Avondale among 14 tracks left in gates
Avondale is one of 10 thoroughbred venues and 14 overall that face uncertain futures under a proposed racing calendar for next season that, if adopted, will dramatically shake up the New Zealand industry.
RITA (Racing Industry Transition Agency), a reconstitution of the New Zealand Racing Board, announced its proposed draft calendar for the 2020-2021 racing season – that begins on August 1 – yesterday.
The 14 venues – all were active in the current season and had previously been allocated racing dates in the pre-Covid-19 draft calendar – have been stripped of all dates for next season under the proposed calendar and will not be issued betting licenses if the changes are adopted.
The Avondale Jockey Club owns and manages the hugely valuable land asset in west Auckland that has been estimated at being worth as much as $300 million.
Avondale Jockey Club (AJC) racing manager Richard Pridham did not want to comment on the course’s future. AJC hosted its first meeting in 1890 and if the proposed changes which were announced yesterday go ahead, the last was on March 19, 2020.
The other nine thoroughbred venues are Te Teko, Waipa (Te Awamutu), Gisborne, Wairoa, Waipukurau, Blenheim (Waterlea), Motukarara, Waikouaiti and Omakau. Stuff understands Blenheim’s Waterlea racecourse has also lost its harness dates, placing its future in extreme danger.
Dunedin’s Forbury Park is proposed to lose its harness and greyhound meetings, meaning it will firmly be in the gun for closure, along with Te Teko, Waipa (Te Awamutu), Gisborne, Wairoa, and Waipukurau, who are understood to not have any harness meetings in the proposal, but those five may secure trial gallops dates.
Timaru’s Phar Lap Raceway has lost its harness dates under the proposal but will not face the threat of closure as it will still host thoroughbred meetings. Motukarara, near Christchurch, will survive as it remains as a harness venue.
Already in financial strife, the Covid-19 sports and racing shutdown as hit Rita – the over-arching body that funds three three racing codes from TAB profits – hard.
The release of the draft calendar comes just three days after Minister for Racing Winston Peters announced a much-needed $72.5 million emergency support package for the industry that included a $50m relief fund for Rita to save it from the real threat of insolvency.
Rita’s executive chair Dean McKenzie said the pandemic accelerated the need for significant change across the industry.
‘‘The leaders of New Zealand racing have repeatedly talked over decades about change but not been courageous enough to address the critical need for venue intensification.
‘‘Repeated reports on the industry, including most recently by John Messara, as well as the industry-led future venue plan have identified that there were too many racing venues and this was a commercial drain on limited industry resources. Covid-19 leaves us with no other choice but to act.
‘‘Ensuring meetings are located as close as possible, as often as possible to where the horse and dog population is located will result in improved net returns to the industry.
‘‘The draft calendar means that some venues will miss out on racing licenses, and that is regrettable, but Covid-19 makes servicing almost 60 venues simply unsustainable and unappealing to the owners and participants who travel the length and breadth of NZ for meetings.’’
Consultation with the racing industry on the revised racing calendar begins immediately and closes on June 15 with the confirmed calendar due on July 3.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Bernard Saundry told Stuff he feels for every venue that is proposed to lose its dates and understands the sentimental attachment to those tracks. He said no club would be left behind and could hold meetings at a nearby track.
Harness racing will race at just 16 venues in the 2020-21 season, down from 31 in the current season.
The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club at Addington will host 77 meetings in the new season, compared with 36 for 2019-20. The total number of harness meetings will drop from 259 – the originally scheduled number for the current season before Covid-19 – to 246.