He also increased his chances of starring in the remake of Groundhog Day.
The Otago fast bowler was operating on a loop when he took three consecutive Central Districts wickets with more or less identical deliveries at the University of Otago Oval.
Hat-tricks are rare enough — only seven other Otago players have managed the feat previously — but Rae’s achievement was a little spooky.
Poor old Dane Cleaver went first. He had muscled his way through to 99 but got an inside edge to a line and length delivery.
Dale Phillips took a sharp catch at short leg.
Next up was hard-hitting all-rounder Josh Clarkson and he also guided an inside edge to Phillips.
And for repetition’s sake, Blair Tickner squeezed an inside edge in Phillips’ direction.
Rae had notched quite a remarkable threepeat.
The 25-year-old right-hander (five for 62) went on to achieve his second first-class five-wicket bag.
And guess what — it was Rae, Phillips and an inside edge that combined again to claim the wicket of Jayden Lennox.
The Stags declared nine down for 353 in reply to Otago’s first-innings tally of 393.
Brad Schmulian (127) notched his second first-class century for Central Districts and Otago was 222 for four at stumps on day three.
Volts captain Hamish Rutherford stroked his 15th first-class century. He brought the milestone up with a single off his pads.
He was eventually out for 111 but combined in a 147-run stand with fellow left-hander Nick Kelly. Kelly is unbeaten on 69.
Otago leads by 262 runs and will perhaps bat for a wee bit this morning to set up a target of 300-plus.
If the rain stays away, the game could have an exciting finish in store.
But Rae’s feat was the main talking point yesterday.
He is the first Otago bowler to take a first-class hat trick since Neil Wagner achieved the feat against Wellington in Queenstown in 2010-11.
Wagner actually took five wickets in that over which was extraordinary.
Rae made a rather long victory run when he claimed the third wicket.
"That’s why we do conditioning sessions so we can do that kind of thing," he joked.
"I got all the way to the Powerade sign down the bottom there.
"It was a surreal couple of minutes. Each wicket was just like a replay of the one before."
Rae trained with two of his victims — Tickner and Cleaver — while with the New Zealand winter training squad last year and took great pleasure in getting one up on the duo.
Rae is a tall chap and that extra bounce he was able to extract from the surface made the difference.
He has also been trying to bowl fuller and bring in more modes of dismissal.
Caught short leg seems to working out quite nicely.
In the other games, Wellington is firmly on top in its match with Northern Districts at the Basin Reserve.
It posted 414 for four declared and the visiting side is 97 for four in reply.
At Eden Park Outer Oval, Auckland leads Canterbury by 235 runs with eight second-innings wickets remaining.
