Marketplace Treading Different Path

While Got The Chocolates (NZ) (Art Major) and The Lazarus Effect (NZ) (Lazarus) have been making waves in the north over the last month, fellow NZB Standardbred graduate Marketplace (NZ) (Bettor’s Delight) has been scoring goals closer to home.

The multiple Group One winner has remained in Canterbury where he has won both of his starts this year, including at Addington Raceway last Friday where he took out the Group Two Superstars Championship (2600m).

In the hands of regular reinsman Craig Ferguson, Marketplace burnt off the gate from his ace draw to maintain his advantage on the pegs and assumed the early pacemaker role. He was left unchallenged up front and won more comfortably than his three-quarter of a length victory suggested.

Following Marketplace’s continued success in the south and Got The Chocolates and The Lazarus Effects burgeoning rivalry in the north, which netted the pair Group One success, New Zealand harness racing fans are licking their lips in anticipation of what awaits when the trio meet.

However, that won’t be until spring, with Got The Chocolates and The Lazarus Effect heading for well-deserved breaks, while a Queensland campaign is in the offing for Marketplace geared towards the Group One Rising Sun (2138m) at Albion Park on July 4.

Marketplace is out of five-win Christian Cullen mare Cullen Who (NZ) (Christian Cullen), who is also the dam of stakes winner Who’s Delight (NZ) (Bettor’s Delight).

Marketplace was offered through Barron Bloodstock’s 2023 National Yearling Sale draft in Christchurch where he was purchased by Phil and Glenys Kennard for $100,000.

He has now won 13 of his 23 starts and has earned more than $968,000 in prizemoney.