Double whammy for Cambridge as HRNZ scrubs both feature races on Saturday night

Cambridge has lost both its feature races on Saturday night after a decision by Harness Racing New Zealand that club CEO David Branch has called incredibly frustrating.

The Waikato-Bay Of Plenty Club was told this morning it could not run either the $25,000 Cliff Thomas Memorial or $25,000 Charlie Hunter Free-for-all because both races have too few nominations.

The pacing feature had drawn the likes of Copy That, Old Town Road and Alta Wiseguy but when nominations were extended until this morning Arna Donnelly withdrew her pair Kango and Taipo, leaving only four starters.

Only five horses entered the trotting feature, but they included last week’s Greenlane Cup winner Resolve and Phil Williamson’s southern pair Majestic Man and Love N The Port.

David Branch … “gutted.”Branch described the stripping of its two drawcard races as “gutting”.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to put it nicely and Harness Racing New Zealand needs to find a solution to this problem.

“I argued that a precedent had been set last week at Auckland when they ran the Franklin Cup with only four horses but was told that was because it was a Group race.

“I accept they weren’t going to be great betting races but we had great drawcards in Copy That, Old Town Road and Majestic Man and now we’ve lost that marketing opportunity.”

Branch said in a discussion with HRNZ handicapper Andrew Morris he suggested dropping the stakes for the two races to $15,000, a compromise he would have run past trainers of the affected horses.

“But that was shut down straight away. He said it would create a precedent.”

Branch said he anticipated trainers would have accepted the reduced stake for the trot especially, with the need for a lead-up run before the $30,000 Cambridge Flying Stakes on January 12.

Trainers like Williamson, who had brought his horses north from Oamaru for the feature races would be particularly affected by the lost opportunity.

“We’ve got no control over this, we get told what to do, but it will all backfire on us.”

Branch said he’d been unable to reach HRNZ chairman John Coulam to protest the decision and he believed CEO Gary Woodham was also on holiday.

While last week’s Lincoln Farms’ sponsored Franklin Cup would have been a loss for the industry with a stake of $50,000 and reduced betting it still proved a great showcase, and a long-term promotional tool with a big crowd and one of the most exciting finishes of the year when Copy That was nailed in the last stride by Alta Wiseguy after an engrossing mid-race chase from his back mark.

* Under HRNZ’s bulk funding scheme, the code’s governing body funds the industry’s stake money and it has ruled that fields under six generate too little income through betting.