Once again, in perfect weather this time, a good crowd in excess of 2000 racegoers turned up to the annual Stratford Trotting Club race meeting at Te Kapua Park to witness some exciting racing (if a little controversial in the main race) with the kids enjoying free games and competitions courtesy of Taranaki Electricity Trust.
With good even fields on the card, close racing was in prospect and that's how it proved with winning margins of less than half a length in all but two of the races.
One of these was the feature race on the card, the Revital Fertiliser Stratford Cup, won by the in-form Cambridge visitor Tyler Maguire (no relation to last year's winner Murphy Maguire).
Trained by David Marshall and driven by his 19-year-old son Kyle, Tyler Maguire scored a relatively easy win by two lengths in a race that saw a number of runners hampered by a skirmish earlier in the race.
This year the club, through the sponsorship of RD1 Nutrition, put up a $3000 prize for the top trainer on the day and David Marshall again featured in this, sharing the award with Foxton trainer Peter Skaife.