Last year's winner of the New Zealand Trotting Cup, Changeover, lined up at Addington Raceway again on Tuesday despite controversy surrounding its trainer.
However, the race was won by Monkey King, with Bettor's Strike second and Smoken Up third. Changeover finished down the track.
On Monday Changeover's trainer Geoff Small was disqualified from training for six months for what was described as "a petulant act detrimental to the sport", but the ban doesn't take effect until later this month.
Harness Racing New Zealand says the charges against Small arose from a race meeting at which the trainer was told by a vet that Changeover could not race.
Harness Racing's general manager Edward Rennell says Small then abused the vet and removed another of his horses, All Tiger, from racing for no legitimate reason.
Mr Rennell says it was a petulant response to the scratching of Changeover, which had been removed on animal welfare grounds as the horse had reinjured a graze on its left rump.
He says the sport's independent Judicial Control Authority found Small guilty of an act detrimental to harness racing and disqualified him for six months starting on 23 November.
