COURTESY OF HARNESS RACING UPDATE
DOWN Under champions Blair Orange and Gary Hall Jr can’t wait to fly their countries flags against some world’s best in the World Drivers’ Championship starting in New Zealand on Sunday.
Orange, an eight-time leading NZ driver, will represent the host country for the second time in the series which spans five different race meetings, four varying venues and 20 races between November 2 and 11.
He is bursting to improve to an eight placing in 2023 when the series was shared between Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium, and won by Rick Ebbinge of The Netherlands.
Remarkably, this is 43-year-old Hall Jr’s first time representing his country in the series. He’s dominated his home state Western Australia for almost two decades and shown his skill and class around the rest of Australia and NZ as well.
Hall Jr’s biggest NZ wins rank with the most memorable of his stellar career when he teamed with the great pacer Im Themightyquinn - the best horse he’s driven - for victories in the 2011 Auckland Inter Dominion and Auckland Cup of the same year.
“I’ve had a few trips to NZ and loved every one of them, but I’ve never driven at Kaikoura,” Hall Jr said. “I’ve watched in amazement like everyone else at what beautiful place it is … how cool the first two meetings in the series are there.”
Kaikoura is a harness track like no other in this part of the world. A couple of hours north-east of Christchurch in NZ’s South Island. The town is one of the whale-watching capitals of the world and the track is literally on the edge of the beach.
When the horses race down the back straight, they almost look to be running on water.
Kaikoura only races those two meetings each year and people set-up tents and camper vans in the middle of the track days in advance to get their vantage point.
Hall Jr’s excitement around Kaikoura soared even more this week when the fields were drawn. Across the five heats on Sunday and Monday, he’s snared five terrific drives.
It saw him crunched into a clear favouritism to win the series. He was $6 (for a $1 bet) last week and is $2.60.
“That’s a plus,” he laughed. “I haven’t had a good look at it all yet because we’ve got a huge Group 1 night of racing here (Perth’s Gloucester Park on Friday) before I fly out, but a few friends who know the form said I should be chuffed.
“Even though there’s 20 heats in the series, your luck with drawing good drives is still a huge part of it. I’ll take all the help I can get.
“But I also know what looks good on paper doesn’t always turn out that way, especially in these types of series.
“The honour (of representing Australia) certainly isn’t lost on me. It’s exciting and a privilege.
“While I’d love to do well in the series because I’m a competitive bugger, I’m looking forward as much to seeing a few of the drivers I’ve met before, spending time with them and meeting new people.
“Whether it was a junior driver series when I started out of things like the Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Challenge I was part of and loved so much back in February, these things are great.
“It was awesome having Dexter (Dunn), Yannick (Gingras) and Bjorn (Goop) here for that series earlier this year and now look at the great drivers competing in this series.”
Brett Beckwith is representing the US, while James MacDonald is flying the Canadian flag.
The other drivers are the man who drove the incomparable trotter Varenne, Giampaolo Minnucci (Italy), Santtu Raitala (Finland), Michael Nimczyk (Germany), Jaap Van Rijn (Netherlands), Mats Djuse (Sweden) and Pierre Vercruysse (France).
MacDonald won the series when it was held on home patch in Canada in 2017, while Vercruysee did the same in France back in 2013.
Those back again from the 2023 series are Orange, Raitala (fourth in 2023) and Nimczyk (fifth).
Jaap Van Rijn has big shoes to fill with his compatriot, Rick Ebbinge, having won the past two titles for The Netherlands in 2023 and 2019.
Orange has history on his side.
Four of the past five World Drivers’ Championship winners have come from the host country. Ebbinge (2023), MacDonald (2017), Dexter Dunn (2015) and Vercruysee (2013).
Go back further to 2011 and Jody Jamieson (Canada) and Corey Callahan (US) ran first and second in the US-based series.
It only makes sense the drivers competing on their own patch, knowing horses and the tracks, have a decided advantage.
"Of course it’s a help being here (NZ),” Orange said. “I know how much harder it was with the language barrier (in Europe) last time for me. And not knowing the form so much made it hard too. Knowing that here will hopefully make it easier and hopefully everything will work out.
"To represent your country at anything is a big achievement and hopefully I can do the fern (NZ’s symbol) proud.
“While being in NZ helps, it also brings a bit more pressure. hometown thing but there'll be a lot of support.
“But I know these tracks and most of the horses like the back of my hand, so I’m going to use that to my advantage.”
While the series covers four tracks and both NZ Islands, fittingly the last of the 20 heats will be held on the biggest stage.
There’s probably no bigger harness racing stage Down Under than the 25,000 or so fans who pack Addington in Christchurch for the iconic New Zealand Cup Day.
Our heroes of the sport deserve that.
Let’s hope it’s a close series and the result comes down to that last heat on the afternoon of November 11.
THE SCHEDULE
Sunday November 2: Kaikoura
Monday, November 3: Kaikoura
Wednesday, November 5: Cambridge
Friday, November 7: Addington (Christchurch)
Sunday, November 9: Winton
Tuesday, November 11: Addington
