After a false start the night before, Harness Racing New Zealand’s ovarian cancer awareness campaign kicked off with a win at Otaki yesterday afternoon (Friday).

The campaign sees every female driver in the country wearing teal pants in races for six weeks, with $400 donations for every win coming from a combination of Harness Racing New Zealand, Woodlands Stud and race clubs.

The campaign was due to start at Forbury Park on Thursday night, but that meeting was abandoned due to flooding.

It was only fitting then that New Zealand’s all-time winningest female driver, Nicky Chilcott, got the ball rolling with a win behind her stable runner Razor Brogden at the Kapiti Coast Harness Racing Club’s meeting.

Chilcott, with 620 driving wins, is the northern ambassador for the campaign and says it a very worthy cause in her eyes.

“I think it’s fantastic.

“It’s a cause very close to my heart is my mother is a cancer survivor.

“It’s great to be involved and I was very happy to get the first win.”

Razor Brogden had put up three middling runs to start this campaign, but dug deep to resist the charge of outsider Mister Harris in the run to the line.

“He fought really hard when challenged and sometimes, in the past, he hasn’t done that.

“It was a good effort, I thought, and I wasn’t surprised after his nice run at Waipa last time.”

Razor Brogden will now tackle the Otaki Cup on the second day of the meeting, Sunday.

“He’ll have to step up to win that, but there is nowhere to hide for him now.”

Chilcott will be shooting for her third straight Otaki Cup after wins in the previous two years with Jet Black Shadow and Everything.

“We’ve had a great run at Otaki – Jet Black Shadow and Everything both won on both days in the last couple of years.

“It might be a bridge too far for Razor Brogden to do it as well, though.”