Shard Ark credited Invercargill reinsman Andrew Armour with his most important win. Armour is in his third season as an open reinsman after five seasons as a junior. He has driven 122 winners.
It was also a major success for Kilkelly, a car dealer, who began training eight years ago. He has won 31 races.
The win completed a notable double for Myross Bush breeders Mark and Debbie Smith. They also bred Smiling Shard, winner of the $184,000 Sires' Stakes Final and $200,000 Harness Jewels race last month.
Shard Ark was a $20,000 purchase by Kilkelly at the 2008 premier yearling sale. Shard Ark is a gelding by Badlands Hanover from She's Mighty, the dam of Likmesiah and Mighty Cullen. Likmesiah won a Sires' Stakes Final at 2 and the New Zealand Derby. Mighty Cullen won the 2006 Easter Cup, Kaikoura Cup and a Yearling Sales Pace.
Smiling Shard, foaled on January 18, 2007, was an embryo transfer from She's Mighty when she was an 11yr-old. The New York Motoring mare recorded one win, as a 3yr-old, in four starts.
• Neville Vaughan, the 3yr-old trotter who cleared maiden ranks at the Marlborough meeting yesterday at his third start, is a brother to the 2007 Interdominion Trotting Final winner, Uncle Petrika.
Neville Vaughan is trained at Ohoka by Kevin Townley, who developed Uncle Petrika. Townley won four races, including the South Australian Trotting Derby Prelude, with the Britewell-Jenola Bay gelding. He was first past the post in the 2003 Derby but disqualified after a positive swab.
"He came up positive to a trace of clenbuterol (a drug used for treating breathing disorders), something I had never used," Townley recalled.
Uncle Petrika was sold to Colin Croft, of Adelaide, before the Derby. He then joined the stable of Lance Justice and won the 2007 Interdominion Final in Adelaide.
Uncle Petrika won his first start at a Marlborough meeting in January 2003.
Townley will take the reins on Neville Vaughan in a 1-5 win race tomorrow. Robbie Holmes, who drove Neville Vaughan yesterday, is committed to The Tin Man, who finished second to Willy Lightfoot yesterday.
"It is a huge step up but he is doing really well," Townley said.
Neville Vaughan is raced by his Auckland breeders, Nick and George Katsoulis, with Margaret Townley, wife of the trainer.
The Katsoulis, son and father, won five races with Alec Ross from the Townley stable. Alec Ross was the first foal they bred from Jenola Bay. Alec Ross won his first start at Forbury Park in November 2003.
• Willylightfoot was one of three winners for trainer and driver Colin De Filippi yesterday. The others were Etruscan and Talk About Courage.
• Trainer Cran Dalgety is closing on a personal best tally of wins for a season after success with Diomedes and Band On The Run yesterday. The pair were driven by Dexter Dunn.
Dalgety has won 58 races this season, four away from his top tally of 62 last season.
Diomedes gave Dalgety his 500th win as a trainer at Ashburton on June 2.
Diomedes and Band On The Run are both engaged on the second day of the Marlborough meeting. The 3yr-old Diomedes is in the Marlborough Winter Cup (3200m). His stablemate, Bettor's Strike, won the prelude and Winter Cup double last year.
Diomedes outfinished the pacemaker, Totally Different, by a neck yesterday with a powerful late bid over 2300m.
"He was just lucky to get out. There is no passing lane and there was no room on the inside and very little on the outside," Dunn said.
Diomedes has proved erratic at times.
"He races without an overcheck and has been quite a handful. He can get aggressive in his races but he is improving all the time," Dalgety said.
Kiwi Fantasy, winner of the Nelson Winter Cup last Sunday, is among fresh rivals for Diomedes. Left In The Dark, a last-start winner at Forbury Park on June 4, is also in the field.
Dalgety is viewing a heat of the Breeders Crown at Addington on June 23 for Smiling Shard, winner of the 2yr-old emerald for colts and geldings at the Harness Jewels at Ashburton.
• Campbell Moncur, the acting chief executive for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, has resigned to run the Trac racing group, NZPA reports.
The Tauranga-based Trac is an amalgam of the Tauranga, Rotorua, Matamata, Te Aroha, Taupo, Thames and Bay of Plenty-Rotorua Hunt clubs.
Moncur (55) was appointed acting chief executive after Paul Bittar left in April to work for Racing Victoria.
NZTR decided not to advertise for a replacement with a governance review in progress.
Guy Sargent, the chairman of NZTR, said the position would now probably be advertised.
The governance review recommended a new body, incorporating NZTR, the harness and greyhound codes and the New Zealand Racing Board, which runs the TAB.
Moncur replaces Jim Watters, who is now administrator for Thoroughbred Racing South Australia in Adelaide.
• Sousa, winner of the Spring Champion Stakes, is among nine horses who will leave Darley Australia to join the Godolphin stable in Dubai, AAP reports.
Sousa won the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) by six lengths at Randwick in October.
Sousa, owned by Sheikh Mohammed, will be prepared for the 2010 Dubai World Cup carnival at the new multibillion-dollar Meydan racecourse in March.
Caymans, Aichi, Fravashi, Desuetude, El Cambio, Marching and Imvula are other Peter Snowden-trained horses headed to Dubai.
Time Thief, trained by Lee Freedman for Sheikh Mohammed, is also in the contingent.
