Victory in cup thrills Munros

OTEMATATA ownerbreeders Ian and Cheryl Munro enjoyed one of their biggest thrills in harness racing when Harrison produced a spectacular victory in the Kurow Cup at Oamaru yesterday.

The pacer made a meal of the feature race’s standing start but he quickly put that behind him, with trainerdriver John Morrison taking the 6yrold to the lead within the first 800m.

From there, Harrison produced fast closing sectionals which didn’t give his rivals much hope of catching him as he went on to score a meaningful victory.

.

The Munro family have enjoyed plenty of thrills in harness racing including the fantastic ride their outstanding pacer Rostriever Hanover took them on in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

After Harrison’s win in their local cup, Ian Munro declared the victory the equal of any of those thrills.

‘‘I have won the Messenger and some big races but honestly, this has given me the biggest thrill that I have ever had. It was a real buzz.’’

Based in Otematata, Munro is a committee member and active member of the Kurow Harness Racing Club.

‘‘This is our own club, so this is marvellous.’’

Rostreiver Hanover won 17 races including a Superstars Championship, Canterbury Classic and Invercargill Cup as well as his New Zealand Messenger Championship victory when trained by Patrick O’Reilly.

The Munro family’s association with Morrison came when the reinsman drove some of their horses which were trained by O’Reilly.

Morrison admitted his confidence levels were extremely low when Harrison ran out of his gear shortly after the start.

Once the horse settled into a pace the reinsman had some quick decisionmaking to do which he got 100% right.

‘‘Once he put that bound in after the start I wasn’t sure if he was going to come back down but thankfully he did.

‘‘From there I thought if I go back I would have to go around the lot of them at some stage so we went forward and it worked out really good.’’

Morrison intends to take a patient approach with Harrison and plans to look at racing at Addington while spacing the horse’s races.

Yesterday’s Kurow Trotting Cup was won by Fighting Fire who showed a classy turn of foot to score.

The trotter was chasing the leader Jimmy Carter for much of the home straight but once driver John Dunn asked Fighting Fire to get serious he found another gear.