Republican Party wins second Auckland Cup with powerhouse performance
Michael Guerin • January 1st, 2026 8:39 AM • 4 min read
There are a lot of qualities a horse needs to be able to do to bridge the gap between good and great.
Republican Party can do just about all of them now.
The little horse with the big heart made it back to back Trillian Trust Auckland Cups at Alexandra Park on Wednesday night, capping a wonderful 2025 for horse, owners, trainers Cran and Chrissie Dalgety and their son and junior driver Carter.
Say it quick and it sounds simple: Republican Party stepped well, trailed, strode to the lead and held on in this Auckland Cup.
Punters are happy, Horse of the Year title sewn up (as if it wasn’t already) and multi bets landed.
Easy.
But of course what Republican Party did on Wednesday night is not easy.
If you want to make the long trip from being good to our best, which he very clearly now is, and then one day great, which may be to come, then you need a deep and full tool box of talents.
You need resilience. Republican Party showed he has that after he got spanked fair and square in the New Zealand Cup but turned up to every fight since, winning Group 1s at either end of the country.
You can count on one hand horses who have done anything like that in their entire careers and yet Republican Party has lit up Invercargill and Alexandra Park in the same fortnight two years running.
The really good ones need manners too.
Republican Party has always had those but now he is a six-year-old bull his mind could be excused for wandering.
Yet on this stormy night when others, namely second favourite Merlin galloped, Republican Party mistimed his run at the tapes yet still paced away smoothly to secure the trail behind Sooner The Bettor, knowing the lead would be there when he came knocking.
Once Carter gave him just enough rein to cruise to the top he still then needed to relax and store enough energy to launch when the challengers came.
Merlin did at the 1000m mark and Dalgety put the foot down with such intensity Republican Party unleashed a 53.8 second last 800m on a sticky, yucky Alexandra Park, a scarcely believable time in the conditions.
Republican Party wins back-to-back Auckland Cups
Yes, if you want to be one of the horses people remember, you need speed. 53.8 seconds for the last 800m in the slush is speed of the like we haven’t seen often before.
So we have a horse who loves his job so much you can take him anywhere, a horse with manners and a horse with blazing speed.
But they still need that other thing, that thing that the horses we love have: will to win.
At the 100m in this wet and weird Auckland Cup a former Cup winner Akuta, trained and driven by a genius, came flying at Republican Party.
Punters winced, the Dalgetys did too whether in the stand or in the sulky.
But the special ones find more when they have to and just when Akuta looked likely to pull of a miracle Republican Party found his reserve tank.
In the wet, after an incredibly long year and after 3150m, the Bettors Delight blood kicked in once again and Republican Party proved what a magnificent beast he is as he held the challengers at bay.
Make no mistake, 2025 in New Zealand, when those pesky Australians haven’t been here, has been Republican Party’s year.
He has been brave, brilliant, resilient, perfectly-mannered and shown that will to win.
He is our best harness horse with one thing left to prove, one box left to tick.
Republican Party will get that chance at Melton on Valentine’s Day, which doubles as Hunter Cup night.
If he can go there, far from home, and beat Aussie heroes Leap To Fame and Kingman to restore New Zealand’s pacing pride, he will become a champion.
How we remember Republican Party in years to come will be decided in 2026.
This article also appears on the NZ Herald website. Click here to to read the article there
