Southland pacer heading to USA

Invercargill horse Statham has been sold and will do his future racing in North America.

Like many good horses to leave our shores in recent seasons, the son of Bettor’s Delight will be joining the New York stable of former Australian, Peter Tritton.

He will become a stablemate of the likes of Bit Of A Legend, Mossdale Connor, Mackenzie and Pacing Major.

Statham won six races from the stable of Nathan Williamson including the $18,000 South of the Waitaki race on Show Day at Addington two years ago.

He has only won one race this then and has only had one start since February – an unplaced effort at Gore on October 14.

“He’s had a few little problems that we think might be able to be ironed out in America,” said Ashburton agent Peter Larkin, who transacted the deal.

“He looks like being better-suited to racing up there now.”

Three Cup Day suspensions

A trio of drivers felt the wrath of the stipendiary stewards at Addington on Tuesday.

Bob Butt, Colin DeFilippi and Matt Anderson were all sidelined by stewards for three days.

DeFilippi and Anderson were both suspended for excessive use of the whip, DeFilippi on Sans Le Sou and Anderson with his winning drive on The Dorchester.

Butt was suspended after he allowed Ronald J to strike the sulky wheel of Arya in the NZ Trotting Free-For-All, causing him to break.

Another milestone looms for Purdon

Mere weeks after reaching his 2000th training success, Mark Purdon is within arms-reach of another major milestone – his 1500th driving success in New Zealand.

After his wins on Major Shard and then Lazarus on Tuesday, Purdon moved to 1496 driving wins.

He will get a chance on Friday to further advance up the win list with winning hopes on Major Shard, Waikiki Beach, Dream About Me and Funatthebeach.

British brothers to drive at Ashburton

British horsemen James and Richard Haythornthwaite are a couple of unfamiliar names in the drivers listed for the Ashburton meeting on Thursday.

The brothers, from Barnoldswick in Lancashire, are on a brief Southern Hemisphere holiday that included a stop in Australia last week.

Both had a drive each at Melton in Victoria on Saturday night, finishing unplaced on outsiders while Richard drove a placing at Bendigo the night before.

James has two drives at Ashburton – on the Peter Bagrie-trained The Director and Sue Blake-trained Live To Tell.

Richard links up with the John McDermott-trained Red River Lochee.

HRNZ

 

 

 

 

Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com

Driving The Future Of Harness Racing

Approved by Dean Baring Harnessbred.com Harness Racing Breeding