New Zealand Cup Meeting Looms
A spring in the step of all racing fans has been germinated this past week with the arrival of September and the realisation that New Zealand’s best thoroughbred horseflesh will soon be showcasing at Riccarton Park for the fast approaching New Zealand Cup Meeting.
Last Saturday saw spring racing launched with the Canterbury Jockey Club hosting the first of seven racemeetings at Riccarton Park over a 10-week period that will offer total prizemoney in excess of $3 million. By the end of ‘Cup Week’ no fewer than 64 races will have been contested by many of the land’s best performed gallopers; the best from the South Island will be tested by more than 100 visiting northerners.
There are no fewer than nine group and listed races worth $1,135,000 to be decided on four of the seven race days between now and mid-November, culminating with the running of $300,000 gavelhouse.com 44th New Zealand 1000 Guineas for three-year-old fillies and the $225,000 Christchurch Casino 153rd New Zealand Cup on 12th November, the final day of the Cup Meeting.
On that final day the two-year-olds will again create huge racegoer interest when they contest the $50,000 Listed Barneswood Farm Agistment Welcome Stakes over 1000 metres.
The three-year-old fillies will be accorded the first black type opportunity of the spring with the running of the $50,000 Listed New Zealand Bloodstock Canterbury Belle Stakes over 1200 metres on 17th September while the $70,000 Listed Zacinto Stakes over 1600 metres on 22ndOctober will offer both the colts and fillies an ideal lead-up to either Guineas races. Also scheduled for 22nd October is the $50,000 Listed Christchurch Casino Spring Classic over 2000 metres for open handicappers – one of the ideal lead-up races to the big ‘two-miler.’
In addition to the ‘blue ribbon’ $400,000 Group One Sothys 44th New Zealand 2000 Guineas over 1600 metres on the NZ Cup Meeting’s first day, Saturday 5th November, the Canterbury Jockey Club welcomes the running of the $50,000 Listed Gold Club Metropolitan Trophy Handicap over 2500 metres for open handicappers, and the $50,000 Listed Yesberg Insurance Services Pegasus Stakes Handicap over 1000 metres.
The three big races for the middle day on Wednesday 9th November are the $230,000 Group Two 12th Coupland’s Bakeries Mile over 1600 metres, the $100,000 Group Three Lindauer Stewards Stakes Handicap over 1200 metres for open sprinters and the $80,000 Group Three Valachi Downs Canterbury Breeders Stakes for Fillies and Mares over 1400 metres.
The quality of visiting horses to Riccarton Park has been building annually with not just the prizemoney attraction but the recognition by trainers nationwide and overseas that the Riccarton Park Racecourse layout offers every horse its winning chance on spring racing surfaces that invariably offers firm footing to suit the best horses.
The 2015 New Zealand Cup Meeting produced outstanding racing that enthralled all those who were there to witness it, and the 2016 renewal is shaping-up to be every bit as good.
by Brian de Lore.
