Auckland Reactor Dominates In NZ

Auckland Reactor confirmed exactly what all the fuss was about in Friday afternoon's $279,314 Woodlands New Zealand Free-For-All (2000m).

The Mark Purdon-trained-and-driven champ showed why he has many of Australasian harness racing's most respected judges searching for seldom-used superlatives with a stunning win in the Group 1 event.

At his first shot at Barastoc Grand Circuit level, the champion four-year-old carved out a mind-blowing 54.4-second last half to put away a quality field of rivals headed by New Zealand Cup winner Changeover. And he did it with ridiculous ease in a manner that came as a surprise to most.

The expectation was that from barrier four the son of Mach Three would shoot to the front and attempt to dictate the terms, but instead Purdon gave him time to find his feet and in the early stages had only one behind him.

After finding himself in the one-out-two-back position with Changeover leading the way, Purdon shot his star charge around to sit outside his big danger as the field headed down the big back straight the final time.

From that point there was a sense that Purdon felt he had it in his keeping. While he waited until the field straightened for home before serving it up to Changeover, once he did the star five-year-old had no answer.

Auckland Reactor powered to the lead 250m from home before careering away to win by five metres in a 1:54 mile rate from the fast-finishing Awesome Armbro with Changeover three metres back in third spot.

The victory extended Auckland Reactor's unbeaten winning run to 14 races and the NZ$168,100 share of the purse lifted his earnings to NZ$535,043.

Purdon has accepted an invitation to contest the next leg of the Grand Circuit, the $500,000 Group 1 SEW-Eurodrive Miracle Mile, at Sydney's Harold Park on Friday, November 28.

It will then be down to Melbourne for the $375,000 Group 1 SEW-Eurodrive Victoria Cup at Moonee Valley on Saturday, December 20.

Auckland Reactor, whose connections include Canadian owners Peter Heffering, Tom Kyron, Bill Loyens, Doug Millard, Irv Storfer and Dr. Michael Wilson, may head to North America for a 2009 campaign.

To view the video replay of the race, click here.
(please note that the video requires an external media player like Windows Media Player to view)

(with files from Harness Racing Australia)