Merlin’s rival Don’t Stop Dreaming is all but guaranteed a slot, as part of his ownership group have a slot, while other leading contenders for a place in New Zealand’s only $1m harness race include former winner Self Assured and last year’s runner-up Old Town Road.
Better Eclipse is an ideal fit for the Entain/TAB slot, as he straddles both countries, being trained in Victoria but having raced so well here last autumn.
“His record speaks for itself, with wins at Group 1 through to Group 3 level, and he never gives up,” says Entain’s New Zealand managing director Cameron Rodger.
“He’s a familiar name to Australian and New Zealand punters, which is really important as we look to increase engagement in our New Zealand features across the Tasman.”
Better Eclipse’s signing could hardly work better for trainers Jess Tubbs and Greg Sugars, as they are already bringing champion trotter Just Believe for the new $575,000 TAB Trot the same night, which is expected to feature three leading Australian trotters.
The Australian participation and the new trotters’ slot race will take Race by Grins night to a new level and Cambridge boss David Branch says this is the culmination of the club’s vision in inventing the night three years ago.
“We wanted this to be a big Australasian event and one of the great nights of harness racing,” says Branch.
“The standard of horses we are looking at having here for both races now could make it the strongest night of the season on either side of the Tasman based on the sheer number of elite horses, which is tremendously exciting.”
But Branch says the red-hot racing isn’t just what the meeting they have branded the Night of Champions is about.
“When you get horses like Leap To Fame [likely], Just Believe, maybe Swayzee and now Better Eclipse coming to take on Merlin, Don’t Stop Dreaming, Oscar Bonavena and Muscle Mountain, you hope they will bring Australian fans with them, too.
“There aren’t too many racing towns like Cambridge in the world, and people who come for this race can have a real racing experience of both codes while they’re here. So we hope they take advantage of that.”
Continuing that theme, Branch says he wants the night to be “the Karaka Millions of harness racing” in regards to crowd pull and after-party.
“We can’t be as big as the Karaka Millions, which was pretty special, because we will cap our night at 5000 people when tickets go on sale on Friday,” he said.
“But we have a big band signing for the after-party, which we will announce soon, and we would like to think the local racing community will come enjoy a chance to get together without having to travel to Auckland.
“This level of event is what we dreamed of when we started the Race by Grins, and to have it, the TAB Trot and the huge party in one night is what harness racing needed, so to see it coming together is very exciting.”
Night of Champions
What: New Zealand harness racing’s biggest night.
When: April 12.
Where: Cambridge Raceway.
Highlights: $1 million Race by Grins, $575,000 TAB Trot.
Bonus: On-track after-party with big-name band.
Can I go? Tickets go on sale on Friday.
