have a horse in a better place, no stone goes unturned.”

Watch Me Now delivered the ultimate going away present for her Southland owners Steve and Claire Sloan, who race the outstanding mare with son Brad and his wife Jess, and daughter Halie Gibb and her husband, Alan.
The daughter of Mach Three mare, Mach N Elle, will head to North America on the next available flight pending the outcome of a vet inspection.

It will not be the last Barclay has seen of her favourite mare, she vowed to visit Watch Me Now once COVID allows her to get there.

Credit : Harnesslink, 13 February 2021, Jonny Turner


Credit: Harnesslink

Self Assured gave punters the smoothest of rides when confirming his status as New Zealand’s best pacer when speeding to victory in the Easter Cup at Addington on Saturday night.



In a repeat of this season’s New Zealand Cup finish the five-year-old filled the quinella with Spankem to set up a Hayden Cullen trained trifecta in the Group 1 3200m feature.

The comfortable watch for Self Assured’s backers came after he found the lead for driver Mark Purdon in the middle stages and then outsprinted his rivals with fast closing sectionals.

Incredibly, pulling off the second of two trifectas, completed by Amazing Dream’s third placing, may not have been Cullen’s biggest feat on Saturday.

Because having Self Assured primed to win his Group One staying test with just one 1980m race in the last eight weeks rates right up with them.

“It was probably the perfect race for him the way it panned out,” Cullen said.

“They didn’t go that hard which was probably ideal for him with the way he came into it.”

“When he made the front he was always going to be very hard to catch.”

The only problem Cullen is facing with the Jean Feiss owned Self Assured is what to do beyond next week.
Both the five-year-old and Amazing Dream are scheduled to return to Addington for the Group 2 Superstars Championship.

But beyond that the horse harness racing fans want to see the most may not be going anywhere.
“He will come back to Addington next week for the Superstars but after that there is not really a lot for him,” Cullen said.

“There is the Rangiora Classic later on but not much else, so I am not sure what we will do with him after that.”

“At this stage, Jean is keen to keep him in New Zealand, though that could change.”

“If there are not any more races programmed then the Maurice Holmes Vase (August-September) would just about be the next race we would be targeting.”

Spankem is in a similar position, but Amazing Dream has a clearly defined path with the Taylor Mile, New Zealand Messenger Championship and Harness Jewels on her schedule.

Credit : Harnesslink, 4 April 2021, Jonny Turner


Credit: Jonny Turner

Newly-crowned Group One-winning trainer Craig Edmonds says he doesn’t like trotters any more than pacers.
“I just like fast horses,” he laughs.

But that comment gets harder to believe when Five Wise Men gave Edmonds and his daughter Aimee their first Group One winner in the $100,000 Livamol NZ Trotting Derby at Addington on Friday and you realise of their 51 career wins together 43 have been with trotters.

“I suppose we just tend to get more trotters but I think we have done pretty well with the pacers we have had too,” says Edmonds.

“But we have been involved with these owners for a long time and they have had such a great breed of trotters so the better horses we get are trotters.

“And I do like the shoeing and mucking around with that part of it all so maybe that helps with the trotters.” Edmonds is being overly modest about his success with the squaregaiters as he does plenty of trotting work for son-in-law John Dunn, who is married to his other daughter Jenna.

“We all work in well together and Aimee not only helps out with the horses but it great with the accounts and the owners,” says Edmonds.

“So it is a real team effort even though Aimee and I don’t have that many horses in our own name.” They have a very good one now though in Five Wise Men, who has left little doubt he is the best of this three-year-old crop, which he had to be on Friday night.

He was left out of the early burn by Dunn but got the breeze easily by the bell before giving punters a scare when chucking in a rough stride at the 850m when he started to race fiercely. But even learning on the job he was too good, holding out a luckless Time Up The Hill, a brave Son Of Patrick and Leaf Stride, who was another pushed back at a crucial stage.

As good as he has been, Five Wise Men will have to learn a new skill and quickly before he comes to Auckland for the Sires Stakes Final and Northern Trotting Derby as he has never even been worked right-handed.

“He does all his work on the beach so I haven’t tried him right-handed at all,” explains Edmonds.

“But I will start that next week and I am confident he will be fine because he is good gaited. He hangs out a bit this way so I think he will hang in up there so we might need to tinker with his gear a bit.”


Credit: HRNZ

The day junior driver Ben Hope has been dreaming of since he was a child arrived on Friday when Muscle Mountain chased down his star rival Sundees Son to win the Group One New Zealand Trotting Championship.



Hope showed the poise of a driver well beyond his 21 years when expertly guiding the rising star of New Zealand trotting to victory in the 2600m Addington feature.

And in doing so, Hope joined a select group of New Zealand drivers to have tasted top-level success as a junior driver.

While his career has spanned just four seasons and is certainly in it’s early stages, Hope’s dreams of Group One glory can be tracked much further back.
“I have dreamed about this since even before primary school.”

“I can remember walking around with my whip and going to school pretending I was driving.”

“There has never been anything else I would rather do, it has always been harness racing.”

“To win races is really cool, but to get a Group One is phenomenal.”

Hope’s first Group One win was made sweeter by Muscle Mountain chasing down the star of New Zealand trotting in Sundees Son.

After an epic home-straight battle, Hope and his four-year-old drew clear of the Dominion winners and John Dunn to score.

Hope admitted the feeling when he crossed the line was like no other.

“It was unbelievable, firstly to beat a horse of Sundees Son’s calibre was phenomenal enough.”
“But to win a Group One with Muscle Mountain was unbelievable.”

Hope had Muscle Mountain in front early when the four-year-old showed a surprising amount of gate speed.
After being crossed early, Tony Herlihy and Bolt For Brilliance took the front before handing it to Dunn and Sundees Son.

That left Hope with a key decision to make – when to angle off the pegs to avoid being caught three back on the markers.

The junior driver timed his move to perfection, waiting as long as he could until moving out near the 800m.
“I knew I was following two good horses but at the same time I knew I didn’t want to be too far off Sundees Son.”

“I made the decision to pull out and to the horse’s credit he stuck on well.”

Hope’s breakout win also made more special as it came for his parents, trainers Greg and Nina Hope.

The junior driver paid credit to them and owner Ian Dobson for having the faith in him to be partnered with such a brilliant trotter.

“Mum and Dad have obviously been my biggest supporters.”
“They have put me on horses that not many young people get to drive.”

“I am very thankful to them and I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am.”

“And I have to give a lot of thanks to Ian Dobson as well, I am pretty lucky to be able to drive a horse like this.”

Sundees Son was game in defeat, fighting hard to finish three-quarters of a length from Muscle Mountain.
Bolt For Brilliance held third after looking under plenty of pressure on the home turn.

The trio are unlikely to clash again this season.
Muscle Mountain’s next big goal is the Harness Jewels.
The Hope camp have said a Rowe Cup campaign is unlikely for their stable star.


Credit: HRNZ