- NZ Cup Day 2021 was a surreal affair with less than 1500 people attending. A far cry from the sell-out crowd of 15,000 the year before. With Canterbury operating under COVID-19 Alert Level 2 at the time the Club had no option but to operate the raceday under the regulations imposed by the Government and New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing. Whilst this detracted from the oncourse experience the quality of racing over all three days made for a tremendous spectacle through the Trackside TV channel and radio options.
- Rain on the day stopped at race 4 but not after the going being downgraded to Slow7 after race 3.
- Cup Day, as was the case on the first two days, belonged to Te Akau Racing trainer Jamie Richards. He recorded his 50th Group 1 as a racehorse conditioner in the Barneswood Farm NZ 1000 Guineas® and for good measure trained the first four home. THE PERFECT PINK in the hands of stable jockey Opie Bosson won the Classic ahead of SHEPHERD’S DELIGHT (Samantha Wynne), BELLE EN ROUGE (Michael McNab) and favourite IMERATRIZ ( Danielle Johnson). Amongst the part owners are legendary Southland Breeders the Dennis Brothers who bred the filly from a mating of SAVABEEL and their good mare THE SOLITAIRE, a Group 3 winner on the course in 2013.
- The 158th running of the Martin Collin sponsored New Zealand Cup® provided the latest in a long line of notable achievements on the Riccarton Park course for Wanganui trainer Kevin Myers, a tremendous supporter of Riccarton Park racing. MONDORANI finished too strongly for the favourite BEAUDZ WELL to with the metric two miler. Jamie Richards LEADERBOARD ran third with LINCOLN KING fourth. Sarah MacNab continued her great season in the saddle as winning rider.
- The days other Listed feature the Riccarton Park Function Centre Welcome Stakes drew a small field with locally trained filly GRACE’S SECRET starting a hot favourite. The Anna Furlong and Shane Kennedy trained filly justified that support beating CLARK KENT and TAP DANCER.
- As was the case last year GLORIOUS OCEAN won the Vernon & Vazey Truck Parts Premier for an ownership that includes the Club’s Commercial Manager, Chris Rowe. Craig Grylls partnered the Stephen Marsh trained mare.
- The north south count on the final day was 7-5 to the South Island.
- All in all, 34 races were run over the three days attracting 435 starters at an average field size of 12.8. Not many racecourses take this much use in an eight-day period and is testimony to Riccarton Parks resilience.
- Stakes totalling $2,585,000 were competed for and won – First day $895,000, second day $680,000 and $1,010,000 on NZ Cup Day.
