Morrison chasing Harness 5000 success at home
Matt Markham - Raceform • December 18th, 2025 3:57 PM
A little home-track advantage may well go a long way for John Morrison this weekend.
Morrison is based at Ashburton Racecourse and will line up three of his own runners during the inaugural Harness 5000 there on Sunday, hoping to make the most of a short float ride of a few hundred metres from his base on the home bend of the Ashburton track.
All three have realistic winning hopes in their respective races too, despite three very different preparations leading into the $60,000 Listed features.
Last-start winner Amass is the logical pick of the trio. His victory at Addington last week over the likes of Cocktails And Caviar, Lester and Song Sung Blue was good enough to see him probably win this week’s race 99 times out of 100. However, a draw on the outside of the second row, for a horse with good gate speed, dampens the prospects somewhat.
“He’s a good horse when he’s on his game and he showed that last week,” Morrison said.
“He placed on Cup Day too in a very good field, so he’s got the motor. The draw hurts, it changes things a little bit for him, but he also won at Addington not that long ago coming from last on the home bend so he doesn’t have to be up on the speed.”
Originally trained down in the deep south, Amass arrived to Morrison early this year, winning three times and placing on four occasions in 16 starts.
While he should have most of the front row covered in terms of ability, Teds Legacy, Kiss The Girls and Sky Patrol on the back line alongside him will prove worthy adversaries.
“He’s good enough to win. We might have to do some work at some point, but he can do that. There’s a few nice ones there too, so it’ll come down to luck.”
Untapped trotter Royal Rock steps out in the four-year-old trotting geldings’ final alongside Donna’s Boy, Stone Cold and Bring On The Muscle, but Morrison is expecting a much better version to turn up than last time out at Methven.
“He just wasn’t quite right, so we backed off him for a bit and got him back up. He had a small hitout at Methven last weekend, mainly to get cleared from the mobile, but he showed good gate speed there so we’ve got that up our sleeve.
“He might not be quite as good as some of the big guns in that field, but he won’t be far away.”
The most intriguing of the Morrison trio is By Chance, another former Southlander who debuts for the stable. He too was at Methven on Sunday, turning in a very impressive victory in quick time.
“He’s got a bit of speed, there’s no doubting that. I’m still learning a bit about him, but he feels like he’s got a bit of a motor so hopefully he can run a big race.”
As well as his own three runners, Morrison will take eight outside drives at the meeting with decent each-way chances on Woodlea Rocks in the first as well as trotters Aspirational Dream and the evergreen Rachmaninov.
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