Sausages prove winner at races

Race-goers lined up to grab a bite of the winning sausage at the inaugural Woodville-Pahiatua Race Day sausage festival on Saturday.

Event organiser John Shannon said more than 2000 people attended the races in Woodville, with many queuing up to taste the sausages.

"It was the biggest day at the Woodville Races since the 80s.

"People were three and four deep, trying to get at these sausages," Mr Shannon said.

Mr Shannon said the aim of the event was to promote consumption of nutritious sausages. "Most commercial sausages these days are made from minced up chicken bones. Go and look at the ingredients list for beef sausages and the first ingredient will be chicken.

"We want people to eat the real stuff."

Four butchers participated by handing out free samples, including Scotty's Meats of Martinborough, Waipawa Butchery, Whariti Meats of Woodville and Wai-Ora Lamb of Fielding.

Whariti Meats took out the competition, decided by public vote, with its beef and blue cheese sausage.

Owner Russell Hunter said he was surprised because he had only been making the winning sausage for about a month.

"The beef and blue cheese hit the nail on the head.

"We managed to take out first prize, it was awesome because we had some pretty stiff competition there," he said.

Mr Hunter said Whariti Meats would defend their title of "best sausage" in next year's competition.

Mr Shannon hoped the event would grow next year with six or seven butchers participating, and said he had already had some interest.