Race day raises $20,000 for cancer

The owners of Kawi, ridden by Leith Innes in Race 7, celebrate victory at the Makfi Challenge Stakes Daffodil Raceday at the Hawke's Bay Racing Centre, Hastings Racecourse. Photo / Duncan Brown.

The keen racing sense of new Hawke's Bay Racing general manager Butch Castles boosted the Cancer Society coffers by $3000 at the Daffodil Day Makfi Challenge Stakes Premier Raceday in Hastings on Saturday.

Four days earlier, and less than a week into the job, Mr Castles had had to select a winner for each of the nine races, with the TAB deciding to donate $1000 to the society's Daffodil Day Appeal for each one he got right.

Jockeys on all nine picks carried especially produced silks in the colours of the Cancer Society appeal, and three of the horses won.

Mr Castles nailed it with favourites Sacred Master in Race 2, The Bold One in Race 4 and Kawi in Race 7, the $200,000 Group 1 Makfi Challenge Stakes.

The Raffles Dancers Syndicate, which races Sacred Master donated $1000, Kawi jockey Leith Innes also contributed $1000, and Aucklanders David and Angela Paykel contributed $3000 after they won the third race with three-year-old filly Serious Satire - the name tickling the fancy of one or two punters who noted that among the also-rans was a colt called Amalgamation.

The race won by Serious Satire was sponsored by Vermaire Racing, a horse ownership and racing company set up by New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum, who was a popular guest as Daffodil Day races ambassador.

Mr Castles said the donations in lieu of gate admission from about 5000 racegoers - commonly regarded as the day's biggest crowd since equine superstar Sunline celebrated her last New Zealand appearance with victory in the Challenge Stakes in 2002 - are expected to boost the races' Daffodil Day contribution to about $20,000.

"To have Kawi win the big Group 1 race in the colours of the Cancer Society was a fairytale really," he said.

It was the first day of the Bostock New Zealand Spring Racing Carnival, the second day on September 19 clashing with what is currently scheduled to be the Hawke's Bay Magpies' sixth Ranfurly Shield defence of the season, against Bay of Plenty, in Napier.

With Saturday's win over 1400 metres behind him, Kawi is expected back to tilt at the Windsor Park Classic, with the hope of going on to become the first horse to win the Spring Carnival's triple crown, in the Livamol Classic on October 3.