A few tweaks have been made to the Forbury Park sprint series which returns to the Dunedin track on Thursday.
The 1200m races were launched at Forbury Park in December but, despite early interest from trainers, the format of two heats and a final on the same night did not receive support and just one race was held.
The series will now consist of a $6000 heat at each of the next four Forbury Park meetings - this Thursday, April 17, May 1 and May 9 - before the $10,000 final on May 22.
Forbury Park Trotting Club general manager Zelda Jordan was surprised by the lack of support in December.
''We hear that people want to have some different product to put their horses in and give them a different chance but we didn't get the support,'' Jordan said.
''We think there's still merit in the distance and we thought there are some horses out there who would benefit from having that distance available to them.
''So we thought we'd give it another try. We don't want to shelve it without giving it a fair chance.''
The change appears to have worked, with 16 nominations received for the 1200m heat on Thursday.
The series is open to all 4yr-old or older pacers in the c1 grade.
The original concept last year proposed $5000 heats with an $8000 final, but the club has invested more stake money in the series for this edition.
''We wanted to make it something people want to be part of. A c1 horse can win some pretty good stakes and Forbury doesn't run a stake like that for c1 horses too often.''
The popular claimers' championship race series has also been slightly reworked, with increased opportunities for the more expensive claimers.
Last year, the price limit on claimers increased incrementally each week, leaving just one heat for the claimers with a $10,000 price tag.
This year, the first two heats will be for claimers worth up to $7500 then three heats with a $10,000 price limit before the final is held on June 27.
''We want to allow those $10,000 horses to race more than once through the series so we've done a few tweaks with the claiming amounts.''
The claiming series has gained momentum in recent years with solid numbers of horses nominated for last year's series.
''It's become something that's been supported quite well and we've got some pretty key trainers who help us out with that,'' Jordan said.
''We're one of the few clubs who can pull a claiming series together and the winter programme is just perfect for it.''
• Three Australian horses have received invitations to the Harness Jewels at Cambridge in May as Harness Racing New Zealand looks to spread the appeal of New Zealand's biggest age-group race day.
Victorian pacer Guaranteed, New South Wales mare Frith and Victorian trotter Blitzthemcalder - all 4yr-olds - were officially invited yesterday, with the invitees for the other six categories to be announced in the coming weeks.
