Racing: Tony Pike stakes a claim on racing's future

Pacific Dragon winning at Ruakaka. Photo / Trish Dunell

Tony Pike got a small peek into the future of northern thoroughbred racing at Ruakaka on Saturday and he liked what he saw.

The Cambridge trainer won two of the $60,000 Winter Championship finals with Pacific Dragon and River Run, their races culminations of the new series supported by NZTR's innovation fund.

That level of stakes is far beyond what New Zealand gallopers used to race for on a Saturday just a few years ago.

While they are still anything but normal at Ruakaka, they will be quickly surpassed by the regular stakes at Ellerslie when the glamour track relaunches at the end of next year.

That is when the first big stake increases to come about through the formation of Auckland Thoroughbred Racing will become reality, with Ellerslie hoping to have an average Saturday stake of close to $100,000 per race by 2025.

Pike says the $60,000 races on Saturday showed what sort of difference regular stakes at that level and higher will have on New Zealand racing.

"Take an honest horse like River Run. He probably isn't going to win a major Cup but he can win races like this and soon horses like him could easily win $100,000 a season here," says Pike.

"That is not only enough to keep them going, make a decent profit and let the owners have some fun but also to keep owners reinvesting in the game.

"I know the endgame increases at Ellerslie are still over a year away while they redo the track but there are some really good stakes that are going to be offered at Pukekohe under the ATR banner so to get a glimpse of that on Saturday was really encouraging."

Pike, whose stable will be back up to 90 horses in work tomorow, says while Pacific Dragon was strong winning the strong juvenile race on Saturday, her season isn't finished yet.

"We brought her back for two goals, one to win this race and the next is a black-type win in the Ryder Stakes at Ōtaki in two weeks," he explains.

"She already has a black-type placing but a black-type win will help her later as a broodmare and if she holds her form she could have a crack at a couple of the early season fillies races."

Pacific Dragon was one of three winners at Ruakaka for Michael McNab as he continues to rewrite the jockey's record book for stakes in a season.