Punters Info<\/a><\/p>\nBy Jonny Turner\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samantha Ottley will try to tick off one milestone while working towards another at Oamaru on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The leading reinswoman will go into the card of grass track racing on 899 career wins in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Ottley has been in red-hot form in the sulky and it appears there is little chance she will hang around in the nervous nineties for too long.<\/p>\n
And she can\u2019t afford to do that if she is to tick off another goal this year.<\/p>\n
Ottley made history when becoming the first woman to drive 100 winners in a season in 2024.<\/p>\n
The reinswoman has 84 wins so far this year and was at a comparable position last year, before going on an end of season winning spree.<\/p>\n
Ottley will be doing her best to repeat that feat, but knows she will need to keep up her current form to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to get to a hundred again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year I had five wins at Westport and two at Cambridge, where I wouldn\u2019t usually be driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really need a push along like that at some stage if you are going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we can do it, I will be doing my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year has gone really well, Jumal has been a highlight as well as Francent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have probably had more times when I have been away driving in feature races.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut those are the races you are always trying to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ottley has a strong book of Oamaru drives on Wednesday before reuniting with Francent in Friday night\u2019s Group 1 Queen Of Hearts at Alexandra Park.<\/p>\n
Many of her best chances are youngsters from the Mark Jones stable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have got a few drives that look really nice chances on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut some are young ones that are still learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are horses to follow, but they are not just sit and steer jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mark Jones trained A Bettor\u2019s Legacy is typical of that.<\/p>\n
The pacer looks the best horse in Wednesday\u2019s opener, but he is facing his first standing start under race conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has only had the one stand at the trials and I gave him a couple of goes in the warm up and he wasn\u2019t so good, but he got it right when it counted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have given him a bit more practice at home since then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA few of the horses in that field have had a few chances, if he steps away he would have to be a pretty good hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ottley is hopeful Stormy Vista can also do things right in Wednesday\u2019s finale, also under standing start conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was rapt with him first up, I thought being off the front line he would be well placed in that field.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe usually has great manners which will be a big help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mighty Flying Miki and Kowhai Sunburst look strong hopes for the Ottley-Jones combination.<\/p>\n
The driver also links up with Cheeky Red, Meandad and Tallandfast at Oamaru.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"10 December 2025 , Punters Info By Jonny Turner\u00a0 Samantha Ottley will try to tick off one milestone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-177132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}