Thursday 4th June 2015
Leading New Zealand trainer Mark Purdon will spend most of June in Sydney as he looks to continue his domination of the feature juvenile races across Australasia by targeting the Pepper Tree Farm NSW Breeders Challenge. Fresh from winning five races at the New Zealand Harness Jewels on the weekend, Purdon made an immediate impact on racing at Tabcorp Park Menangle by winning two races with Our Golden Goddess and Kept Under Wraps on Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday’s double could be regarded as a stable treble with Our Waikiki Beach winning for caretaker trainer Belinda McCarthy. The unbeaten two year old will now be transferred back to Purdon for the Breeders Challenge semi finals.
“I will be in NSW for the month of June in the lead up to the Breeders Challenge, I’ll have five horses to look after in the run up to the feature races in Sydney while Nat (Rasmussen) will have the same number of horses in Queensland,” said Purdon.
Our Golden Goddess could not have been more impressive on debut for Purdon with the daughter of Art Major recording a 1:54.3 mile, an Australian record for a two year old filly.
“It was a great start for her career, her grandmother Sabilize was a good mare in Australia and it is probably coming out now with the Art Major cross.
“She didn’t really surprise me with her performance, Nat has done a lot of work with her at home and she has always had a high opinion of her.”
With the victory Our Golden Goddess also qualified for the two year old Breeders Challenge semi finals on Saturday June 13 while stablemates Supersonic Miss and Kept Under Wraps will look to join her in the semis after competing in their respective three year old heats next Tuesday.
“I was pleased with Kept Under Wraps, he raced well on Tuesday, he was a bit disappointing at his last start in New Zealand on a wet track but his work had been good since and he backed that up with his performance.”
Supersonic Miss raced in the Harness Jewels and finished ninth behind The Orange Agent.
The other horse joining Purdon in Sydney will be Follow The Stars while Purdon suggested Smolda will have one more run at Menangle before heading north to join Rasmussen in Queensland.
“I’d say Smolda will have one more run in Sydney before he treks off to Brisbane with Nat and competes in the feature races up there, I’m pleased with how he has been going since the Len Smith Mile with Belinda and Luke.”
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 31 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.