Cranbourne Harness Racing Club’s innovative Club 21 syndication celebrated its first winner on Monday afternoon when three-year-old trotting filly Naked Ambition won on debut on her home track.

An ambitious undertaking, Club 21 is the brainchild of club CEO Neil Bainbridge and brings together 100 members to race a team of seven well-bred pacers and trotters from the Cranbourne Training Centre and the surrounding precinct.

Prepared by Dylan Stratford and driven by Scott Ewen, Naked Ambition is the first of the untried members of the Club 21 team to make the racetrack and was stepping out for the first time after a number of promising trial efforts. 

Despite being tardily away, the daughter of Andover Hall and Starcus was given time to settle in the run and eventually tacked on to the main body of the field with a lap to travel. Ewen launched a three-wide attack in the back straight on the final occasion and Naked Ambition ran to a clear lead rounding the home turn before running out a comfortable victor over Goodtime Pe Rabbit and Aru And Me.

Stratford was understandably delighted to have opened Club 21’s winning account and is looking forward to a bright future for the filly.

“She was really bright this morning when we put her out in the paddock for a bit of a run around and looks to have come through the race really well,” Stratford said on Tuesday morning. “There is a race at Melton on Monday that she’s eligible for and that might be her next run. It will just depend on how strong the nominations are and how she is over the next couple of days.

“Ideally I’d like to give her a little break before she heads to the Homegrown Classic series in December. On what she’s shown so far I think a race like that is not beyond her and it would be great for the Club 21 members to have a Group 1 runner in its early days.”

Bainbridge was excited not only by the win but also by the enthusiastic group of owners who were on track to witness the success.

“There were quite of few of the group here and they gave a mighty cheer on the line, it was fantastic,” Bainbridge said. “It took a few minutes to organise the group shot in the parade ring after the race and Scotty was still having selfies taken when we took him upstairs for an interview an hour later.

“Our intention is to give people a special social experience with real access to their trainers, drivers and of course horses in a shared setting. We’ve successfully syndicated individual horse amongst small groups in the past but we just felt that something on this scale gave us the best chance of creating something unique.”

Club 21 membership costs just $20 per week and the seven-member team of horses to be raced by the syndicate includes the lightly raced five-year-old trotter Fend Off, Naked Ambition and five two-year-old pacers and trotters by leading sires Somebeachsomewhere, Falcon Seelster, Village Jolt, Father Patrick and Andover Hall.

For further details of how to get involved contact Cameron Gallagher on 5996 1300 or visit the club website at www.cranbourneharness.org