This weekend’s Easter Hawera meeting will see an intriguing point’s battle in the final stages of the North Island Country Cup series.
This coming Monday will see the running of the final leg of the North Island Country Cup series, the Hawera Cup, which is currently being led on points by Alta Leonie.
And based on current nominations there will be a close battle towards the top of the table to take out top honours.
Current leader, Alta Leonie, features in the current nominations and is on 70 points. She has had a stellar season to date for trainer Kyle Marshall, with four wins including the Stratford Cup and the Otaki Cup so far.
But with the Hawera Cup being a double point’s race in the series it gives a serious chance to horses not far off the pace.
The Night Hawk is second on 66 points, Mister Harris is third on 54 points and Comic Book Hero is fourth on 47 points.
With double points the winner of the Hawera Cup will gain 34 points, second 24 points, third 18 points, fourth 14 points, fifth 10 points, sixth 6 points, seventh four points and all other runners gain 2 points.
In the other competitions, the Canterbury Country Cup series has been completed and was won on points by Airpark Flyer for trainer Trent Yesberg and owners Graeme Harris and Heather Jerard.
The son of Dali had a herculean season, coming into it with just one career win to his name, he was able to amass six wins from just 13 starts in 2018/19. This season alone he’s earned over $52,000 in stakes.
Those wins included Canterbury Country Cup success in the Westport Cup, and also placings in the Geraldine Cup, Reefton Cup and Amberley Cup.
He also won the Riverton Cup and Waikouaiti Cup outside of his home region.
In Southland there is still one race to go in their series, the Regent Car Court Handicap on April 29th, and although the race does provide double points, the Southern Country Cup series will go to Sagwitch who has an unassailable lead on the points table.
Sagwitch has been a model of consistency for trainer Syd Breen who also co-owns the five-year-old son of Lis Mara with Paul and Nancy Matheson.
Sagwitch has had three wins this season to date, all of which remarkably have been Country Cup races.
He claimed victories in the Winton Businesses Cup, the Wyndham Cup and the Summer Cup at the Northern Southland meeting and also placed second in the Gore Grass Cup and was also second in the Waikouaiti Cup to Airpark Flyer.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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