Wanganui Jockey Club and Hospice Wanganui are reeling after discovering the popular Hospice Cup Day has been pulled.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing has prepared its calendar for the 2013-14 year, which begins on August 1, which shows that the Hospice Cup Day meeting has been moved to Otaki.
The meeting is on the Saturday of Labour Weekend, and is one of only four Saturday race meetings held each year in Wanganui.
As well as the racing day, there is a charity auction the night before and a "Calcutta" which piggy-backs on to the Caulfield Cup in Melbourne. The profits from these two events go to Hospice Wanganui.
Wanganui Jockey Club's operations manager, Bret Field, said he was very disappointed by the decision.
"We strongly oppose this course of action, as this meeting is an iconic community and family day, as well as a charity fundraiser for a great cause."
He said over the past six years Hospice race meet more than $60,000 had been raised for Hospice Wanganui from the event. "We have great community support for all our feature days, but the hospice has a soft spot in many Wanganui people's hearts."
Mr Field said said he'd already had a "passionate response" to the news from club members, sponsors and members of the public.
Hospice Wanganui spokeswoman Valda Brechmanis said she was disappointed as the hospice stood to lose an important funding stream, as well as positive exposure.
"This means there's funding that we will have to find from another source. But also, the hospice misses out on valuable awareness and goodwill in the community. People know about the hospice and want to support us," Ms Brechmanis said.
However, Simon Cooper, the company secretary for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing - the organisation which sets the racing calendar - said a final decision on the future of that particular racing meeting had not yet been made.
"This is very much a preliminary decision, and it's not set in stone. There are many negotiations to go through yet."
Mr Cooper said while he couldn't say why the race may be taken away from Wanganui, there was an emphasis on "maximising the returns" to the racing industry.
He said the Wanganui Jockey Club had every right to fight against the decision. "A meeting isn't arbitrarily taken off a club - there has to be a very good reason for it."
Mr Cooper said setting a year's schedule of meetings was a very complicated undertaking, as racing meetings from throughout New Zealand, as well as harness racing and greyhound racing meetings, had to be fitted in around each other. The Australian racing calendar was also taken into account, Mr Cooper said. "It's an intricately engineered calendar involving tens of thousands of events."
The final decision on the racing calendar is made by the New Zealand Racing Board, which takes recommendations from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, Harness Racing New Zealand, and New Zealand Greyhound Racing.
You can help!
Submission forms can be downloaded from www.hospicewanganui.org.nz, Hospice Wanganui's Facebook page, by emailing info@wjc.co.nz, or dropping into the Wanganui Jockey Club's office. Submissions must be made by March 21.