RACING: Northern nags to tempt Aussies

Glamour New Zealand galloper Seachange is being courted to make a star appearance at Ruakaka this weekend for a history-making return to two-day galloping meets at the Whangarei Racing Club.
Seachange, a Queensland-owned horse who has won nine races from 16 starts and scooped more than $800,000 in stakes, is one of a bevy of star gallopers being canvassed to head north for an experimental return to two-day racing meets.
In a significant gamble from both the New Zealand Racing Board and Whangarei club, Northland horses will be the guinea pigs in an experiment designed to lure Australian gamblers to throw their betting money at the New Zealand racing scene by staging an eight-race card on Friday and another eight races on Saturday.
It will be the first two-day meet in more than 30 years and a throw back to the good old days of the club when it was based at Whangarei's Kensington Park.
Whangarei chairman Mike Beazley said the results of the trial would be intriguing and if successful may herald the return of the classic two-day meet that was hugely popular for the club in the late 1960s.
"The last two-day meet was at least 30-odd years ago at Kensington Park and from records they were huge events in the community," Beazley said.
"Kensington Park is still an icon of a place in Whangarei now, but it shows how long it has been since two-day meets were the thing because the park is now the main junior sports field in the province and hasn't had a horse on it for years.
"We used to have Friday meets at Ruakaka, back in the days when payday was Thursday and everyone used to take the day off and make it a long weekend by coming out to Ruakaka," he said.
"But this is a Racing Board idea to re-invent Friday racing to get the Australian betting market on board as well. If it works that could be a big boost for the entire racing community."
But the chances of securing Seachange, who has been nominated for the Horse of the Year title, will not be made until Wednesday. Seachange was to resume after a break by starting in the $25,000 Taumarunui Cosmopolitan Club Handicap at Te Rapa at the weekend but was scratched as the track conditions were too heavy.
Now Queensland-based owner Dick Karreman and trainer Ralph Manning are both comfortable about waiting to see if the track at Hastings on Thursday suits; if not, then they will almost certainly head north to Ruakaka on Saturday.