Racing: Race lifts hopes after tragic run

Last week Karen Parsons left Alexandra Park Raceway with an empty horse float and a broken heart. Today she is hoping to leave with the Auckland Trotting Cup.

The Canterbury trainer and her husband, John, suffered racing's night from hell eight days ago when both pacers they took to Alexandra Park - Chromatic and Scorching - died on the track.

Only one other horse has died at the Auckland track in the past decade.

Their deaths were unrelated. Chromatic broke a leg when jumping a drain inside the track, and Scorching fractured a leg in the middle of a race.

"We couldn't believe it. Afterwards we just felt numb," says Parsons. "They were both lovely horses, and they were just freakish accidents. But that doesn't help ease the pain. ... It was the worst night of my life in racing."

If Harnetts Creek can cause an upset in the $250,000 cup it would make up for some of the pain. The veteran is the favourite son of the Parsons stable, a horse they saved from the meatworks who has gone on to win 12 races and $280,000.

"All he needs is a hot pace because he is an old grinder these days," says Parsons.

Then she pauses as the unthinkable briefly enters her mind.

"I don't even want to think about what would happen if something went wrong with him too. We love him and plan for him to spend the rest of his days retired at our place.

"If he, well, you know ... I'd just want to just die at the track too."

But the Parsons are positive, with their dual-code stable training three winners at the Kurow gallops yesterday.

Today's Alexandra Park meeting starts Auckland's biggest weekend of racing. The cup and the $150,000 Sales Series Pace will be the highlights today. At Ellerslie tomorrow, in the New Zealand Herald summer carnival, there are six major races, headlined by the City Of Auckland Cup and Railway Handicap.

That should lead to an $8 million punting bonanza, with more than 25,000 people expected to attend the two meetings.