HRNZ MEDIA BITES, FEBRUARY 11, 2012
Jack Smolenski’s passing: Harness racing lost one of the true legends of the sport late last week. Jack Smolenski, aged 78, died peacefully. Jack was a legend of NZ harness racing of course. A man before his time in many respects. A great horsemen and gentleman of the sport. He did plenty for harness racing away from his work as a trainer/driver. We’ll be paying tribute to Jack Smolenski and his life’s work later on in the week in the Harness Weekly & on hrnz.co.nz. There will no doubt be a huge turn out at his Memorial at Addington Raceway this Wednesday afternoon.
Adore Me jogs NZ 3YO filly Record, 1:52.4, (1609m) : It had to be one of the most impressive wins in recent times. A 3YO filly lowering the national mile record by 1.6 sections is a huge achievement. It appeared on the face of it she could have gone a touch faster too, if pressured in the run home. You get an idea of her unbridled talent when you consider she ran her first and last sections in 26.8. That’s two very impressive numbers to bookend any race in. Worth noting that from the winning post to the 700m mark is an uphill run.
Inter-Dominion Heats this week: This week the many Inter-Dominion Heats around Australia and one in NZ take place. Saturday night it all happens. Unfortunately the NZ heat is a bit light with just the three horses going around but there’s all quality and should make for an exciting contest nonetheless. Gold Ace, Terror To Love and Sir Lincoln are the select three. On Saturday night the heats will be beamed in from all around Australia and those heats, rankings of the heats and some wild card action will determined the runners for the Grand Final on March 3rd. There will be good coverage of all the heats on Trackside. Greg O’Connor & Craig Thompson will be sorting the NZ content while the live feed from Sky will cover off the Aussie heats.
Love On The Lawn Thursday Night: Addington Raceway’s hot new promotion takes flight this Thursday night. 5.35pm sees the first of nine races run at 20-minute intervals and between races there’ll be much happening for those on course. Love On The Lawn targets the single market but doesn’t discriminate against those in relationships so it should be great night out at Addington and something completely different to enjoy. The support of the Edge and The Rock radios stations through their DJs, prizes and promotions will add to the event also. Long range forecast looks good. Keep an eye out for Cupid’s colours too…
Here’s the link for more info…
http://www.addingtoneventscentre.co.nz/Events/Valentines-Day.aspx
Innovative new sale by Macca Lodge: Macca Lodge in Southland are staging as Yearling Sale with a difference commencing on the 25th of February and staying open until all the horses are sold or 25 March. The 15 yearlings for sale have been broken in and are going along so they can be driven or inspected. Their website tells you more https://sites.google.com/site/sbsreared/ Great concept and we wish them all the best for it. Could start a trend?
Milestone Watch: Ken Barron 992 driving wins. David Butcher is in sight of 2000 too. He’s on 1919 career driving wins in NZ. Brother Phil is just two wins off driving 500 in NZ. Graeme Anderson is just one away from 200 training wins too.
Another season added to HRNZ database: Now our records on the Infohorse Database date back to the 1982/83 season. Of course under premierships and horse reports you can select a year going right back to 1983 and check out the respective tables.
Blast from the past: Former World Champion Driver Robert Cameron drove his first winner for more than four years when he reined Miss Yaldhurst (whom he trains) to win at Ashburton on Saturday. Cameron is one of our select group to have driven over 1000 winners.
Storer Motors NZ Trotters Oaks: The Met Club have nailed a three-year deal with long-time harness racing supporter Reg Storer and his car sales business for their trotting fillies’ event to be staged on 22 March. Storer has enjoyed good success over the years and hold close ties with trainer Peter Bagrie. The success has been mainly with pacers though so a foray into the trotting realm is a bit new. It’s a great year for Storer Motors to step in too, with many quality trotting fillies around. Last week’s winner Paramount Queen heads the list but then there’s Habibti, Aile Rouge, Juneamy Castleton, Miss Middleton, Millicent, Pyramid Monarch, Secret Sundaze and Mollys Luck to name a few.
Auckland Workouts: Sporadically Auckland TC will supply workouts directly to HRNZ for the website. Keep on the look out for them as there may be some gold amongst them. The first of them was the Auckland TC workouts on Feb 9. The idea is to ensure the key workouts leading into many of their bigger events are covered. Of course these will only be workouts not covered by Trackside; i.e. Saturday workouts.
Courtesy of Andrew Morris, Marketing & Communications Officer, Harness Racing NZ