Black-type for Nuclear Fusion
THE youngsters were in action early at Awapuni yesterday with Nuclear Fusion winning the 2-year-old race while Blondlign scored in the 3-year-old event.
Both horses are likely to go on to richer races than the $20,000 contests they ran in yesterday.
Nuclear Fusion was an easy winner and continued the run of recent juvenile success for Graeme and Debbie Rogerson’s Tuhikaramea stable.
Inexperience had cost the daughter of Power in her three previous runs, and she still showed the trait in her breakthrough win.
‘‘She’s done a few things wrong and probably been a little bit unlucky not to have picked one up before now,’’ said stable representative Garry Barlow.
‘‘When she strengthens up she will overcome it [her waywardness].’’
Barlow wasn’t discounting the prospect of the filly returning to the Central Districts for a crack at black-type in the Listed Ryder Stakes at Otaki on July 29.
‘‘We’ll get home [and assess things] - she could end up at Otaki.’’
Winning rider Johnathan Parkes was confident of success despite a slightly slow getaway from the barriers.
‘‘She jumped a little bit tardy as she has done in her other races,’’ he said ’’But she recovered well and travelled like she was going to win the race - she was just too good.’’
The $37,500 Ready To Run Sale purchase won from Beltoy in second with Eva Dawn third.
The Tony Bambry-trained local, Blondlign will be heading for a $40,000 age group race at New Plymouth on July 22 Opunake Cup day after her gutsy win over Smoken Ace.
‘‘Her form is really good,’’ Bambry said.
‘‘We were expecting a bold showing.’’
Leah Hemi was the winning jockey and used the Align filly’s gate speed from barrier two.
‘‘The number two gate helped her out immensely today,’’ Hemi said.
Dolcetto continued the wonderful success Levin trainer Sylvia Kay has had in association with Matamata jockey Samantha Collett when he stepped up to open class.
The 4-year-old son of Per Incanto completed a hat-trick in his current campaign in the $30,000 race over 1400m and took his overall record to five wins RACE IMAGES from seven starts.
Commentator Tony Lee summed it up in his call as Dolcetto had to dig deep to overhaul the classy Longchamp.
‘‘Dolcetto finding like a beauty,’’ Lee called as Collett drove him hard after the leader, his effort drawing a triumphant fist pump from his jockey.
‘‘He is a very good horse,’’ Collett said. ‘‘He has the will to win.’’
The Kay and Collett combination almost went back-to-back in the following race but Sylvester couldn’t quite resist the finishing burst of race favourite She’s Poppy ridden by apprentice Kate Cowan.
Meantime Kay has plans to keep Dolcetto in the stable as the experienced breeder, owner and trainer plots a path for the horse towards the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival.
Dolcetto made an impression at this season’s carnival with a special conditions win over 1200m and was placed behind Francaletta on the other two carnival days. BREAKING new ground in harness racing is nothing new for Dexter Dunn.
But his latest batch of records is out of the ordinary – even for the future Hall Of Famer who is an almost unbackable favourite to finish his career as New Zealand’s most winning driver.
On Friday night, Dunn brought up the 2000th driving win of his career and in the same race set a new season record of 221 victories in a single term.
He betters his own record of 220 set in 2011.
The record for the most wins on New Zealand soil is Tony Herlihy’s 3,423 but it is surely just a matter of time until Dunn takes over.
Already assured of winning his 10th consecutive drivers’ premiership at the end of the month, Dunn has been averaging a tick over 199 wins a season during the last decade.
If he could keep up that strike rate in the coming decade, he will be just 10 wins short of the 4000th win of his career by the end of the 2026-27 season.
That seems hard to believe, but then so was the prospect of a 27-year-old driving 2000 winners.
But 37 is by no means retirement age for a harness racing driver. If he chooses, Dunn could easily have three more decades at the top of the heap.
Dunn becomes the fifth driver to rein home 2000 winners on New Zealand soil. He joins David Butcher, Ricky May, Maurice McKendry and Herlihy in the exclusive club.
Fittingly, Dunn’s recordbreaking drive came in the colours of his long-time boss and mentor Cran Dalgety with Mistahmistah on the last race on the card at Addington.
Dunn, who drove his first New Zealand winner at Ashburton on November 16, 2006, behind Crusader Franco, will miss the last week of the season as he heads to Canada for the defence of his World Drivers’ Championship to compete alongside Mark Purdon, but 230 wins for the season is more than achievable.
Purdon is the New Zealand representative and Dunn is attending as the reigning champion.
The soon to be completed season is the sixth time Dunn has reached a double century of victories. He has previously finished on 199 twice. To put his achievements in context, no other driver has reached 200 wins in a single season. He is also the youngest to reach 2000 winners.
‘ She’s done a few things wrong and probably been a little bit unlucky not to have picked one up before now’ STABLE REPRESENTATIVE: GARRY BARLOW