Kiwis free to see NZ champ Kawi race the Aussies at Ascot on Saturday
4 November, 2016
Thoroughbred
New Zealand’s champion horse, Kawi, has arrived in Perth to take Australian dollars back across the Tasman Sea – but it won’t cost a cent for Kiwis to see him run at Ascot Racecourse on Saturday.
Perth Racing is granting free Ascot Racecourse admission to New Zealand passport holders who want to see the five-time Group One winner on Saturday as he warms up for the inaugural edition of The TABtouch Masters by competing in the $250,000 Group Two WAROA-Lee Steere Stakes.
Kawi’s trainer, Allan Sharrock, has accompanied his stable star on the 5,000-kilometre trip from New Plymouth to Perth and his former apprentice, Group One-winning Kiwi jockey Michael Walker, is flying from his Australian base in Victoria to Western Australia for one ride on Saturday’s card.
“Kiwi sports fans paid to watch their country’s rugby league team at nib Stadium last month but they won’t have to put their hands in their pockets to get into Ascot Racecourse on Saturday to see New Zealand’s best galloper of his generation,” said Neil Pinner, Chairman of Perth Racing.
“Kawi was odds on to complete an historic New Zealand triple crown but, in a huge fillip for the first-ever staging of The TABtouch Masters, his connections chose to bypass its third leg and set him for the James Boag’s Premium-Railway Stakes and the Peters Investments-Kingston Town Classic.
“More than 30,000 New Zealand-born people live in Perth and there are thousands more who hold Kiwi passports due to their heritage. All of them are welcome to enter Ascot Racecourse on Saturday for free to watch Kawi have his final pre-TABtouch Masters start in the WAROA-Lee Steere Stakes.”
Kawi is just one of three Group One winners set to run in the WAROA-Lee Steere Stakes – the others are Doomben Cup champion Pornichet and last year’s TABtouch-Kingston Town Classic victor, Perfect Reflection – along with one of Western Australia’s rising stars, Lite’n In My Veins.
Perth Racing will make thoroughbred racing history when it stages The TABtouch Masters at Ascot Racecourse on Saturday 19 November, Saturday 26 November and Saturday 3 December.
The TABtouch Masters will be the world’s first single-track festival to feature a Group One race worth at least $1 million on three consecutive Saturdays. The TABtouch Masters will be the highlight of the Ascot Racing Carnival that will run from Saturday 15 October to Saturday 31 December.
Image courtesy of NZ Racing Desk (Trish Dunell)
Listen to Alan Sharrock chat to The Sports Daily after Kawi’s track gallop at Ascot: