Punters heading to Tauherenikau on Wednesday to soak up the action of New Year racing will be hoping punters club host Dave ("Tubs") Wright's winning streak continues. Tubs is fresh back from winning the prestigious Manawatu Punter of the Year competition at Awapuni just before Christmas displaying great judgement and courage to clean up the top prize and two others from a field of 71 syndicates.
As a lone punter he trumped his opposition and by doing so earned himself free entry in the New Zealand Punter of the Year contest - worth $2000 - and picked up a prize cheque for $1000 to boot.
The road to success began after a fairly average start to the day.
Tubs bombed out in the first race when Bella Vi couldn't finish better than midfield, and only broke even in the succeeding four races.
But his punting picked up sharply from there with an all-up bet that saw Abraham Lincoln home in race 6, the proceeds being placed on to winner Ransomed in the Manawatu Cup at $3.30 a win and then the combined winning total being place-punted on Captain Kirk, winner of race 8.
That meant Tubs had put down $1452 a place on Captain Kirk who, in fact, won the race paying $9.80 but the Masterton businessman was quite contend to rake in the $3 place dividend.
A big bet on the nose of favourite Mufhasa in the Manawatu Challenge Stakes capped an excellent day with Tubs finishing with $7500 in hand.
Apart from winning Manawatu Punter of the Year he also won the biggest single bet competition with his all-up bet and the biggest accumulated turnover prize.
Those two wins earned him a free table for eight in the Silks Lounge on both the Manawatu Breeders Stakes raceday and the Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes day, with free food and drinks.
But before he can even think about enjoying those spoils Tubs has a job to do at Tauherenikau and he is putting in two days of solid swat with the intention of doing his level best to get a good result for those on-course punters who invest $10 for a punters club ticket.