Stuart a fan of new series
Andrew Stuart has picked up two wins in two weeks in the Golden Girl series with his talented mare Miss Moonlite and looks set to add to that when he tackles the series final next week at Rangiora.
After setting a blistering mile time at Nelson last Tuesday, Miss Moonlite arrived at Addington last night and beat many of the same horses in a relatively easy fashion.
‘‘It’s a good series, especially for a mare like her,’’ said Stuart, a North Canterbury horseman.
‘‘Coming out of a big threeyear-old season was always going to be tough, and with this series she can race three times for some really good money.’’
Driven confidently by junior driver Lawrence McCormick, Miss Moonlite moved forward to sit outside Tyler Franco with 600 metres left to run before wearing her down in the run to the line.
‘‘She will line up in the final and then we are looking at heading to Australia for the Breeders Crown,’’ Stuart said.
Miss Moonlite has now won nine races in New Zealand plus one other in Australia and has grabbed her owners, Wibble Holdings, more than $86,000 in stakes.
Set up by the Standardbred Breeders Association with the support of Harness Racing New Zealand, the Golden Girl Series is running nationwide with heats in three regions which all culminate in respective finals.
The series is for two to four win mares and a series for the zero to one win mares will kick in later this month.
Earlier in the night a $6000 outlay was almost paid back in full by Supreme Sign.
Six weeks ago Suzanne Williams and her son Tim purchased the Southland claimer from Brendon McLellan and after four starts in the care of Robert Dunn the sixyear-old went close paying his connections back in full.
A dead-heat with Captain Webber prevented a full return. Instead the result is shared with the connections of Supreme Sign and Captain Webber splitting the first and second prize money – around $4000 each.
‘‘The win would have been nice but it’s penalty free which is good,’’ driver Tim Williams said.
Captain Webber was unlucky not to claim the whole prize after being held up on the bend.