Vicki Pascoe with her significant contribution to racing award, at Te Aroha racecourse Photo: Juliette Drysdale

Vicki Pascoe’s significant contribution to racing was celebrated on Breeders’ Stakes day at Te Aroha.

Pascoe is the latest recipient of a New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) Service Award.

The awards were introduced by NZTR this season, with the aim of acknowledging people who have   made valuable contributions to thoroughbred racing, usually but not necessarily in voluntary roles, and often with limited formal recognition.

Pascoe has had a lifelong interest in horses and the thoroughbred industry and joined the NZ Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association (NZTBA) – and became a broodmare owner – as a teenager.

She has given lengthy and significant service to the NZTBA, at both a district and national level, with the education and training of young people in the racing industry being a real passion.

She joined the Waikato TBA branch when she and her husband Terry moved to Taupiri, more than 30 years ago, and set up an agistment business under the Club Med Lodge banner.

Vicki became a committee member of the Waikato TBA branch in the early 1990s and in 2003 became the branch’s first female president. She has been a NZTBA councillor since 2008 – when she became just the second woman to join the council – and is now a member of the council executive committee.

She has been an energetic and resolute advocate for the equine education and training sector and is on the Board of the NZ Equine Education Trust and the NZTBA rep on the Equine and Racing Industry Participation Group (IPG).

Vicki and Terry raced and bred the Group I winner Honor Bound, who was trained at Te Aroha and ran fourth in the 2002 NZ Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes, before winning the Easter Handicap at Ellerslie at her next start.

“Vicki’s passion and enthusiasm for the industry stands out and we are delighted to acknowledge her work through our Service Awards,” NZTR Chief Executive, Bernard Saundry, said.