Team Dunn’s dominant form at Nelson’s two day meeting has given them a commanding lead in the Public Trainers division of the new Seddon Trainers’ Championship.
They have 127 points, fifty clear of previous leader Mark Jones, with Greg and Nina Hope just two behind on 75. The only other trainer within touching distance is Michael House (73).
The training partnership of Robert and Jenna Dunn had nine wins over the two days at Richmond Park, highlighted by Mighty Looee’s back-to-back wins. On Sunday they had six wins, exactly half the card.
In the “Licence to train” competition Richmond’s Kevin Musso leads with 29 points after his horse Melando Chief won on his home track on Sunday. Gerard McCrea is second on 20 points.
The championship, with a prize pool of $10,000 split between both licence categories, is designed to encourage trainers to race their horses in the top half of the South Island. It started at Kaikoura in late October 2022 and will conclude at Reefton on March 12.
The championship’s next meetings will be held at Marlborough this Friday and Sunday.
In all there will be eleven days of racing, with trainers needing to have starters at six of them to be eligible for the prizemoney.
Trainers receive two points for each race day they attend plus:
6 points for 1st
3 points for 2nd
2 points for 3rd
1 point for 4th.
An additional two bonus points will be allocated to the trainers of all starters in designated feature races – if a trainer starts more than one horse in a feature race they will receive two bonus points for each horse that starts.
The designated feature races are:
Alabar Kaikoura Cup
IRT Trotters Cup
Pulse Energy Westport Cup
Caltex Westport Cup
FT Dooley Kawatiri Cup
Rosco Contracting Reefton Cup
Inangahua Grey Valley Cup
Nelson Pine Industries Nelson Cup Classic
Nelson Pine Industries Nelson Cup
Marlborough Cup Prelude
Marlborough Cup
The 11 race days are:
Kaikoura Trotting Club, October 30 & 31
Westport Trotting Club, December 26 & 28, March 10 2023
Reefton Trotting Club, December 30, March 12 2023
Nelson Harness Racing Club, January 13 & 15 2023
Marlborough Harness Racing Club, January 20 and 22 2023
The prizemoney, which is funded by Harness Racing New Zealand and each of the Seddon Group Clubs, will be divided between public trainers and those who have a licence to train, with $3500 to the winners of each, $1000 to the runner-up and $500 to the third place-getter.
To see the leaderboard click here
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
