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<\/p>\nNow that former Queensland and now Kiwi-based presenter-driver-trainer Brittany Graham is living in this country and working for Trackside she’s happy to share her thoughts about all things racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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By Brittany Graham\u00a0
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The battle is on for New Zealand to wrangle back its biggest harness racing prizes.<\/p>\n
The last three IRT New Zealand Trotting Cups have been taken back across the Tasman, while both editions of the Trot Slot have gone the same way.<\/p>\n
To heighten the blows, last year’s $1,000,000 The Race and the last two time-honoured Dominions have also been won by Australians.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a stark difference to what was previously a near impossible task for the green and gold raiders when competing on New Zealand soil.<\/p>\n
While Cambridge\u2019s Night Of Champions looks like another struggle for the Kiwi contingent, there is light at the end of the tunnel with a wave of stars ready to step up and take back the crowns.<\/p>\n
The Lazarus Effect has won the free-for-all pacing features at Alexandra Park the last two weekends and looks to have the all-round game with great versatility, manners and most importantly, gate speed.<\/p>\n
His rise has been quite incredible with only 16 starts to his name, and with Bob Butt taking the gentle approach with the gelding and missing Cambridge, he\u2019s a leading light of the future.<\/p>\n
If the Lazarus Effect is a potential top liner when it comes to the pacing ranks, then what does that make Jumal who beat him on merit only three weeks ago?<\/p>\n
The superstar three-year-old has since added two more features to his resume, including a hard-fought victory in last weekend\u2019s rich Harness Million Final when everything was against him.<\/p>\n
Many are touting Jumal as \u201cthe next big thing\u201d in New Zealand harness racing, and he is part of a great stable which will give him every opportunity to achieve the great things hoped.<\/p>\n
Then there is last year\u2019s headline acts in Marketplace and Got The Chocolates.<\/p>\n
The two staged some epic battles late last year and the geldings look set for many more as they transition against open age company.<\/p>\n
Now four years of age, we are yet to see Marketplace return after a solid break and slow build up, which could see him head to Australia for the Winter.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Got The Chocolates may have scarily returned even better, looking a bigger and stronger commodity in two easy return victories.<\/p>\n
He ticked the standing start box, and in a big way on Friday night, setting a new national record for the 2600metre standing start conditions. And the ear plugs were still in.
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When it comes to the trotting gait, there is hope there too of holding off the likes of Keayang Zahara, Jilliby Ballerini and Gus from across the ditch.<\/p>\n
A star youngster, Meant To Be has furnished in mind and body early in his four-year-old season to claim back-to-back feature race successes, including Friday nights Lyell Creek Stakes.<\/p>\n
Add in proven Group 1 winner Hillbilly Blues, and several promising soon to be returning four-year-olds, the crop looking to take back New Zealand’s trotting pride is certainly growing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that former Queensland and now Kiwi-based presenter-driver-trainer Brittany Graham is living in this country and working for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-345208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345208","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=345208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345208\/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=345208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}