Gold Fever grips Matamata

‘‘Gold Fever and Summer Passage were two of six Matamata-trained winners on the ninerace programme.’’

Ideal summer weather, a perfect track and quality fields combined to make Matamata’s biggest raceday of the year one to remember.

A capacity crowd flocked to the Matamata racecourse on Saturday for the J Swap Contractors Matamata Breeders’ Stakes meeting and no-one was left disappointed by the action on the track nor the style on show in the Tuscany Road Fashion in the Field.

The day’s headline race, the $100,000 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes, was won by one of the strong local contingent, Gold Fever.

It was a first in Matamata’s flagship race for co-trainer Jamie Richards, but it marked the fourth for his Te Akau Racing partner Stephen Autridge to go with the wins by Bayremah, Maxamore and Catamarca over a five-year period in the late 1990s.

Saturday’s result was something of a replay of last year’s Matamata Breeders’ Stakes, which was won by Gold Fever’s half-sister Gold Rush.

The significant difference was that the latter was trained by Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott and beat the Te Akau runner Sassy ‘N’ Smart by a nose.

The Wexford training partners claimed a share of Saturday’s action when their highly rated colt Summer Passage downed Te Akau’s Summer Monsoon in the other two-year-old feature, the Reid & Harrison Slipper.

Gold Fever and Summer Passage were two of six Matamatatrained winners on the nine-race programme but neither may have got the loudest cheer.

That belonged to Massofdash, or more specifically her 21-yearold jockey Tegan Newman, who was having her first raceday ride when she brought the Jim Colletttrained mare home for an easy win in the New World Matamata 1400.

The competition was just as keen for the Tuscany Road Fashion in the Field where it was Pokeno woman Belinda Green who was named Supreme Winner.

Green said someone thought her outfit looked like ‘‘a liquorice lolly’’ but she hoped it was the point of difference judges were looking for.

‘‘My headwear was made to match and was a quirky piece. I used fabric from the dress on my headwear.’’

It was the third time she had entered the Matamata event. She thought the event was well organised and the prizes ‘‘extremely generous from local businesses’’.

‘‘I loved catching up with fellow fashionistas, - a lovely bunch of ladies - all with a common passion for raceday attire.