Debbi Harri (green colours) gets in the deciding stride to take out a Rating 65 race over 1100m at Trentham last Saturday. It was the filly's second win from 11 starts. Photo / Race Images
Racing is set to return to the Waipukurau Racecourse in the next racing season, while a resumption of racing on the Hastings track is planned in time for the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival next year.
These were part of two statements released by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing on Wednesday.
The first will see the Waipukurau Jockey Club given three race dates to support Hawke’s Bay Racing while the Hastings racetrack is unavailable for racing.
The three days the Waipukurau Jockey Club have been allocated are all Sundays, the first being on November 16 this year, the second on February 15 next year and the third on April 26.
The first day will feature the Waipukurau Cup, with the main race on the second day being the Wairoa Cup and the third day feature the time-honoured Hawke’s Bay Cup.
Waipukurau Jockey Club president Kirsty Lawrence said the club was excited to announce that racing will resume on the track after it was closed three years ago.
In recent times the track has been used for trials and jumpouts, using the specially designed plastic running rail from the Hastings Racecourse.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, in conjunction with Hawke’s Bay Racing, conducted two meetings at the Hastings Racecourse on Wednesday.
Hawke’s Bay-based trainers were invited to the first meeting, where they were informed of a return-to-racing strategy and what that will mean for them.
There was a large turnout to the second meeting, which was open to Hawke’s Bay Racing Club members.
Those present heard addresses from New Zealand Thoroughbred Chief Executive Matt Ballesty, Steve Bramley (independent chairman of a project control group) and Gordon Hassett, regarding plans to undertake a partial re-cambering of the bends at the 1600m and 1400m points on the Hastings track.
Liam O’Keefe, an international racecourse specialist based in Australia, also made comments by way of a phone link.
The re-cambering and possible realigning of the two bends will be done in stages, the first part being a harvest of the top part of the track in the two areas and storing it. The second is to extract soil from the centre of the racecourse to build up a camber on the two bends and then the third will be the replacement of the grassed top.
It is envisaged that the re-cambering will take 16 weeks to complete and that, all going well, the surface should be ready to race on by the spring of 2026.
Gordon Hassett outlined a timeframe which said that pricing quotes from contractors should be in by the end of next month and confirmed pricing by the end of July.
He said that work on the track should commence by September 1 and will continue up until Christmas. There will then be a break before work resumes in the New Year.
Darin Balcombe, acting chief executive of Hawke’s Bay Racing, outlined a timeline for horses being trained on the Hastings track whilst the re-cambering work is being done.
Up until August 31, there will be no change to the normal training hours. From September 1 to November 30, training will be restricted from 5am to 8am daily and there could possibly be five days where the crossing, used for horses going on and off the track, will be closed. It is hoped that, from December 1, usual training arrangements will resume.
The re-cambering of the two bends of the Hastings racetrack is seen as a stop-gap measure to get racing back as soon as possible, with a far more extensive plan being considered for Hawke’s Bay Racing in the future.
This involves the development of a greenfields site, outside of the Hastings city boundary, where a new racetrack and training facility will be purposely built.
Bramley said that, whilst he could not divulge the full details of the proposed Greenfields project, he said that he hoped to be in a position to advise members by mid-July next year.
He added that the plan is to develop a strategic metropolitan racetrack in Hawke’s Bay and also use it as a possible satellite facility for outside trainers.
The meeting was then opened to questions from the floor and Garry Foskett, a former long-serving track manager at the Hastings racecourse and venue inspector for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing for several years, asked why no one locally was consulted regarding the re-cambering work to be done.
He said that the bend from the 900m to the 700m on the Hastings track was re-cambered several years ago by locals, under his instruction, and he has also overseen re-cambering on several other New Zealand racetracks since then, without overseas intervention.
Barry Smyth, a former Hawke’s Bay Racing Board member, said New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing should take advice from Foskett regarding the re-cambering work as he has knowledge of every part of the Hastings racecourse.
Bramley assured members that the project control group will be consulting Foskett over any future planning.
Richard Wood asked, given that re-cambering work will be undertaken on the racetrack, what would happen to the rest of the racecourse.
Bramley said if the greenfields project goes ahead, the present Hawke’s Bay Racing site would be sold.
Richard Riddell, chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Racing Board, told members that the two Paki Paki properties bought by the club several years ago were costing the club $250,000 each in interest per year but have now been sold.
The connections of Hastings-trained Debbi Harri have had to endure a frustrating run with the 3-year-old filly but their patience was rewarded when she scored a game win in a $35,000 Rating 65 race over 1100m at Trentham last Saturday.
The daughter of Vespa was recording her second win but it was only her 11th race start, with injuries and race abandonments restricting her racing career to date.
Debbi Harris is prepared by Hastings trainer John Bary and raced by the Challenge Evolution Syndicate, a group of more than 40 people managed by Hamilton-based bloodstock syndicator Adrian Clark.
Napier-based Brian Henneker is one of the syndicate members, as is Taupō’s Allan Payne. They have both been involved with several horses raced under the Challenge Syndicate banner, with undoubtedly the best of them being the Group 1 winner Jennifer Eccles.
Debbi Harri was purchased as a weanling by Adrian Clark for $12,000 and is named after the lead singer for the British band Blondie.
The filly is a chestnut with a big white blaze on her head and her stable nickname has always been Blondie.
Bary has always held Debbi Harri in high regard and the filly showed immediate promise on the racetrack, following up a second in a barrier trial with a debut third behind subsequent Group 1 winner Savaglee in a 900m 2-year-old race at Trentham.
She then finished sixth in the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m) at Trentham but was found to have a bone chip in a knee after finishing fifth in her third 2-year-old outing and had to have it surgically removed.
Debbi Harri didn’t race for another eight months, resuming as a 3-year-old with a second placing in a 1400m maiden on the Awapuni synthetic track in October last year.
She was then unsuited by a heavy track when unplaced over 1400m at Te Aroha but obviously appreciated firmer footing when finally breaking through for a maiden win over 1340m at Whanganui in November and has only once finished further back than fifth in five starts since.
The win by Fukubana at last Saturday’s Doomben meeting capped off a great week for his Hawke’s Bay co-owner and breeder Murray Andersen.
Andersen is the manager of Keyano Limited, the company that bred Fukubana and has retained a racing share. The other members of the company are his wife Jo, daughter Tracey and son-in-law Gavin Chaplow.
Andersen is also a co-breeder and part-owner of Fukubana’s sire Dundeel, who was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame at a special function in Hamilton on May 11, with Andersen representing the owners at the presentation.
Dundeel was an outstanding racehorse and champion 3-year-old of his year, his victories including six at Group 1 level. He is now an emerging star stallion based at Arrowfield Stud in Australia.
Fukubana was having his 13th start when he stepped out in a $92,400 Rating 85 race over 1600m at Doomben.
Champion jockey James McDonald was aboard the gelding and gave him the run of the race in a trailing position before angling around heels at the top of the home straight.
Once in the clear Fukubana accelerated clear of his rivals and went on to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths. It was his fourth success and he has also recorded three second places and three thirds, one of those being in the A$1 million Country Championship (1400m) at Randwick.
Hawke’s Bay had a connection with two inductees in this year’s New Zealand Racing Hall Of Fame class, the other being the late Thomas Henry Lowry.
Lowry started Okawa Stud in Hawke’s Bay and was a pioneering figure in the New Zealand racing and breeding industry. He bred several champions including the great Desert Gold, who was the winner of 36 races, 19 of them in succession.
– John Jenkins is a longtime racing journalist based in Hawke’s Bay.
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