Diamonds Day Features to be Raced This Month

The Invercargill Harness Racing Club will host a fantastic day of harness racing at Ascot Park Raceway in Invercargill next Thursday, 29 October. The meeting is a twilight event, starting at 3.00pm and will feature the running of several of the region’s premier harness races that were not held at the conclusion of last season due to Covid restrictions in place at the time.

The annual Diamonds Day harness race meeting, one of the premier events on the Southern Harness Racing calendar, was scheduled to be held on Sunday 26 April but it could not be held. Instead, the major Group 3 races scheduled for that day, the Alabar Southern Supremacy Stakes Final, the Macca Lodge/Nevele R Stud Southland Oaks Final and the Diamond Creek Farm Classic will now take place next Thursday (29 October). The Southern Belle Series Final, originally scheduled for Winton on 18 April, was another casualty of the Covid crisis and it will also be run on this date.

While the Oaks and the Supremacy are traditionally races for 3-year-olds and the Diamond Creek Farm Classic is for 2-year-olds while the Southern Belle Final is normally for 4-year-olds, the races will be held for the horses that would have been eligible on the dates the races were originally scheduled for.

The races are the culmination of several of the major harness race series in the south and despite the delay there are some colossal clashes between some top stars of the track looming on 29 October at Ascot Park Raceway, Invercargill.

The twilight start to the event will make it viable for patrons to attend the event to enjoy the high quality entertainment.

Admission to the course on the day will be free.