Bonecrusher was more than a horse in the 1980s. He was a cult figure who had a song written about him and - as Bill Collins famously said at the end of the 1986 Cox Plate - he raced ''into equine immortality'' after his tussle down the home straight with Our Waverley Star at Moonee Valley. He made a journey south for the 1988 White Robe Lodge Handicap at Wingatui. Twenty-five years on, with the 2013 edition of the race to be run on Saturday, Matt Smith talks to trainer Frank Ritchie about the trip.
Monnay's form is hard to ignore, and it is becoming harder for his trainer to ignore the big races just around the corner.
Tuahiwi trainer Paul Harris has had his trainer's licence cancelled following a New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing board meeting on Thursday.
Matthew Williamson has some unfinished business going into the Australasian young drivers' championship in New South Wales next week.
Former Kiwis captain Dean Bell sees sports science as a big part of the modern version of rugby league - even if it is a far cry from his own playing days.
It is not often a group 3 drive on a likely favourite falls into your lap, but that
A Tapanui-reared colt out of a Gore-bred stallion will be based in Otago after the second day of the New Zealand Premier yearling sales in Christchurch yesterday.
Joanne Hillis and Ridley are flying the flag for Otago at Riccarton today, but Hillis is just grateful she still has the promising gelding as a racing proposition.
Something's missing . . . I used to have a rule that if I was at home watching the Lotto draw on a Saturday night, my social life had taken a turn for the worse. Well, I avoided the Lotto draw on Saturday, but I did stay at home, largely to watch the Interdominion heats beamed in from around Australia, and to have a small flutter on them, too.
Titanium led the way for Otago breeders at the New Zealand Premier standardbred yearling sales in Christchurch yesterday, topping the first day of the two-day sale.
Height does matter for John Dickie with his trotters, but there was room for a soft side when he went shopping at the New Zealand premier yearling sales in Christchurch yesterday.
Dan Cummings has seen a few good standardbreds leave his family's Lawrence property in the last 45 years - and he is hoping Tuapeka Troy could be the next. Cummings, his brother, Peter, and their sister, Julie Davie, have four Tuapeka Lodge yearlings entered in the standardbred yearling sales in Christchurch today and tomorrow and the Mach Three colt has impressed Cummings the most.
Heart Stealer lived up to her name once Roxburgh trainer Geoff Knight took her out of her box at Karaka yesterday.
A yearling sale with a difference begins next week in the lower South Island.
Terry Kennedy had little chance of scoring a century playing cricket yesterday but he was good enough to bring up triple figures in a different way on Saturday.
Harness Racing New Zealand has gone back on its decision to allow 5yr-olds into the Harness Jewels - but they have not left the connections of 5yr-olds empty-handed.
The horse who eats like a troll is ready to chew up his opposition in tomorrow's Southland Guineas - regardless of the weather.
Try as I might, I cannot get all giggly with excitement about this new Interdominions format that begins tomorrow night.
Cran Dalgety is firmly focused on Four Starzzz Flash's Interdominion heat at Menangle tomorrow night, but there is a tough little pacer at home itching to remind Dalgety how good he still is.
There may be some debate about where the name of Tapanui's Arden Lodge came from, but John Stiven is unequivocal in his excitement about a first foal for Arden's Darlin.
