Maiden new year meeting

The Whangarei Racing Club's first meeting of the new year is at the Ruakaka racecourse tomorrow, with races set to start at 12.20pm.

The Interislander Summer Festival will see some talented youngsters going round.

The programme is dominated by maiden races, with a large contingent of locally trained horses amongst the nominations, including several having their first start.

These include from the Kenny and Lisa Rae stables' Copper Spur, Princess Leia and Madam Speaker, the latter bred and owned by Whangarei GP Dirk Oberholster, his wife Nicci and inlaws Les and Carolyn Donaldson.

Les Donaldson is an ex-president and now the patron of the racing club.

Absolut Excelencia will also be having his first start for the stables, an Australian import whose majority owners Gordon and Sharon Wardrop will be travelling up from Bluff in the deep south to attend the meeting.

This week, the Rae part-owned-and-trained Flash Hapi took out the Lindauer 1400 at Ellerslie on New Year's Day, while Castle Heights from the Logan Stables ran a very close fourth in the Group 2 City of Auckland Cup, a great effort for a horse who would not have relished the ground conditions.

The Logans also have a couple of first starters at tomorrow's meet, including Lucky Tonight, Ishimine, and Call Me Capo, who is part-owned by Shayne Heape and Garry Hannam who became involved in racing after winning an auction for a share in a horse that Donna Logan had donated to the Northland Rugby Union as a fundraiser.

That horse was Fibulater, which visited the winners' circle for the Spire Summer Mile in January 2008, at which point Heape and Hannam found themselves infected by the horse-racing bug - which ultimately led to ownership in Uncle Shayne, now stakes-placed in 10 of his 12 starts.

Murray Darroch and Ray Smith, part owners of Castle Heights, also have shares, with Heape and Hannam, in Call Me Capo who fronts up in the 91.6 More FM 1400m set to go at 2.40pm.

Another group of interesting racing enthusiasts share in the ownership of El Capitano.

El Capitano was bred by Whangarei's John and Karen Sprague, and is owned by a diverse group made up of Peter Woods, Ruakaka publican, George Simon, Northern Racing commentator, Kelly Whitehouse, meat exporter, and Tony Clarke who owns a supermarket in Hastings.

El Capitano is set to go round at 3.25pm in the Kamo Club 1400m race and Donna Logan believes he is a big chance in this field.

Entertainment includes a free children's area, skydivers, kids 'n' ponies cart races, punters club and a giant-screen TV.

Gates open at 10am and entrance to the course is $10 per person, with under-18s free.

Note: The advertised harness racing meeting is no longer running on the day.