HRNZ’s Blue September to go ahead

Harness Racing New Zealand’s Blue September Prostate Cancer campaign will get underway at Invercargill this Thursday despite the current Covid situation in NZ. 

For the whole month ten male drivers will wear HRNZ Blue September silks and raise money every time they win a race. HRNZ will donate $100 per win, while the ten ambassadors have individual sponsors as well and most of the Clubs are also on board to donate at their meetings.

The campaign mirrors the highly successful Teal Pants campaign Harness Racing New Zealand has been involved in recent years raising money for and awareness of ovarian cancer.

The ten drivers/ambassadors  are :

      Blair Orange

      Robbie Close

      Korbyn Newman

      Jonny Cox

      Mark Hurrell

      Zev Meredith

      Matty Williamson

      Zachary Butcher

      Todd Mitchell

      Brent Barclay

The current Covid restrictions will impact on the start of the campaign, at the very least. For instance,  two of the northern ambassadors are from Auckland and will not be permitted to travel to Cambridge for Friday’s meeting there. And there will be no Auckland racing at all as long as the region is in Alert Level Four. This will be for another fortnight at least.   

The Auckland Blue September meetings will be re-scheduled for later in the month, and even possibly into October while Todd Mitchell will race in the silks this week at Cambridge. Zachary Butcher and Zev Meredith will start their campaign when they are able to drive again. They will still participate in the same number of meetings as Todd however these may run into October.

After Invercargill on Thursday the next Blue September meeting will be at Addington & Cambride on Friday. It is likely that the three southern ambassadors will wear blue coloured helmet covers on Thursday in Invercargill as we await the delivery of the “Blue September Silks”. Any wins that Brent, Matt or Mark have on Thursday regardless will count towards the campaign. 

As there are no crowds allowed under Alert Level Three people wishing to donate to the cause are encouraged to do so online via this link https://fundraise.prostate.org.nz/fundraisers/hrnzblueseptemberfundraiser

HRNZ will also sell Blue September merchandise on-line – keep an eye out for the link on our Social Media channels in the coming days.

ENDS