Y-front by a nose

Racegoers at last night's final Lindauer Twilight Summer Series racemeeting at Ellerslie were excused a double-take when the field lined up for a mid-meet race.

With starters such as Rock Bottom, Sleeping Booty and Bangkok Dream, it was obvious the race had taken on a 'cheeky' element.

And that proved to be the case as six of the country's top jockeys donned briefs for the Jockey 75th Anniversary Dash.

The single lap, 1900m canter-and-dash was won by Brief Beginnings, ridden by Leith Innes, triumphantly signalling his victory as he crossed the finish line just ahead of Sam Spratt.

The evening's audacious event kicked off the 75th anniversary celebrations of New Zealand's most loved underwear.

With the backing of the Auckland Racing Club, Jockey decided on the race as a tongue-in-cheek approach to the 75th milestone.

· Jockey briefs were first marketed in the US in 1934 and a year later the famous y-front was launched. It was completely different to any underwear of the time providing men with 'masculine support', available at that time only through the use of a 'jock strap'. To discretely describe the function of the new-fangled underwear, it was called the Jockey (JOCK-ey) brief.

All proceeds from walk-in ticket gate takings at last night's event will be donated to the Victorian Bush Fire Appeal 2009.