The race we’d all been waiting for lived up to expectations, proving that all the qualifiers deserved to be there and that fairy tales do happen. The Group 1 TAB Hunter Region Championships Final delivered an upset win for the Clayton Harmey trained KANYE CRUSADER ($17) – his first ever Group 1 win. Taking the reins was 18 year old Morisset driver, Jack Callaghan claiming his maiden Group 1 win also, narrowly beating his father Mark aboard MASTER CATCH for Fullerton Cove trainer Lisa McDonald and the Adam Ruggari trained HAZELNUTS third with Tom Ison in the seat..
Most will be aware by now that Harness Racing NSW adopted a regionalised format in March to limit potential transmission and spread of coronavirus. The regionalised format has not suited all, but with it came a silver lining in the form of the restructured Million Dollar Pace into the Group 1 TAB Regional Championships Series, the second Group 1 event we’ve conducted this year. Both events could not have been more different.
The AVE Technologies Newcastle Mile in February attracted a crowd of 2000+ and the TAB Hunter Region Championship Final was conducted as a closed meeting. In many ways the TAB Hunter Region Championship Final was more exciting than the fanfare created around the Newcastle Mile given that the Group 1 victory was guaranteed to go to a regional trainer. Nine of the trainers in the final were Hunter based with Moonbi trainer Dean Chapple rounding out the ten.
Two rounds of heats were conducted for the Hunter / Northern Zone at Newcastle Paceway in early May, culminating in the final and consolations finals on Saturday 23 May. Consolation finals were also conducted on the night with BABYITSCOLD (Barry Matterson / Guy Chapple) taking out the Consolation B final & Geoffrey Harding scoring the trifecta in the Consolation A final with ROLL WITH LACHLAN (driven by Matthew Harding) first, ROCKNLACHLAN (Tom Ison) second & JASPER STYLES (Mark Callaghan) third. The series proved to be a winner with local trainers all full of praise for the revamped format & hopeful to see it return next year.