Race sponsors drive the quinella at Motukarara

Race sponsorship is an integral part of making the overall harness racing landscape a good one.

And many committee members of clubs around the country will tell you that attracting new sponsorship is only getting tougher by the day.

The Banks Peninsula Trotting Club do a fantastic job of selling their race sponsorships at their annual awards night with support from the local community and those from within the industry.

The first meeting for the club this season was a fine example of that, and none were better than in the fourth on the card, ‘The Ben Hope & Korbyn Newman Junior Driver’s Trot’.

Hope & Newman are two of the country’s leading junior drivers and it’s not uncommon to see their names featured prominently on race day. But for the second year running, they sponsored a junior driver’s race and had the unique distinction of running the quinella in the race in their names.

Heck, not even Mark Purdon achieved the feat when he won the Easter Cup with All Star’s as the co-sponsor.

Jokes aside, Newman had the Jim & James Geddes trained Sods Law (Muscle Mass) in front early after pinging the tapes and crossing down easily to the markers. He remained there until halfway down the back straight when he handed up to Ben Hope on the Greg & Nina Hope trained Tom Brady (Muscle Hill).

The pair were headed halfway up the straight by the plunge horse, Shandon Bells (Pegasus Spur), but withstood the challenge and fought back gamely to make for a unique photo opportunity in the Motukarara birdcage.

Newman and Sods Law were the winners at the line by a head over Hope and Tom Brady with a further head back to Shandon Bells and Mark Hurrell in third.

SODS LAW REPLAY

Interviewed by Nigel Armstrong of Harness Racing Unhinged after the race, Hope was full of smiles having finished at the rear of the field in the inaugural ‘Hope/Newman showcase’.

“It was good, last year when Korbyn and I sponsored a race we were last and second to last, so get the quinella, it would have been nice to win it, but it was good all the same.

“It came about because we were at the awards night for the club and I was there accepting the prize for leading junior driver,” said Hope.

“Korbyn put my name down (for sponsorship) as a bit of a joke and said if I’m doing it, you better come in with me. Last year we called it the ‘Up The Rabbitohs Mobile Pace’ and they lost last night so it was probably a good thing we didn’t call it that this year,” he laughed.

“It’s great to be able to support the club,” he added.

Newman was similarly ecstatic after picking up his 58th driving success and 11th on the year.

“Yeah, it was good, I got on the right one today and it was a good fresh up run really. It’s always good to sponsor a race and give back to the club, and great to get the w,” he said.

It was a phenomenal training effort by the Geddes team to have Sods Law winning fresh up without a public trial or workout under his belt.

The son of Muscle Mass had been unsighted since April and prior to that, had got by on a steady diet of racing having started 70 times in the 24 months prior without a trial or workout either.

To say Sods Law thrives on racing would be an understatement, the eight-year-old gelding lined up at least once in every month on the calendar for two years prior to resuming as a winner this afternoon!

“He seems well and pain free at the moment and he’s a happy horse,” said his co-trainer, James Geddes.

“I took him down to my neighbour Jamie Gameson’s place last week and gave him a decent last half and his heart rate was close enough to where I normally have it when he is racing, so I was happy to have him here on race day. It was a great drive by Korbyn, he did exactly the right thing,” he said.

The win takes Sods Law to nine career victories from 103 starts with 22 placings and pushed him over the six-figure mark in stakes earnings having now banked $104,561.

It was his third victory in just seven starts at the Motukarara Raceway with six of his nine wins having come on his favoured grass track surface.

For complete race results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink