What follows is a breakdown of major statistical records for the 2020/21 NZ season (1 August 2020 – 31 July 2021) excluding age group by gait winners and other categories that will be advised following 2020/21 NZ Harness Racing Awards to be held on Saturday 16 October 2021.
Personnel Stats :
Drivers –
Blair Orange continued on his winning way from the previous three seasons although falling short of a double century haul of victories with a tally of 177, his eighth consecutive year breaking a century of wins. Orange’s UDR rating was a respectable .2699 from 1,137 drives.
His winning margin was substantively reduced due to a stellar performance by John Dunn whose 140 victories was his higher ever recorded (fourth century plus total) well ahead of his previous best of 109. Matthew Williamson (97) and Tim Williams (93) filled the next two positions followed by leading female reins woman Samantha Ottley (82, best ever total), Southland’s leading reins man Nathan Williamson (80) with leading northern drivers being father and son combination of David and Zachary Butcher who both finished with 61 wins apiece, eighth equal nationally. Natalie Rasmussen was the only driver to record five wins on a single day’s programme at each of Addington’s May Premier meetings (12 and 21 May 2021).
Peter Ferguson became just the eight NZ driver to post 2,000 winning drives when he achieved this feat on Milliondollarmonkey at Oamaru on Saturday 21 November 2020. The other drivers in the 2,000 club are : Tony Herlihy (3584), Maurice McKendry (3315), Ricky May (3002), David Butcher (2495), Dexter Dunn (NZ – 2226), Blair Orange (2221) and Colin de Filippi (2046).
Other significant driving achievements during the 2020/2021 season included :
- Nathan Williamson : nine hundred wins achieved at Forbury Park when winning with Jasmine Jaccka sixteen years after his first win with Brooker also at Forbury Park in 2005
- Zachary Butcher : recorded win number eight hundred at Cambridge on 29 April 2021 when reining Eagle Watch to victory
- Terry Chimel : 700 winning drives brought up when Annie Richter won at Addington prior to Christmas (Saturday 12 December 2020).\
- Johnny Cox : brought up six hundred wins when dead heating with Dashtothebeach at Oamaru on 10 February 2021 as did Gerald O’Reilly with Immer Besser at Addington on St Patricks Day 17 March 2021
- Tim Williams : five hundredth winning drive on Down to the Bone, Addington on Friday 7 August 2020 while Samantha Ottley’s five hundredth winning drive came at Oamaru on 10 February 2021 when she reined home Deceptive Lee. Ottley became just the second female driver to attain the 500 win mark after Nicky Chilcott (currently on 656). Todd MacFarlane also brought up his five hundredth winner on Heston Hall at Alexandra Park on Friday 2 July 2021
On a UDR basis of those with more than ten drives, Natalie Rasmussen with 31 wins from only 83 drives (0.5315), five winners on Nevele R Fillies and NZ Oaks nights in May 2021 at Addington, and Mark Purdon, thirty two wins (0.4046) clearly led the field while amateur drivers Sheryl Wigg with twelve wins (0.5486) and Frank Phelan four wins (.5278) had commendable UDR tallies.
In the junior ranks, a close fought battle saw John Morrison ultimately retain his junior’s title with 59 wins placing him tenth in the Drivers premiership two wins and one place above rising star Sarah O’Reilly (57). Very respectable performers came from place getters Sheree Tomlinson (42), Ben Hope (40) and Mark Hurrell (32).
The NZ Young Drivers Championship was held at Addington Raceway on 15 and 18 July 2021 with Sarah O’Reilly becoming the eighth multiple winner (also 2019) in the forty sixth edition of this series. The first winner was Maurice McKendry in 1976, the first of four wins in a row in the championship. Sarah O’Reilly had two wins, a second and a third in the five race series gaining 62 points as against runner up John Morrison’s 54. She also recorded her first driving treble on the second day of the championship. As defending champion, O’Reilly together with runner up Morrison will represent NZ in the Australasian Young Drivers Championship in Australia in December. The Darren de Filippi Memorial Trot (26th anniversary) for Junior Drivers was this year won by leading junior driver Sarah O’Reilly on Fighting Fire, one of fifty seven winning drives for the season.
Sheryl Wigg again made no race of the Amateur Drivers Premiership (twelve wins) from sister Cheree (nine) and Frank Phelan (four). The 2021 NZ Amateur Drivers Championship winner was Andrew Fitzgerald (19 points; a win, two seconds and a fifth from four heats) from runner up Sheryl Wigg (14) and John Kriechbaumer (12).
Leading Driver : BLAIR ORANGE, 177 wins (1,137 starts), $2,152,287, UDR .2699, 2,221 lifetime NZ wins
Leading Junior Driver : JOHN MORRISON, 59 wins (741 starts), $694,067, UDR .1684
Leading Amateur Driver : SHERYL WIGG, 12 wins (32 starts), $63,562, UDR .5486
Trainers –
With the withdrawal mid-season of the Allstars stable training partnership of Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen who are taking a training “sabbatical”, winning of another Trainers Premiership (his second) by Robert Dunn was relatively straight forward (operating two stables – Pukekohe, Woodend Beach : son John). With a lead of seven (60 – 53 training wins) over the All Stars stable of Mark Purdon/Natalie Rasmussen at the time of their sabbatical (following Auckland Cup meeting of 31 December 2020), by seasons end Robert Dunn’s fifth century plus total of 124 (new personal seasonal record) training victories gave him a winning margin of forty seven over Michael House 77. This took Dunn’s career tally as a trainer to 1,697.
Michael House’s tally of 77 wins placing him second on the trainers premiership was courtesy of 20 victories at Manawatu meetings, a productive venue for him in recent seasons. Hayden Cullen who effectively took over the former Allstars operation returned a very creditable 54 training successes in the seven month period January – July 2021 to finish fourth nationally while the Allstars pairing of Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen’s 53 victories prior to the end of 2020 still enabled them to finish in fifth placing overall.
Leading northern trainers were clearly Steve and Amanda Telfer (64) finishing third overall nationally ahead of Tony Herilhy (48) 6th equal, brother in law Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan (38) eleventh. Leading Southland trainer was Nathan Williamson (47, personal best) followed by Brett Gray (20), Kristen Barclay and Tank Ellis and Alister Black tied on nineteen victories.
Tony Herlihy 1,000th (now 1022) training success came at Alexandra Park on 27 March 2021 when Tony Cameron drove the Herlihy trained Lode Verde to victory. He joins brother-in-law Mark Purdon as the only two horsemen in New Zealand to have recorded 1000 wins as both a trainer and driver. There are nine others to have attained one thousand training successes – Barry Purdon (2,563), Mark Purdon (2,364), Roy Purdon (2,020), Robert Dunn (1,697), Roy and Barry Purdon (1,463), Cran Dalgety (1,301), Steven Reid (1,063), Ces Donald (1,026) and Derek Jones (1,013).
Cran Dalgety recorded his thirteenth hundred NZ career victory at Addington on Sunday 18 July when Shards Manhattan strode to victory for Sarah O’Reilly. He has trained 1,231 winners on his own, fifty one in partnership with Nathan Purdon and eighteen with wife Chrissie. Greg Hope reached eight hundred training successes (692 with wife Nina) at Rangiora on 18 April when Homebush Lad was successful driven by son Ben. Veteran trainer Fred Fletcher brought up his five hundredth winner at Addington on Sunday 30 May 2021 when Luminite was the first of his two winners on the day.
On NZ Cup Day Mark Purdon trained his eighth NZ Cup winner (Il Vicolo twice, Adore Me, Lazarus twice, The Fixer, Cruz Bromac, Self Assured), with Natalie Rasmussen (co trainer of five) attaining a record of winning six of the past seven NZ Cups.
Leading Trainer : ROBERT DUNN, 124 wins (747 starts), $2,161,565, UDR .2753, lifetime NZ wins 1,697 from 11.354 starts
Record Breaking Stats :
Once again some sensational record breaking time performances were registered overall during the 2020/21 season especially by the trotters. The seasons NZ records were :
Pacers –
2 Year Olds :
2200m mobile You’re So Fine (colts/geldings) 2:39.6 Ascot Park Raceway
3 Year Olds : none
4 Year Old & Older :
1980m mobile Amazing Dream (mares) 2:20.3 Addington
2600 stand Classie Brigade (horses & geldings) 3:08.9 Addington
2600m mobile Watch Me Now (mares) 3:07.2 Addington
2700m mobile Stylish Memphis (mares) 3:16.3 Ascot Park Raceway
Trotters –
2 Year Olds :
1 mile mobile Double Delight (fillies) T1:58.4 Cambridge
1700m mobile Highgrove (colts/geldings) T2:03.7 Ashburton Raceway
3 Year Olds :
1700m mobile Maui (colts/geldings) T2:06.1 Ashburton Raceway
1980m mobile Wanna Play With Me (fillies/equal female overall) T2:24.7 Addington
2200m stand Time Up The Hill (fillies) T2:48.6 Alexandra Park
4 Year Old & Older :
1980m mobile Heavyweight Hero (horses & geldings/overall) T2:23.9 Addington
1980m mobile Dark Horse/Missalyssa (mares/equal female overall) T2:24.7 Addington
2000m stand Splash Cola (mares/overall) T2:30.6 Addington
2200m stand Bolt For Brilliance (horses & geldings/overall) T2:44.0 Alexandra Park
2200m stand She Reigns (mares) T2:46.6 Cambridge Raceway
2200m mobile Sundees Son (horses & geldings/overall) T2:39.1 Alexandra Park
2600m mobile Heavyweight Hero (horses & geldings) T3:12.3 Addington
2700m mobile Sundees Son (horses & geldings) T3:20.3 Alexandra Park
3200m stand Sundees Son (horses & geldings/overall) T4:00.5 Addington
Leading Sires/Broodmare Sires/Stake Earning Pacer and Trotter :
Bettors Delight was crowned leading sire for the tenth consecutive season. He again took out all individual pacing siring titles as well as overall leading sire and proving what a dominant broodmare siring force he will be already placing third on latest seasonal list overall (leading two year old broodmare sire).
For the fourth season running Majestic Son topped both the stakes won and leading trotting stallion for winners produced. Majestic Son led the five year old and older age group categories while in the two year old trotting section Love You topped the list while Muscle Hill was the three and four year old trotting age group stake sire (Love You leader on races won at three and Majestic Son leader on races won at four).
Christian Cullen and Sundon continued their dominance in the broodmare sire categories together with Bettors Delight (leading two year old broodmare sire).
Leading Sires –
Overall Combined Gaits – Stakes : BETTORS DELIGHT ($7,321,270)
Overall Combined Gaits – Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT (195 winners)
Pacers : Stakes/Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT ($7,274,351, 192 winners)
Trotters : Stakes/Winners : MAJESTIC SON ($2,097,437, 77 winners)
2yo Stakes/Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT ($791,897, 16 winners)
2yo Trotters : Stakes/Winners : LOVE YOU ($129,346, 3 winners)
3yo Stakes/Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT ($2,812,099, 284, 75 winners)
3yo Trotters : Stakes/Winners : MUSCLE HILL ($477,024; Love You 14 winners)
4yo Stakes/Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT ($1,747,396, 56 winners)
4yo Trotters : Stakes/Winners : MUSCLE HILL ($709,524; Majestic Son213 winners)
5yo & older : Stakes/Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT ($1,969,878, 53 winners)
5yo & older Trotters : Stakes/Winners : MAJESTIC SON ($1,628,959, 48 winners equal with Majestic Son)
Leading Broodmare Sires –
Stakes : CHRISTIAN CULLEN ($4,371,600)
Winners : CHRISTIAN CULLEN (127 winners)
All 2yo Stakes/Winners : BETTORS DELIGHT ($481,754, 13 winners)
All 3yo Stakes/Winners : CHRISTIAN CULLEN ($1,200,254, 43 winners)
All 4yo Stakes/Winners : CHRISTIAN CULLEN ($1,277,250, 39 winners)
All 5yo & older Stakes/Winners : SUNDON ($2,023,153, 67 winners)
All Trotters Stakes/Winners : SUNDON ($3,151,916, 112 winners)
Leading Stake Earners –
Pacer : BETTOR TWIST ($478,725)
Trotter : SUNDEES SON ($415,792)
Grand Circuit Pacing Champion Australia/NZ and Grand Circuit Trotting Masters Australia/NZ for 2021 will not be determined until the end of calendar year 2021 due to the change in racing seasons throughout Australasia.
Peter Craig
2 August 2021
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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