May was driving Ohoka Nevada for the first time. He gained the drive through co-trainer David Butt being at Tauherenikau.
Butt, who trains with his wife, Catherine, at Woodend Beach, trained and drove OK Chevalier to win the Championship in 2000.
May had his first win in the Championship with the John Lischner-trained Soft As Silk in 1993 when heats were run on the first two nights. May also won with Coringa It'll Be Mee (owned and trained by his uncle, Clive May) in 2001 and Camero (Laurence Hanrahan) in 2002.
Ohoka Nevada, raced by Ohoka breeders Dave and Katie Carville, has raced 15 times for six wins and six placings. The $18,750 stake lifted his earnings to $78,568.
Ohoka Nevada led out, then May gave way to Fiery Falcon after 500m. Ohoka Nevada came along the inner to win by half a length from Fiery Falcon, with a similar margin to Georgetown, who tangled at the start.
Nearea Franco took 2.2sec off the track record for 2700m (mobile) when she won the Barton Memorial Free-For-All in 3.19.5 after leading throughout.
Blossom Lady previously held the record, set in 1994. Nearea Franco ran her last 800m in 56.7 and held on by three-quarters of a length from Monkey King, a hot favourite.
Monkey King tried for the lead after 700m, but Craig Thornley resisted with Nearea Franco.
Monkey King was eased to four back on the inner, and followed up Roman Gladiator from the 700m. Mark Purdon began a busy three days when he trained and drove Lifeoftheparty to a dashing win last night.
Purdon returned to Rolleston last night. He has a team engaged at Ashburton today with Pocaro, the favourite for the New Zealand Hambletonian.
Purdon will travel to Invercargill after Ashburton for the Wyndham meeting tomorrow. He has Dream Machine, Unrelenting, Eye For An Eye and Reine Guinevere top prospects.
Dream Machine is having his first start for Purdon after changing hands. He is now owned by Peter Heffering, of Canada.
Dream Machine won the $68,000 Yearling Sales Trot for 2yr-olds at Ashburton in April when trained by Kevin Townley for Dennis Thompson. Dream Machine also ran fourth in the Harness Jewels.
Unrelenting is in a heat of the Southland Oaks. She won at Motukarara on January 25 soon after joining the Purdon-Payne stable. She ran second to Petra's Star in a heat of the Southland Oaks at Invercargill on January 8.
Reine Guinevere is in a heat of the Southern Belle speed series. She has been placed in her five starts since she won a double at the New Zealand Cup meeting in November.
Eye For An Eye won at Motukarara on January 25.
Bernard (Jim) McDonald, of Oxford, had a belated 79th birthday present when his horse, Crystal Star, won last night.
McDonald had his birthday the previous Saturday when Crystal Star ran fourth at Addington. The 3yr-old filly had won three races from seven starts since joining the stable of Mark Jones three months ago.
"I will take her to Auckland with Alexis for the Great Northern Oaks," Jones said. "She proved herself with the top fillies when fourth behind Lauraella in the Sales series race at Addington."
Sun Of Iris was within 0.2sec of the 3200m track record for a trotter when he won the Bill Cummings Memorial in 4.09.5.
Raymauwarrhen Sun, who set the track record in 2007, was a gallant fourth from 40m.
Keytoourdreams, the winner of 10 races for the Longbush syndicate from the Rakaia stable of Gerard O'Reilly, has been sold to the United States.
The Dream Away gelding won the 2007 Kurow Cup.
