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.
