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Northern juvenile racing is about to get the greatest boost in harness racing history.
And pacing's newest series is set to change the way New Zealand trainers think about preparing and racing their young horses.
Northern harness racing bosses have announced the birth of the Young Gun series, which will consist of six $30,000 races starting on December 5.
They will culminate in a $150,000 final in the Cardigan Bay Stakes on March 6, where it will add further strength to the richest night in Australasian racing.
The series will be open to all juvenile pacers - fillies or colts - and will be free of any sustaining payments, making it New Zealand harness racing's richest free juvenile series.
But its greatest impact could be the way New Zealand trainers attack the juvenile season.
Until a decade ago, juveniles would start racing in September but that soon changed as the richest races of the season - the Sires' Stakes, Sales Series, Australasian Breeders Crown and later the Harness Jewels - were all held after May.
The trainers of the best young pacers realised they couldn't have them racing for the entire season so pre-Christmas juvenile racing slowly faded away.
It will now return because the stakes for even the heats of the Young Guns series make them impossible to ignore. Every heat will be worth $30,000 and northern harness bosses are committed to running them - even if only one horse turns up.
And because juvenile pacing races worth more than $20,000 are so rare, any horse who wins a heat, with its $14,000 winning stake, will almost certainly be guaranteed a place in the season showpiece Harness Jewels in May.
Last season around $12,000 was enough to get a horse into the juvenile division of the Jewels and while that level will rise this season, the new series is certain to propel a number of young pacers into the Jewels at Cambridge.
With South Island trainers now facing a lot less chances for their horses to win the sort of money needed to qualify for the Jewels, many will have to embark on a new strategy of peaking their freshmen pacers earlier than usual and coming north for the Young Gun series.
Conditions of the series mean a pacer can win only two heats before being ineligible for the remaining heats.
The $150,000 Cardigan Bay Stakes is to be drawn from the leading stake earners in the six heats.
And as if that wasn't going to make the series inviting enough, the connections of all horses who start in any heat will go into a draw on February 13 for a $20,000 voucher to be spent at the Karaka yearling sales to be held that week.
"This is a huge deal for harness racing because it is going to give juveniles a whole new range of races," said Auckland Trotting Club president Sid Holloway. "And having the Cardigan Bay Stakes go to $150,000 will make March 6 one of the biggest harness racing nights in the world."
The $600,000 Trillian Trust Auckland Cup and $600,000 Woodlands Northern Derby are already scheduled for that night which seems certain to attract Australian interest.
FINAL HELD ON STAR-STUDDED NIGHT
* A rich new series is set to change the face of New Zealand juvenile pacing.
* The series will be free to enter but offers stakes of more than $300,000.
* It will culminate in the $150,000 Cardigan Bay Stakes at Alexandra Park on March 6.
* That night will be the richest night meeting in Australasian racing.
