Phil and first time sponsors get a real thrill at the Park after Lincoln Farms’ one-two finish

Nobody was more jubilant about Lincoln Farms’ perfect night of racing on Friday than one of its partners Phil Kelly.

On a night when Copy That won the Thames Cup, Neptune and Lincoln River ran the quinella in the second race and Ideal Kingdom scored by the barest of noses in the final race, it was Kelly who was smiling the most.

In 15 years as an owner, it was the first time Kelly’s horses had run one-two.

But the Aucklander, presented with the trophy by Lincoln Farms’ owner John Street very graciously passed it back to the sponsors, setting up a real Christmas feeling in the club’s hospitality room even before Santa made a visit.

Instead of giving the prize to first time sponsor Richard Dalman, managing director of Dalman Architects, Kelly called for one his staff.

“I’ve been lucky enough over the years to win quite a few of these prizes,” Kelly said.

“I’ve been in business myself and I know at this time of year there’s usually someone who takes all the flak, all the phone calls … why isn’t this done, why isn’t that done. So have we got a receptionist here?”

Neptune gets the better of Lincoln River very late in a busy finish. PHOTO: Megan Liefting/Race Images.ATC marketing man Peter Green, who brought in the new sponsors, was quick off the mark, inviting his friend Chuck Yeoh, actually an architect at the firm, to step forward.

The revelry made for a memorable night for Kelly who, incredibly, just a few minutes before Neptune’s race, was talking to another owner, Doug Donaldson, celebrating achieving exactly the same feat after Errol D and Emma Frost quinellaed the opening race.

Kelly had a $20 quinella with Neptune and Lincoln River, returning him a $100 profit but an even more lucrative $100 fixed odds ticket on his personal favourite Neptune at $7.

“I think Neptune is the better horse,” Kelly said. “I loved his straight legged pacing action when I saw him and had to have a share in him.”

Street was only too happy to allow Kelly to take 10% of the Neptune partnership which also includes his friend Glenn “Grocer” Cotterill and his mum Ann.

Glenn Cotterill also shares in both Neptune and Lincoln River, owning half of the 50% share the Yellow Barn syndicate took in Lincoln River.

Street, in a gesture of extreme kindness, offered a 50% share in the beautifully bred pacer at a charity auction in Auckland and Cotterill and about 10 other PAK’n SAVE owners, attending Foodstuff’s 100-year celebration dinner, bid $100,000 to benefit the Foodies Foundation.

How Neptune looked as a yearling when John Street bought him for a bargain $120,000.Neptune has a pedigree to die for himself, being by champion sire Bettor’s Delight out of the good producing racemare Safedra, dam of Dr Susan, La Rosa, Buzinga and Allegra.

He is another of the excellent yearling sale selections of trainer Ray Green and his wife Debbie whose expert judgement has paved the way for much of Lincoln Farms’ success in recent years.

Ray Green described the horse as “all quality and very strong” when Street bid to $120,000 to buy the colt at the Christchurch sale in 2021.

Green says the colt still has a lot of strengthening to do before he reaches his full potential, but believes he has the attributes to fashion into a topliner.

Friday night’s driver Zachary Butcher wouldn’t argue about that, liking the way the two-year-old showed a real will to win.

Butcher won the race for Neptune when he found the back of Lincoln River for a one-one trail and in a thrilling finish, where only three half necks separated the first four home, Neptune found the best kick.

There’s only a pencil line in the favour of Ideal Kingdom, outer, over Samira at the finish. PHOTO: Megan Liefting/Race Images.So too did Ideal Kingdom in the final race, staving off a late bid by Samira to win by what commentator Aaron White called “a pencil line.”

The big syndicate of long-time Lincoln Farms’ partners which race Ideal Kingdom had leading driver Blair Orange to thank for that.

Orange had Ideal Kingdom in the trail but 600 metres out, sensing leader Smart and Mighty might stop on him, he expertly managed to push out the parked horse Sly Terror and forge on to the lead.

The American Ideal - Queen Of The Crop colt, who went through the Christchurch sale ring half an hour before Neptune for just $32,500, is raced by John and Lynne Street, along with the Four Legs Syndicate, the Green Machine Racing Syndicate, Priscilla Edmunds, Steve MacDonald, Wayne Seebeck, Chris Prutton, Steve Beckett, Kevin Bell, Margaret Rabbitt and the Athenry Syndicate.