Planned changes leave southern racing clubs reeling

ROXBURGH Trotting Club is one of the few racing clubs in the South that owns its track and buildings.

Now, it will not be able to use them.

Waikouaiti Racing Club used to have one of the biggest days of the year in racing.

Now, it has no race day, and a track with no runners.

And in Dunedin, Forbury Park has lost all its greyhound race meetings along with its harness events.

As the draft New Zealand racing calendar was released yesterday, clubs around the South looked on with a mixture of satisfaction and despair.

The entire future of Forbury Park is under the spotlight. It lost nearly 50 meetings, with both harness and greyhound meetings left off the calendar.

Further afield, Roxburgh Trotting Club kept its early January date but will have to race it at Cromwell.

Roxburgh Trotting Club president David Parker said the club could not understand why the meeting had been moved to Cromwell.

‘‘It is not part of our plan. It was never our intention to go up there. It’s a kick in the guts for us,’’ he said.

‘‘We own the grounds, we own all the facilities — so why do we want to go up to Cromwell to race there?’’

He said the lack of fibre internet for Trackside television channel may have been a factor in the switch but the club was willing to help resolve the issue.

Waikouaiti Racing Club representatives were left wondering why their track has lost its regular date on January 1, yet a meeting is now taking place at Riverton on the same day.

Waikouaiti was a popular family picnic meeting, although it took a blow a couple of years ago when it had to abandon the meeting after horses slipped in the first race.

Forbury Park’s future will now be up for debate, though the clubs are not lying down.

Both clubs are set to make submissions to the Racing Industry Transition Agency to try to get meetings back.

NEARLY 50 meetings in the Dunedin region have been canned, and all racing will disappear from Forbury Park.

The Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) released its draft calendar for next season yesterday, and as expected, no races will be run at Forbury Park.

Along with the 20 harness race meetings gone from Forbury Park, another 27 greyhound meetings have been pulled from the complex.

The Waikouaiti Racing Club has lost its only race day on New Year’s Day. It has been transferred to Riverton, while the Roxburgh Trotting Club’s race day in early January has been moved to Cromwell.

The Central Otago Racing Club’s meeting on January 3 at Omakau has been canned. It has been given a date in November but may not take it up.

The calendar is a draft and has not been set in stone. Submissions on it can be made until the middle of next month. Consultation would then take a couple of weeks, and the final calendar would be released on July 3.

Nationwide there are 43 fewer meetings than last season and 14 venues have disappeared.

Having 60 racing venues nationwide was not sustainable for the future.

Otago Greyhound Racing Club general manager John Carlyle said it was not a surprise to lose all the meetings and he felt the club had been paid lip service by officials.

‘‘The first communication we got was only a day ago and we got no real reason, no why, how or whatever. It was pretty disappointing,’’ he said.

The club employed 10 casual staff on race days and had two parttime staff. It had spent $500,000 on plant and buildings over the past seven years to get the facility up to scratch and it was the safest greyhound track in the country.

‘‘The trainers liked coming here and racing. Not every dog is going to like a track. We gave them another option.’’

Carlyle said the club would be putting in a submission.

Invercargill is set to hold 33 greyhound mini meetings of three races and five meetings of 12 races though they were not included in yesterday’s draft, he said.

Forbury Park Trotting Club had commented on Thursday and slammed the decision, saying it was a kneejerk reaction and just continued the ad hoc decisionmaking of past years.

Central Otago Racing Club president Tony Lepper said the club was pleased to get a date in November that it was after, but was disappointed it was at Cromwell. The club was run by people from Omakau and he wondered whether they would be willing to travel to Cromwell and if the club could afford to have facilities in Omakau and then pay costs for a meeting in Cromwell. It was two days before the popular Cromwell races.

The Tuapeka meeting, which has been held at Forbury Park, had been moved to Oamaru, to take place in late October.

❛ The first communication we got was only a day ago and we got no real reason,

no why, how or whatever. It was pretty

disappointing

Otago Greyhound Racing Club general manager John Carlyle