Harness racing is getting its own version of thoroughbred racing's mega meeting, the Karaka Million.
That will see the strongest standardbred yearling sale held every year in Australasia, the boutique Karaka sale, get something like the pre-sale hype and buzz its galloping counterpart has experienced since 2008.
The Harness Million meeting will see six races staged at Alexandra Park on Saturday, February 12, the day before the yearling sales at Karaka.
The meeting will host all three Harness Million races for 3-year-olds (male pace, female pace and trot), the Group 1 Taylor Mile, the Lyell Creek for open class trotters and a 2-year-old Young Guns heat to give buyers an early-season sighter into what the juvenile crop stallions are doing.
The meeting will not only provide the ideal way to promote the sales the next day before sales week continues in Christchurch but bring the 3-year-old Harness Million races on to the same programme, rather than being spaced throughout the season, where they risk being lost among a sea of other races.