With three months to go in the season, it seemed timely to update the readers of Racing Matters with the state of the premierships across the three codes.
Note, these figures were accurate as of yesterday morning before the day's racing.
. . . from thoroughbreds . . .
No surprises to see the partnership of Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards on top of the trainers' premiership with 82 wins.
The canny pair of Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman are just in behind on 77, while Tony Pike has had an absolutely monstrous season, sitting on 67 wins - 27 wins ahead of his previous best set in 2013-14.
Pike is averaging a win every 4.19 starts. John and Karen Parsons (48 wins) have a handy lead of nine over Michael and Matthew Pitman (39) in the South Island premiership, with Brian and Shane Anderton sitting on 36 wins.
The industrious Central Districts jockey, Lisa Allpress, has 116 wins in the saddle, nine ahead of Matthew Cameron (107), with Danielle Johnson (86) in third.
The evergreen Terry Moseley is having his best season yet, leading the South Island hoops with 51 wins.
Samantha Wynne is leading South Island apprentice (48 wins) and Jake Lowry is the best of the Otago jockeys with 28 wins.
. . . to standardbreds . . . .
The All Stars Stables is still at the top of the harness racing tree, with 97 training wins.
However, here's the thing. Robert Dunn (and his son, John) have produced 86 winners and once Harness Jewels day comes and goes, the number of horses at the races from Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen's stables will drop back considerably.
Locally, Phil Williamson (45) is one off his best season of 46 in 2006-07.
Dexter Dunn is hooning his way to another double ton, sitting on 167 wins, Blair Orange is second on 93 after a brilliant season in the sulky, and John Dunn is on 88.
Nathan Williamson (73) is in fourth, but Brad Williamson is having a breakout season in the junior ranks with his 60 wins, well clear of the next-best junior, Kyle Marshall (31).
. . . to the puppies?
In the greyhound sphere, John McInerney (475 wins) is miles in front of Lisa Ahern (299).
Jean and Dave Fahey are in fourth (184), but once again, their quality shines through, as they sit second on the strike rate premiership (0.4420) just behind Karen Walsh (0.4741).
Derby time again
This year seems like an anti-climax of sorts after American Pharaoh's Triple Crown last year.
From what I can gather with a quick perusal of various American racing websites, the Doug O'Neill-trained Nyquist is the pre-post favourite having won all seven of his career starts.
Exaggerator is the second-favourite at 8-1 with Creator, Gun Runner and Mohaymen all at 10-1.
Lazy Fiver
Rasa Lila came through with the goods at Te Rapa.
Hard to ignore the super run of Ken Ford's stable, so have a crack at Zachary Binx in race 5 at Oamaru on Saturday.
