Harness racing returns to track with no stars or crowds

After the longest wait of their careers, trainers such as Cran Dalgety are just happy to be back doing what they love.

Even though today’s comeback to racing at Addington, the first horse racing meeting in New Zealand since March, won’t have any equine stars.

It also won’t have any crowds and in a few weeks when the return to racing feels normal and other sport join racing as part of our daily lives, the pacer who wins the comeback race at noon today will be forgotten.

But for the racing industry it is a day over two dark months in the making, and Dalgety can’t wait.

“I know these might not be the best horses in the world but we are going to be out there racing and that is what everybody wants,” he says.

“So I can’t wait to get back there and try and win some races.”

Dalgety thinks he can do just that with El Dorado (R6, No 5) and Chevron Action (R7, No 9).

“They are both ready,” he says confidently.

“El Dorado was fit when he joined our stable a few months ago and had a quiet run at the trials last week but I like him.

“I think he is a horse who can win two or three races pretty quickly.”

● Addington will back up with another meeting tomorrow night, Invercargill race on Saturday and the first North Island horse racing since lockdown will be Cambridge harness on Sunday.

Thoroughbred racing will return on July 3.

● Thoroughbred bosses have canned the idea to move the 1000 and 2000 Guineas north and they will remain at Riccarton.

The proposed racing calendar for next season had the Group 1 races moving to Te Rapa and Ellerslie to save money and travel but with Covid-19 restrictions easing and the Canterbury Jockey Club lobbying hard to keep the races in the south, NZTR have reversed their decision.

● New Zealand Bloodstock’s first major sale conducted solely online has proven a huge success.

The May mixed sale of standardbred stock was forced into the Gavelhouse platform because of Covid-19 restrictions.

It exceeded all pundits’ expectations with an extraordinarily high clearance rate, suggesting the format could be seen for similar sales in the future.