Last week’s deadline meant this column was written and sent off to editor Liz Whelan prior to Danielle Johnson writing her name in the history books at Te Aroha.

It was wonderful to see her feature on mainstream TV news that night, with Guy Heveldt interviewing Danielle’s dad Peter, another member of the illustrious 1000-club, and plenty of emotion on display.  In typical fashion, Danielle was quickly off in pursuit of her next target, adding a further three wins to her tally for the day.

A public pat on the back for all those involved in bringing together the race day at Te Aroha, which was held under Covid alert level 2 conditions.  By all accounts, things were meticulously organised and there was wide recognition from industry participants regarding the need to adhere to the protocols in place for the day.  Top marks for confidence too, they also had a trophy and bottle of wine ready and waiting for Danielle Johnson’s 1000^th winner and the presentation was made with those involved wearing masks and bumping elbows!

The past weekend provided some great highlights, which may have helped some untangle the punting puzzles of the Vodafone Derby and Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup.  We will be nervously watching and hoping Auckland remains in its current Alert Level One, along with the rest of the country.

In addition to local racing, the Kiwis were also flying the flag across the Tasman with the outstanding Probabeel stamping her authority in the Futurity Stakes, her third Group One success in Australia.  Within an hour another Waikato Stud product, Aegon, maintained his unbeaten record with a dominant performance in the Group Two Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill.

It is worth noting that Aegon, in the care of Murray Baker’s son Bjorn, did his final prep for this race on the Warwick Farm polytrack.  The son of Sacred Falls was also worked on the Cambridge synthetic leading into his Karaka Million 3YO win, so he is rapidly becoming a pin-up boy for the track.

With such fabulous racing on offer over the past month we can expect the TAB NZ performance to continue with its positive trend.  Last Friday TAB NZ released its latest monthly trading update for the current season and the highlights for January. 

Of note, was record turnovers on several meetings across the summer carnival, most notably New Year’s Day at Ellerslie, with turnover of $6.7m, up $1.5m on the previous year.  NZCIS Wellington Cup Day achieved turnover of $5.5m, while the NZB Karaka Million night at Ellerslie provided turnover of $4.9m.  The full report can be read at www.tabnz.org/news