Messara report a ‘gun to the head’
"There will be a hell of a tear in my eye if this year is our last race day,’’ John Gray says as he looks out over the 127-year-old racetrack.
Gray, the Stratford Racing Club president, knows his is one of 20 racecourses that will close if the controversial Messara report into the New Zealand racing industry is adopted.
The report’s author, Australian administrator and horse breeder John Messara, was commissioned by Racing Minister Winston Peters to look at the racing industry and recommend ways to return it to profitability.
He suggests the number of thoroughbred racetracks be cut from 48 to 28 by 2025.
Although more than half of these courses are owned completely freehold by their respective racing clubs, if the report is adopted this freehold land would be put under the name of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) and eventually sold off.
The profits would be put into a $200 million upgrade of the remaining racing facilities. The clubs that own the land wouldn’t see a cent.
Most clubs agreed a change in the industry is needed but see the move as land confiscation and would fight it.
Gray said the Stratford Racecourse is worth about $3.5 million and is owned 100 per cent by the Stratford Racing Club and its 137 members.
‘‘We expected, like a lot of the other little clubs around the country, that we would lose our race day,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s the really unfortunate aspect of it but we certainly didn’t think the recommendation in the report would have us selling up and not able to continue as a training centre,’’ Gray said.
‘‘We don’t cost the industry a cent to operate, that’s something people don’t seem to realise. It’s all volunteers.’’
If their land was sold off, trainers from racecourses like Stratford, Hāwera, and Gore would be forced to travel to larger centres, sometimes up to a two hour return journey, to train their horses each day.
‘‘New Plymouth can barely handle what it’s got at the moment, let alone if you take 60 horses from here, 40 from Hāwera – you’re doubling New Plymouth in size.
‘‘Not only that, we’re being asked to put the money from the sale of this into a leasehold property in New Plymouth.
‘‘What happens in the future if there’s a change in council or a different approach from a mayor or attitude from ratepayers and that place is sold up?’’
Gray also said that if Stratford and Ha¯ wera racecourses were to close there would be nowhere in Taranaki for harness racers to train as New Plymouth did not have a track for it.
In the South Island, Gore Racing Club president Justine Abernethy said Messara’s team did not spend long enough at their track.
‘‘He was here for five minutes, drove behind the grandstands, never looked at the track or facilities.
Abernethy said it was in the club’s constitution, written in 1889, that if anything was to happen to the club the racecourse, worth around $1.6 million, would go back to the community.
The track also didn’t just have the five race meetings the report said but actually had 11 events a year for a range of community groups such as pony club.
In Hāwera, an hour south of New Plymouth and north of Waverley, the Egmont Racing Club owns 80 per cent of the land and Hāwera Harness Club owns 20 per cent.
The track has 40 horses in training, 47 in pre-training, a fulltime course manager, and about 127 owners, 10 to 12 of whom are also trainers.
The predicted value of the land is between $5m and $6m, with a maximum of $380,000 debt left from when Egmont bought out the Opunake Racing Club 10 years ago.
‘‘It’s an iconic piece of history, we’ve been going 137 years,’’
Egmont Racing Club president Karl Stratton said.
‘‘There was a group of businessmen and farmers who actually put their hand in their pocket to buy this piece of land 137 years ago so that they could actually race in Ha¯ wera,’’ Egmont Racing Club vice-president Paul Jones added.
‘‘Not so they could race in Wellington or Awapuni or anywhere else but in Ha¯ wera and we owe it to them to look after that legacy.
‘‘We feel as though it should be up to the community and those that actually own the asset rather than it be confiscated, that’s what we find hardest.’’
Stratton said he agreed with the fundamentals of the report, but said its recommendations were flawed.
‘‘What we’re against is someone holding a gun to your head and saying you have to give us the money when it’s not theirs.’’
‘‘They are wanting to sell us up purely to get their hands on the money. They can’t touch the ones on leasehold land,’’ Jones said.
NZTR said it was too early to comment on the report, although its board will discuss it next week.
In a statement, Winston Peters said the report confirmed the industry was in dire straits and its recommendations required serious consideration.
‘‘Officials are assessing the report and preparing advice for Cabinet to consider.
‘‘There will be communication and consultation with the racing community and other stakeholders.’’
But Stratton said when a member of Messara’s team came to the Hāwera racecourse, they were only there for 20 minutes.
‘‘They’d already made up their minds.’’