Countdown to the 2008 Karaka Million
3 January 2008
The heat has gone on two-year-olds around the country as they jostle to make the starting line-up in the first one million dollar Karaka Million at Ellerslie on Sunday 27 January.
The NZ Herald Christmas Carnival at Ellerslie played host to one of the most lucrative and hotly contested juvenile races of the season, the $75,000 Group 3 Stella Artois Eclipse Stakes (1200m) on New Year's Day, with eight of the eleven starters eligible to earn money towards a place in the fourteen-horse field.
With winner Lady Alberton (Golan - Alberton Star) not entered in the Karaka Million, it was placegetters Maureen Dorothy (Spartacus - Avelina) and San Bernardino (Gold Mine - Miss Katella) who benefitted from the stakes on offer. Third place was enough to give San Bernardino the edge on the 336 eligible Karaka Million contenders, overtaking Vincent Mangano (No Excuse Needed - Rationable) to now lead the current order of entry.
The $100,000 Group 2 Ford Wakeful Challenge Stakes (1200m) on 19 January at Trentham is the richest race for two-year-olds still to be contested in the lead up to the big event, with ten other two-year-old fixtures around the country giving the chance to earn valuable prize money. Click here for the full list of two-year-old races throughout January (supplied by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing).
The Karaka Million Order of Entry is published on the New Zealand Bloodstock website and will be updated daily between now and the 27 January.