An emerging horse racing hero will headline the field for the $300,000 first race of Hawke's Bay Racing's Spring Racing Carnival triple crown in Hastings on Saturday.
The warm favourite for the $300,000, 1499-metres Tarzino Trophy race, the feature of the Daffodil Raceday, is Imperatriz, a four-year-old mare boasting ninewins in 12 starts dating back to November 2020.
But the 10-race programme - which has a total of $830,000 in stakes, is much more than a race meeting, having doubled as a Daffodil Day fundraiser for the Cancer Society each year since 2014.
As well as on-course collections, money will be paid by the TAB at $2000 for any win by a jockey wearing the Daffodil Raceday colours, which will be worn by one jockey in each of the 10 races, and a percentage of turnover from Punters Club betting on the day.
The race day, with the first race at 11.50am, is part of a big weekend in Hawke's Bay with possibly the biggest challenge for the fans themselves if they want to watch both the big race and the Hawke's Bay Magpies' Ranfurly Shield defence 21km away at McLean Park, Napier, against Southland.
The weekend's smorgasbord of entertainment also includes:
- The first of the annual Taniwha Daffodils open days also starts at 9am on Saturday off State Highway 2 south of Waipukurau, and Cranford Hospice stages the first open day at its new site at Chesterhope, from 10am.
- Music is also a headline act this weekend with the 15th Waiata Maori Music Awards at Toitoi, Hastings, on Friday, from 7.30pm.
A win in the TAB's Daffodil Day colours for Kawi in the big race in 2016. Photo / NZME
- On Sunday, the Pukehou Trail Run commences at Kahotea Farm, Drumpeel Rd, at 9.30am.
- Napier man Bobby Spence's touch with prostate cancer sparked the Bike Expo, which will be held for a second time in the carpark of the former Tamatea Motor Lodge, now known as Bev Ridge's, in Napier on Sunday, from 12pm.
Spence says he got bored last year during eight weeks of treatment in Palmerston North and decided he wanted to "put something back", with all proceeds going to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, amid the coinciding Blue September prostate cancer and motorcycle safety awareness month campaigns.
Meanwhile, Imperatriz - already being rated New Zealand's best racehorse of the moment - is being prepared for the big stage of Australian Spring racing.
Owners and trainers will have a choice to be made between two October 29 races; the Empire Rose Stakes over 1600m at Flemington, Melbourne, for which she is already an advance favourite, and the $10 million Golden Eagle over 1500m at Rosehill, Sydney.
Returning to the scene of one of its few defeats – third place in last year's three-year-old fillies Gold Trail Stakes - Imperatriz is going for a sixth win in a row, having most recently won the 1200-metres Foxbridge Plate at Hamilton racecourse Te Rapa on August 27.
She'll be ridden by champion jockey Opie Bosson, who rode Melody Belle in 2019 when it became the only winner of the Triple Crown, which also includes the $300,000, 1600m Arrowfield Stud Plate on October 1 and the 2040m Livamol Classic, with its stake raised to $330,000.
Imperatriz isn't expected to race all three, but one challenging for the Triple Crown is grey Helena Baby, which has had 29 races for seven wins, including its last two starts.
Hastings trainer John Bary will be out to claim the race for a fourth time in 10 years, after two wins in a row by Callsign Mav before it left for Australia after last year's triumph, and the 2013 win by Survived.
On Saturday he races Spring Tide, a six-year-old with a career of 20 starts and six wins.
Stakes for the 10-race programme total $830,000.
The first is at11.50am and the trophy race the second-to-last, at 4.28pm.
