Racing: Purdon takes four to the races for winning quadrella

Mark Purdon. Photo / NZME.

Mark Purdon may have created a unique piece of harness racing history in Sydney yesterday.

Purdon and training partner Natalie Rasmussen dominated the Breeders Crown heat meeting, winning with all four of their representatives.

The personal quaddie started with Classical Art, who Purdon was concerned could be below her best, coming from the trail to beat former Kiwi-trained Katy Perry in the 3-year-old fillies' heat.

Harness Jewels winner Dream About Me was never out of second gear, winning at her Australia debut in the 2-year-old fillies' heat, while Follow The Stars easily led throughout in the 3-year-old boys' heat at Menangle.

Then it was Waikiki Beach who remained unbeaten, stretching his sequence to 10 wins when he paced 54.7 seconds for his last 800m in the juvenile male pace.

All four automatically qualified for the August 22 semifinals of the Breeders Crown with their wins but what Purdon and Rasmussen accomplished might be a first.

While both codes have seen New Zealand trainers pull off successful transtasman raids for decades, there wouldn't have been many, if any, New Zealand-based trainers who have lined up just four horses at the one Australian meeting and won with the lot.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand TAB has recognised the interest in the Breeders Crown heats even with their small fields and will accept fixed odds bets on the heat at Cambridge tomorrow night featuring champion filly The Orange Agent.

She hasn't raced since her national record win at the Jewels and meets only two opponents in the heat, so it was made a non-tote race by the club.

But the TAB will operate a fixed odds market on the race and it will still be shown live on Trackside, mirroring a similar effort from the TAB a few years ago when Changeover and Gotta Go Cullen clashed in an ABC heat at Cambridge.

That isn't the only example of TAB bookies improving their service for harness punters, with a far bigger initiative to be trialled next month.

The TAB will open betting on all Friday night harness meetings at 6pm on Thursdays for August and if the trial goes well it will be extended for two more months with a view to becoming the norm.

That would allow harness punters to multi up their Thursday night bets into Friday's fixed odds and bring harness racing fixed odds opening times in line with Saturday thoroughbred meetings.