Punters Info<\/a><\/p>\nBy Jonny Turner\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mark Hurrell can eclipse his 2025 driving tally in half the time at Ascot Park on King’s Birthday.<\/p>\n
The reinsman goes into June 1 meeting on 25 wins for the year, just two shy of his total from all of last year.<\/p>\n
Hurrell looks a realistic chance of completing the feat with his strong book of each way chances.<\/p>\n
Getting it done would provide an extra boost for the reinsman whose great recent momentum in the south is about to come to a halt for the next fortnight due to a suspension.<\/p>\n
“I will miss the next two Southland meetings, which isn’t too bad but it is a bit niggly when I’m having a good run and getting good books of drives.”<\/p>\n
“The way I have been going I was hoping I might be able to get to 50 for the year.”<\/p>\n
“We will see how things pan out, hopefully things will be able to keep going when I get back.”<\/p>\n
Hurrell doesn’t drive too many clear-cut standouts on Monday, but he links up with plenty of strong chances including Pacific Arc.<\/p>\n
The pacer’s form has come solid recently and he is chasing down a deserved win for trainer Brian Norman.<\/p>\n
“This is the first time he has had a decent draw (2) for a long time.”<\/p>\n
“He always seems to get bad draws or have to work in his races.”<\/p>\n
“It will be interesting, he has Rakamick inside him who gets out good enough.”<\/p>\n
“He actually seems better if he isn’t used up too much early, he’s been building into his races lately.”<\/p>\n
“So long as he gets a decent enough run somewhere he should be a good chance.”<\/p>\n
Hurrell drives another of the Norman runners in Glendhu Mischief, later on the Ascot Park card.<\/p>\n
“He is an honest horse and usually a good beginner.”<\/p>\n
“Hopefully we can get away and follow one of the veterans in the field and he can be thereabouts.”<\/p>\n
Kusama looks one of Hurrell’s best chances on Monday.<\/p>\n
While the mare hasn’t had any luck in the recent Silk Road Series, hopes are high barrier 1 may change that.<\/p>\n
“She’s been copping tough preferential draws in those mares races and not having any luck at all.”<\/p>\n
“The last time she drew 1 she led and won quite nicely.”<\/p>\n
“I will try to be pretty positive with her and see if she can do it again.”<\/p>\n
After charging back into form in her last start, Hurrell can’t see why Nutcracker can’t compete again in her Ascot Park assignment.<\/p>\n
“She looks a nice each way chance, I don’t think the race is that much stronger than the one she won last time.”<\/p>\n
“She will need a genuinely run race and a bit of luck, but I think she’s a nice chance again.”<\/p>\n
Hurrell will also drive Donny Do, Sweet Espresso and Lil Whip for trainer Kirstin Green.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1 June 2026 , Punters Info By Jonny Turner\u00a0 Mark Hurrell can eclipse his 2025 driving tally in…\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":["post-455628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455628","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=455628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455628\/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=455628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}