It was a memorable day at Ruakaka Race Track for Waikato-based trainer Graeme Rogerson, who celebrated his 2000th New Zealand-trained winner at Whangarei Racing Club's first meeting of 2010/2011.
Rogerson's 2000th winner came yesterday when Pocket Diary charged home with Opie Bosson on board in race five, the Fell Engineering 1200m,
worth $7000 in stakes.
What made the milestone even more special for the visiting trainer, was he had his first winner at Ruakaka when the track first opened in 1974, club manager Karen Houlihan said.
"We had something ready to make a presentation to Graeme just in case he got there ... and we were hoping he would reach it," she said.
Rogerson usually has some of his G. A. Rogerson Stables charges racing at the Ruakaka meetings - he is a great supporter of the club, of which he has been made an honorary member, Houlihan said.
Rogerson has raced horses, in both gallops and harness racing, with success in United States, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. In total he has had 3800 winners.
About 1000 punters turned out at Ruakaka - not bad considering the showery, cool weather, Houlihan said. The sand-based track was in pristine condition with the recent rain, and perfect for the two-year-olds running in the first leg of the Westbury Stud Triple Crown Point Series, the Cecconi@Westbury Stud 2YO 1000m worth $10,000.
Having never been raced before, Kahala, ridden by Cameron Lammas and trained by Pukekohe Park's Cydne Evans, surprised everyone coming home in first place and paying a handy $26.70 to win.
Goldminer with Matthew Cameron ($4.40) on board and Patsy O'Reilly, ridden by Danielle Johnson ($5.10), paid a healthy trifecta of $4883.40.
There were enough nominations to fill 11 races, rather than the usual 10.
