By Dave Di Somma, Harness Nes Desk
A third Methven Drivers’ Challenge has been confirmed for next month, and this time it is literally the biggest yet.
Four teams of three will battle it out over six penalty-free races on April 13, the club’s last meeting at Mt Harding before the winter recess.
Sponsored by Jonny Cox and Kimberly Butt’s Roseland Racing, the Challenge will feature 12 drivers, all wearing their own stable’s colours (or colours they are closely associated with them).
The four teams :
Legends – Tony Herlihy, Maurice McKendry and Ricky May
Premiership Leaders – John Dunn, Blair Orange and Matty Williamson
Ladies – Sam Ottley, Sheree Tomlinson and Crystal Hackett
Methven – Gerard O’Reilly, Kim Butt and John Morrison
It appears the 2025 edition will be the last to feature Herlihy and McKendry who was originally from Methven before moving north.
“This is going to be the last year for both Tony and Maurice anyway so we want to make it count,” says Methven Trotting Club President Michael Heenan, “we couldn’t more grateful for what they have done.”
In 2023 McKendry toppled Ricky May and Tony Herlihy in the “Three Wise Men” challenge. They are still the only three drivers in this country to have won 3000 or more races (Blair Orange is next on 2899).
Then last year there was the ANZAC 18,000+ Challenge where McKendry and May defeated Australian stars Chris Alford and Greg Sugars, who were in New Zealand at the time for Cambridge’s Night of Champions.
This year the club’s committee members decided to expand the concept further by pitting four teams, each with their own theme, against each other.
“We cheated a bit with Sarah (O’Reilly) being a late scratching so we sneaked one in with Kimberly from Ashburton,” says Heenan.
Sarah O’Reilly has been out of action since a race track accident last year and with Butt working for Brent and Tm White at Ashburton she got the call up as a honorary Mid Cantabrian.
“Everyone I contacted wanted to be involved,” says Heenan.
Bragging rights as well as a trophy will be up for grabs on a day that will also feature the Woodlands Little Green Jug for the three-year-old pacers.
“It should be great racing.”
