Racing: Chase Auckland in crushing Derby run

Harness racing at Alexandra Park. Photo / Dean Purcell

The unlikely Chase Auckland dream continued in the $250,000 Woodlands Northern Derby at Alexandra Park last night.

The horse bought from the sales and syndicated to fly the flag for his young sire, Auckland Reactor, smashed the national 2700m mobile record for his age with a crushing Derby performance.

He adds last night's classic to his earlier wins in this, his debut season, in the Sires' Stakes and then Sales Series Final, all but sealing three-year-old of the year honours.

They come with some raucous winning presentations involving his enormous syndicate, who couldn't have dreamed their modest investment could return such returns financially but more importantly emotionally.

Chase Auckland will now return home to Christchurch for the NZ Derby in a month.

He was almost overshadowed for performance of the night by his own All Stars stablemate in Jesse Duke, who won last night's other group one, the $100,000 Breckon Farms Cardigan Bay Stakes.

Punters who backed him into $1.50 would have been feeling ill as he was checked into a gallop early and lost eight to 10 lengths, which should have ended his chances in a hard run 1700m.

But he produced one of the great juvenile performances ever seen at Alexandra Park to sweep down the outside to win in a 1:55 mile rate, meaning he must have gone close to pacing his last mile in 1:53, half of it three wide.

Earlier Princess Tiffany (Delightful Lady Classic), Sunset Peak (Greenlane Trot Cup) and Opoutama (Northern Classic) all added to their future broodmare values with front-of-the-field victories.