Stand by for high quality staying action at the Manukau Stadium this Sunday afternoon with two fascinating heats for the prestigious Duke Of Edinburgh Silver Collar over the demanding 779m journey will decide who will earn the right to advance through to contest the following Sunday’s $100,000 Group 1 final.

The main event to Sunday’s running of the two heats for the $100,000 Duke Of Edinburgh Silver Collar will be the $6,000 Auckland Derby (race 8). The 527m race features restricted aged greyhounds from all three New Zealand racing regions.

The Ftiz Sports Bar Canterbury Futurity has been a long established Group 2 520m event on the Christchurch GRC’s annual calendar. The $30,000 stake is a result of a number of progressive payments that breeders/owners provided by them ever since the nominated puppies are weaned from their mums.

It sure is an attractive race card drawn to race at Thursday’s meeting at the Addington Raceway. Three feature race finals will be contested while other support races to those feature events promises to deliver a full on evening of quality chasing action.

Geez, it sure was a riveting meeting held at the Manawatu Raceway on Monday afternoon.  The 410m track record was lowered twice during the meeting, there was a ripper first ever 720m staying event raced, quick 457m times was recorded, while the locally based Lisa Cole kennels provided an astounding 12 winners from the 15 races conducted.

It certainly wasn’t the friendliest of weather conditions when the big evening of heats racing got underway at the Addington Raceway on Thursday. The action on the track certainly was engrossing where three sets of heats held over the entire race program sorted out the qualifiers for next Thursday’s evening of finals racing.

The $30,000 The Ftiz Sports Bar Canterbury Futurity has always been a keenly contested 520m event at Group 2 level. The four 520m heats framed for Thursday evening at the Addington Raceway suggests that another competitive series is about to unfold.

A recently introduced initiative by the Christchurch GRC saw the introduction of the $10,000 Canterbury Futurity Sprint series over the Addington 295m dash. This race now sits alongside the long established $30,000 Canterbury Futurity over 520m. Heats for both of these events will be decided at the Addington Raceway this Thursday evening.

It was a huge 24 hour period for Tirau based conditioner Karen Walsh, along with breeders and owners Gary and Linda Harding. On Friday evening the hugely successful racing operation savoured more Group 1 success with Thrilling Talk who secured his deserved elite title when winning the $30,000 New Zealand Futurity title. The previous day they watched their greyhound Thrilling Amigo shatter the Cambridge 457m track record.

As usual it was a strong support card to the Group 1 chasing action at the Hatrick Raceway on Friday evening. The $30,000 New Zealand Futurity was the key event, however quality racing on the undercard was witnessed in the other 11 races

Tuesday’s running of the $6,500 Invercargill Cup turned into the match race that was widely predicted prior to the field being loaded away into the Ascot Park 457m traps. 

It’s very pleasing to see seven of the eight greyhounds drawn to race in Friday’s $30,000 New Zealand Futurity (race 10) being New Zealand bred chasers and that factor is a great advertisement for New Zealand breeding.

An interesting set of heats is the best way to describe the four 520m heats that decided the final field for Friday’s running of the $46,000 New Zealand Futurity at the Hatrick Raceway

Expect Tuesday’s running of the $6,500 Invercargill Cup (race 8) to be a keenly contested event. The pair of 457m heats held at Ascot Park two weeks ago saw both heats being won by the barest possible margin. Egomaniacal and Ringside delivered those heat victories.

The $30,000 New Zealand Futurity brings together many of the male and female classic aged greyhounds who recently contested the New Zealand Derby and New Zealand Oaks series.