Punters splurge $7.5 million on trotting cup day - a 25-year record for any code

Record betting figures were posted on Tuesday’s trotting cup day meeting at Addington.

New Zealand punters wagered $7.5 million on the 13-race card, the highest turnover of any meeting, both harness and thoroughbreds, in the last 25 years.

The previous record was also set on Addington’s cup day, when $7.1 million was bet in 2007, the year Flashing Red won his second cup.

The highest take at a gallops meeting was $6.7 million turned over on New Year’s Day at Ellerslie in 2021.

Addington’s Racing Industry Manager Darrin Williams reports turnover on the cup was close to $2million with $131,689 on-course, $1,039,400 off-course and $743,179 on the fixed odds market. That took the total to $1,914,267, or $127,618 per starter.

Strong fields have been carded again at Addington for Show day on Friday with Australian Rock N Roll Doo the big winner in the draw for the $200,000 NZ Pacing Free-for-all.

The Victoria Cup winner blew the start of the IRT Cup from the second row and beat only one home but reverts to a mobile on Friday.

Self Assured, one of the most unlucky runners in Tuesday’s cup, is a little wider out in seven.

His effort to finish fifth, less than two lengths from the winner Copy That was enormous after scrambling away, becoming buried on the markers then being held up leaving the final bend and locking wheels and puncturing a sulky tyre near the 300m.

Addington’s official GPS tracking system StrideMASTER clocked Self Assured to run his last 1600 metres in a staggering 1:51.89.

Alta Wiseguy, who did well for seventh on Tuesday, gets the coveted ace draw, with stablemate B D Joe on his back.

The two big guns in the $300,000 Dominion Trot both drew the front row, Muscle Mountain in one and Sundee’s Son in seven.