![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ross-Houghton-and-Kotare-Rimu-blog__ResizedImageWzYwMCwzNDdd.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
By Michael Guerin<\/p>\n
Ross Houghton is kind of glad he doesn\u2019t own his latest stable star.<\/p>\n
Because if he did then Kotare Rimu would probably be sold rather than a hot favourite to make it three wins on end at Addington tonight.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old has won his two starts since finishing fifth in Jumal\u2019s Sires\u2019 Stakes Final at Addington in May and has been $2.30 into $1.65 to win the Continental Event Hire Pace tonight (8.35pm).<\/p>\n
Houghton has a great reputation for being able to find and educate young horses and then sell them but Kotare Rimu isn\u2019t on the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is owned by Tony and Gay Abell and Tony said to me he is 93 now so why would \u00a0he be selling a good horse,\u201d smiles Houghton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were offered good money for him last season and then even more when he won a few weeks ago but he is staying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houghton expects the son of Always B Miki to be heading forward from barrier 3 tonight and thinks he should win again.<\/p>\n
Houghton has moved from his former employer Dancingonmoonlight Farms and is now working from the property owned by Blair Orange with 15 horses in work, four of which he will take to Addington tonight.<\/p>\n
Punters have already also jumped on debutante Dance Hall Girl (R2, No.6) even though she still has plenty to learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has only been off the property once and that was when she qualified in 3:2 (2400m) home in 57,\u201d says Houghton.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has plenty of ability but is quite a big filly so we have given her time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she can win because she has real speed but I don\u2019t see her going forward early because there is a bit of gate speed inside her so she will have to come from off the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houghton has yet another talented three-year-old in Rosario in Race 3 (No.9) and he faces not only a poor draw but some handy, in-form opponents in what could be a good form race.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is going to win a race soon but again, from that draw, he is going to need some luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also has three-win trotter Florence The Machine in Race 6 and while he has no concerns about her form he does about her draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing on the unruly in a 2000m stand is hardly ideal so it won\u2019t be easy for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The TAB bookies are also predicting a good night for Team Telfer, with Rock N Roll Dude (R4), Transonic (R7) and Tact Teva (R10) all favourites for their races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"17 July 2026 , Punters Info By Michael Guerin Ross Houghton is kind of glad he doesn\u2019t own…\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":["post-530686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530686","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=530686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530686\/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=530686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}