Napier Park Racing Club's course at Greenmeadows around the 1930s. It is now Anderson Park. Photo/Gifted by Noel Fraser, collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi, 19919
Anderson Park in Greenmeadows was once the location of the racecourse of the Napier Park Racing Club, and this is a brief history of that racecourse.
As horse racing was a popular sport in the old country for the British settlers it not surprisingly established quickly in settlements around the Dominion.
It is thought the first horse races were held by the military garrison in Auckland around 1840, with the soldiers using their troop horses.
Racing on beaches and paddocks in Hawke's Bay had begun around 1845. And with thoroughbred horses arriving here in 1855, racing in an informal setting became popular and a major social event – albeit with crude rules, and apparently a measure of corruption.
The first organised horse race meeting was conducted by the Napier Races Club and held in Clive in March 1859.
Maori were among the interested spectators of some 250 people, and they were captivated by the sport – especially as there was a Maori Race.
Prominent Hawke's Bay settler Henry Stokes Tiffen (1816-1898) wanted a racing course in his area of Greenmeadows to satisfy a promise made to his wife Louisa for an "Ascot in the South Pacific".
He had established a training track, but the bends were rather cramped, and there were added difficulties of high tides, flooding from the Tutaekuri River and an overflowing salt-water creek.
After the March 1859 Clive races, a search was held for suitable land which could be home to a permanent race course from 1860.
Henry Tiffin was to be disappointed when his Greenmeadows land was overlooked for a flat piece of land opposite a pa called Tane-nui-a-rangi, on the southern bank of the then Ngaruroro River near Clive.
However, when Maori demanded an "exorbitant fee" for the "lease in perpetuity", an emergency meeting of the now-named Napier Turf Club was held at the Golden Fleece Hotel to find a new location.
At this meeting, with a crisis to find a location, Henry was only too pleased to lend his course.
Greenmeadows was gratefully accepted by the Napier Turf Club, and Henry set about getting his course in racing day order, even creating a mound for a grandstand opposite the finish line.
In 1867, after some years of holding the races of the Napier Turf Club at Greenmeadows, the Napier Turf Club held a three-day race meeting at the newly created government racecourse at nearby Meeanee.
Politics were rife in the racing community.
However, Henry Tiffen continued to develop his Greenmeadows course and in 1874 formed the Napier Park Company for this purpose.
At this time the racing community was in a state of disarray where politics had disrupted race days in the previous two years.
The Hawke's Bay Jockey Club was formed in 1866 to form a set of rules for racing under in Hawke's Bay, and held its first races as a racing club in 1875 at Meeanee after removing itself from involvement with the Napier Turf Club.
Due to this the Napier Turf Club struggled for existence, but Henry Tiffen revived the club and changed its name in 1877 to the Hawke's Bay Racing Club, with the intention to hold races at his Greenmeadows race course.
There was however tension as many Hawke's Bay Jockey Club and the Hawke's Bay Racing Club supporters despised each other.
Greenmeadows would not be ready for the first race day of the Hawke's Bay Racing Club in 1878 due to flooding and other misfortunes. With the race track still not available in 1879, it was held at Chief Kariatiana's track at Pakowhai.
After returning from overseas in 1884, Henry Tiffen decided to push on with the Napier Park Company and finish the race grounds and a 1000-seat grandstand designed by Robert Lamb.
Success was had at last by Henry Tiffen when in 1886 the Napier Park Company had developed the course for the exclusive use of the Napier Park Racing Club – which was formed from the Hawke's Bay Racing Club.
The first race was held on October 1, 1886, and the race course was held to be among the best in the colony.
Louise, who Henry promised the "Ascot in the South Pacific", never lived to see the Napier Park Company Course – she died giving birth in 1875.
The Napier Park Racing Club attempted to buy the 80-acre (32-hectare) course in 1886 from the Napier Park Company, but this did not occur, and instead the club leased it.
In 1887 an artificial lake was formed, and other improvements had been made such as a new totaliser and rooms for the jockeys and secretary were extended.
The Napier Park Racing Club finally bought the Greenmeadows race course from the Napier Park Company in 1911.
Napier Park Racing Club president Mr R S T Sheratt was told in 1959 by the New Zealand Racing Conference president that pressure to close the club would be forthcoming.
During 1959/1960 the maintenance funding needed for the Napier Park Racing course was hard to raise, and with political pressure from the industry about rationalising the Hawke's Bay race courses, this resulted in a trial race meeting at the Hastings race course in March 1960.
If the Greenmeadows course closed, Napier Park Racing Club would not lose its identity said president R S T Sheratt, and merely rent the Hawke's Bay Jockey Club's course at Hastings.
At a meeting in January 1961, 45 of 400 club members attended a special general meeting which would vote to close the Greenmeadows course and race at Hastings, with only one member opposing the move.
Holt and Sons Ltd desired in 1962 to purchase the land, and an agreeable offer was made to the Napier Park Racing Club.
However, the proposed sale was not acceptable to Napier City Council on the grounds that the property was zoned as a semi-public open space and instead the club should submit a purchase price to the council which wished to acquire the land under the Public Works Act.
After some complications, the Napier City Council took ownership of the Greenmeadows race course in 1964 at a price significantly lower than Holt and Sons were willing to pay.
Napier City Council began to develop the area in 1966 from a £20,000 (2018: $821,000) bequest from Napier businessman Haskell Anderson, for whom the park was named.
• Acknowledgement to Joe Lorigan's The Park Sensations (1987).
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is an EIT accounting lecturer, and in his spare time a recorder of Hawke's Bay's history.