Presenting the dressed rug to the owners of the Armbro Invasion gelding, Harnesslink's owner/manager John Curtin said his Drury-based company was proud to be involved with Franklin Trotting Club sponsorship.

"Sponsorship is what makes the industry tick. Without sponsors there would be no harness racing. We (Harnesslink) are proud to help out at the Franklin Trotting Club - our local meeting. We all hope you log onto our website which we regard as the best and always improving harness racing website in the world," Curtin said.

Established on October 10, 2002, Harnesslink continues to grow both nationally and internationally and because of that growth Curtin said the company liked to give back to the racing community.

"We have a close relationship with the Franklin Trotting Club producing racebooks and generally promoting the club via stories and photographs and covering their workouts, trials and race meetings," said Curtin of JC International and Auckland Reactor fame.

When Harnesslink was launched in 2002 there were only a handful of other harness racing websites and Curtin now believes Harnesslink has been in a unique position to have watched the harness racing community embrace the technological world.

A lot has happened since last year even. We have launched Harnesslink TV, Harness Racing Blog, and had a complete design overhaul in March last year. We also live stream all the major races including full coverage of the nine Harness Jewels races at Ashburton Raceway on Saturday week (May 30).

"We have also seen massive visitor growth this year - rising from an average monthly readership of 80,000 to around 140,000 at the moment. But again without our sponsors we would not exist," Curtin said.

Meanwhile Cornishman and driver Reid won the 2700m standing start trot feature in 3:30.1 (mile rate: 2:05.2) with final 800m and 400m sectionals of 61.5 and 30.2 seconds. Paradise Earl (Todd Mitchell) and Extasia (Glen Wolfenden) were one-and-a-half lengths and three lengths back in second and third.