Adrian Stanley and Hannah Kettlety of Woburn Farm  Photo: NZTBA

The idea behind Australia’s the Everest and the Pegasus World Cup in the states has caught on in NZ, but at a slightly smaller scale. Back in August the inaugural ‘Naki’ Challenge was run at New Plymouth Raceway as a special condition maiden with $101,000 up for grabs. The event was such a success they have brought it back for a summer renewal.

Like the Everest and Pegasus, 14 race slots are sold to industry professionals who then negotiate deals for horses to fill their slots. While the Platinum Homes Taranaki Summer Challenge is only worth $80,000 NZD in comparison to the Everest’s $13 million AUD prize, it has attracted some excited participants.

Woburn Farm’s Adrian Stanley was an easy investor, as he also sponsors the 2-year-old Classic on the day.

“A few mates have a WhatsApp punters chat,” Stanley said. “It’s made up of a group of young guys who are passionate about the racing industry and want to make a difference in the industry where we can. I am sponsoring the 2-year-old race down there and came up with the idea of buying a slot in the challenge race.  I’ve syndicated it out so there are 10 of us involved in 10% shares so it’s a bit of fun.”

Since investing in their slot, the punters club went back-and-forth on who the best horse would be to represent the group before finally securing a deal with impressive last up Hastings winner Vigor Winner.

“We were always going through and thinking about horses we could all agree would be a good chance to get into the race,” he said. “Vigor Winner came out and won at Hastings and caught the eye of a lot of us on the chat.”

Spotting the horse was the easy part. The next step was for the group to strike a deal with the connections.

“We approached Lauren and Mickey Brennan first and they put it to the owners,” Stanley explained. “At first, the owners turned us down and said they were going to go to the Group 3 at Auckland. They agreed that on the chance they drew wide they would scratch, and we could have the horse for our slot. They ended up drawing wide and decided to go for the Taranaki Summer Challenge. We were very lucky to secure the horse.”

Unfortunately, Vigor Winner drew barrier 12 for Saturday’s big race at New Plymouth, but that hasn’t stopped the group consisting of trainers, young bloodstock reps, and stud employees from coming out in full force to support their slot-holder. With high level positions within the industry they see their group as an opportunity to sit around and hash out ideas about where NZ thoroughbred racing is going and how they want to secure a future for generations to come.

 “We have a table booked for 10 people so it will be good fun,” he said. “The banter has already started between the trainers on the chat. This group has been a great forum to bounce ideas off each other when it comes to the state of the industry. Most of us use thoroughbred racing as our primary business and livelihood so it’s important we try to make a difference where we can. It would be great to win with everyone Saturday, but it’s just going to be a fun day.”