KEY POINTS:
Cambridge- Te Awamutu Harness Racing Club president Barry Gordon was sporting a large smile following a successful day hosting the $1.5m Harness Jewels race day.
The largest race day in Waikato history was an on and off-course success for the leading harness racing club yesterday.
"As a club
we anticipated a crowd of between six to seven thousand and the attendance figures were between seven and eight thousand people," said Gordon.
"I walked every lounge and corporate area throughout the race day and all I got was positive feedback from people with smiling faces.
"We budgeted for $500,000 in on-course turnover and we ended up with $515,000. Our off-course budget was $1.6 million and we did $1.535 and that's without taking into account the 2.5 per cent in betting revenue we will receive from Tabcorp in Australia.
"This is the first year this club has hosted an event of this magnitude and a lot of the credit must go to our hard- working staff including Kerry Wells, Mike Weston and our committee, stewards and race day volunteers."
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Changeover clinched seasonal bragging rights over arch-rival Gotta Go Cullen in the $200,000 4-Year-Old Emerald Pace.
However, no one could belittle the performance of the second-placed Gotta Go Cullen who was the victim of some indifferent driving tactics from a rival horseman.
Tony Herlihy, the trainer-driver of Gotta Go Cullen, punched the magnificent striding entire son of Christian Cullen forward from barrier rise in the sprint feature but was denied the lead by Changeover's stablemate Victory Spirit. This came at some expense to the leader - a 26.9 second opening quarter - with Gotta Go Cullen poised to pounce behind the tearaway pacemaker.
As soon as the pace eased, Changeover and regular driver David Butcher sprinted three wide around the field to wrestle the front off Victory Spirit with 800m remaining.
Gotta Go Cullen immediately pulled off the rail to pressure the new leader but was never a realistic chance of defeating the high-class equine athlete who clinched the victory with ruthless closing 800m and 400m sectionals of 57s and 28.1s.
Rocket Reign was second past the post but was relegated to last after a stewards' inquiry which promoted Gotta Go Cullen from third to second. Fourth home Chilli was officially third.
The mile was cut out in a slick 1.55.7, an easy time for Changeover, who was presented in faultless condition by leading trainer Geoff Small.
The Patumahoe-based trainer has been fighting an ongoing legal battle with Harness Racing New Zealand over the past 18 months however there is no doubting his ability to produce stable runners in top form when large stake money is on offer.
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Harness fans were treated to a stunning display of pure trotting power and speed when the locally trained Sovereignty wn the $100,000 3-Year-Old Ruby.
The Sean McCaffrey-trained Sovereignty is trotting at a level of excellence his age group cannot match.
You can talk up the performances of Running On Time, Sovereignty is the king in this jungle.
When regular driver Maurice McKendry asked the favourite to lengthen stride and reel in the pace-setting Real Deal Yankee, the response was mouth watering.
Sovereignty lengthened stride effortlessly while Real Deal Yankee was setting impressive lead sectional times and powered away from the field to score, easing down, by 5 1/2 lengths over Doctor Mickey.
A further three-quarters of a length away third was Real Deal Yankee.
The mile was covered in 1.56.9 and if any rivals had being good enough to make a race of it with Sovereignty in the home stretch, the winner could have run a lot quicker.
