Sheriff was the 3yr-old in charge at Addington last night with his authorative win in the group 1 New Zealand Derby.
The Nigel McGrath trained 3yr-old nosed out Pat’s Delight to win the $200,000 2600m feature in national record time of 3.05.4. That time set a new all-comers mark for 2600m, eclipsing Vincent’s 3.06.0 winning time in last year’s race.
It was the ultimate derby redemption for Sheriff’s driver, Blair Orange.
The pair had been an unlucky third in the Northern Derby behind Chase Auckland.
Orange was frank in his assessment of his Northern drive in his post New Zealand Derby television interview last night.
"To be blunt, I stuffed it up in the Great Northern Derby and it’s just great to be able to award the owners with a victory," Orange said.
"Nigel has never won this race and neither have I."
Orange produced a brilliant tactical drive. He moved Sheriff out to put him in front of the Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen-trained favourites, Anthem and Sicario, in the three-wide train with a lap to run.
Pat’s Delight was treated to an equally brilliant Dexter Dunn drive and looked to hit the lead in the home straight, but Sheriff clinched victory on the line.
Leading northern trotter Speeding Spur won a bizarrely run
group 1 New Zealand Trotting Championship in which many of the field galloped.
The New Zealand Trotting Derby, New Zealand Welcome Stakes and the Superstars Championship were won by Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen-trained runners Luby Lou, Another Masterpeice and More The Better, respectively.
Reigning Otago harness horse of the year Eamon Maguire dead-heated an undercard race with Alta Orlando. An Auckland campaign including the country’s leading 4yr-old races is being considered for the Graeme Anderson-trained pacer.
