$1M Inter-Doms for Chch

Press, 18 April 1986, Page 1

$1M Inter-Doms for Chch

From

G. K. YULE

Brisbane Addington Raceway will be the venue for the richest horse-racing carnival in New Zealand when several million dollars in stakes will be distributed over four nights in February and March. The Lion Brown InterDominion Championship Grand Final will carry a minimum stake of $350,000, only $6OOO less than is being paid for all of the heats and the final in the present series in Brisbane. “The stakes listed are

only a minimum and > 1 there is a possibility they 1 will be greater,” said the • president of the New Zealand Metropolitan club, i Mr Dan McCormick, when i announcing details of the I Addington series at a . function in Brisbane yesterday. The announcement met > with much approval from i Australian trainers attendr ing the function. ; “We have to be there,” I said Brian Hancock, who I drove the 1980 Interi Dominion winner in Sydney, Koala King.

Trevor Warwick, the trainer of Morano Magic, said that at this early stage he intended to take his horse back to Christchurch next year, adding that he would be a better horse with another year on him. Bill Hom, the trainer of Village Kid, and Dan Murphy, the trainer of Vanderport, were also among those hopeful that their horses would be racing well enough at the time to make the trip. The Addington series will be run on February 28, March 4, 7 and 14. The programme for supporting events will be announced later this year. The stake for the Trotters’ Grand Final will be $lOO,OOO. The club intends to run three heats for pacers on the first three nights of the meeting. They will be worth $25,000, more than double the amount being paid in Brisbane. The trend-setting club has boosted the stakes for heats for trotters to $15,000. The club reserves the right to run more than three heats for pacers on each of the first three nights, but there will be only one consolation race for each gait. However, provision is made for an extra race to be included on the final night to cater

for horses not engaged in the Grand Final or the Consolation race. Stakes for the pacers’ section will amount to $600,000, with trotters racing for $175,000. The total for the championship events will reach $BOO,OOO should the extra race be included on the final night ■

For the first time all of the pacers’ events will be run from the mobile barrier, with the number of starters restricted to 12. Heats on the first and third nights will be run over 2000 m, while the second set of heats and the Grand Final will be run over 2600 m. For the first time in a series at

Addington there will be no race over 3200 m. The trotters will race over 2600 m from a standing start in the first set of heats, with a 2000 m mobile series of heats on the second night. The Grand Final and Consolation Race for this gait will be run over 2600 m from a mobile start on March 7.