There have been plenty of moves in this week’s rankings for the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup and the Renwick Farms Dominion Trot, to be held at Addington Raceway on Tuesday, November 11.
Helped by the fact that the Western Australian pacers Minstrel and Heza Sport were withdrawn, Renegade has been the biggest improver. He moves up five spots following his second to We Walk By Faith in Friday night’s feature pace at Addington (Commodore Hotel Handicap Pace). The Brendon Hill-trained four-year-old is now ranked 16th, one place outside the cut-off for the country’s biggest race. He was 21st last week.
Minstrel and Heza Sport were ninth and 13th in last week’s rankings. The Greg and Skye Bond-trained pair will now be aimed at the $450,000 Group 1 Western Australian Pacing Cup in December.
Their defections have prompted a re-shuffle of horses ranked 10-15 including Sooner The Bettor who’s up two places to 12th. He will line up in Friday’s Holmes D G at Alexandra Park against Merlin and co with the winner gaining automatic entry to the Cup.
We Walk By Faith improves one to ninth and Lakelsa goes from 24th to 20th following her excellent win in Friday night’s Woodlands Mares’ Spring Sprint Series Mobile Pace.
Father Time was another impressive winner on Friday night in the Greg and Leigh Ayers Looking Forward To Cup Week Handicap Trot. It’s his second win in a row for the trainer-driver combo of Kevin Townley and Tim Williams and has seen his ranking improve from 27th to 23rd.
The Australian-based Gus goes up one place to 10th and swaps places with Love N The Port after finishing third at Menangle on Saturday night.
Tectonic and Kawhi have both been withdrawn.
To see this week’s rankings click here.