Poised for racing with repairs at Hastings racecourse

Upgrading of the racecourse track in Hastings started earlier this month and was well under way this week. Photo / Michaela Gower.

The rebuilding of the Hastings racecourse’s troublesome Southland Rd end bend is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

But it will still be several months before any equine action will be seen on the track as Hawke’s Bay Racing (HBR) and New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) work towards having it ready for the three-day Spring Racing Carnival in September-October next year.

Racing ended abruptly because of safety concerns after a horse slipped entering the bend just past the finishing post at the end of the first (and ultimately only) race on September 28 last year, the second day of the 2024 carnival.

NZTR Central Districts general manager of special projects and former HBR CEO Darin Balcombe said the work on about two furlongs of the course is being done in four stages of about 100 metres each, from just past the winning post to the 1400m shute at the entrance to the back straight.

Starting with the vicinity of the shute, the turf is being excavated and re-turfed up to 18 metres out.

The work is being carried out by TW Group under the management of Australian racetrack and sports grounds specialists Evergreen Turf.

Balcombe said that once the replacement turf is laid, a turf settlement process before horses can be worked on the bend and jump-outs can be held to test the condition of the track before racing can restart.

It will enable racing for approximately three seasons until a new racing facility is established on a new site on the southern fringes of Flaxmere.

The major Spring Carnival races have, since the sudden cancellation last year, been run at other tracks, including $550,000 Group 1 feature the 2025 Livamol Classic, which was run at Ellerslie, in Auckland, last Saturday.

Problems for racing in the Central Districts and Hawke’s Bay-Gisborne, including the shutting down of racing at Waipukurau, Wairoa and Gisborne five years ago, have been exacerbated by the troubled reopening of premier Palmerston North track Awapuni.

It’s recommissioning after a closure of 19 months for reconstruction lasted just one race and one slip of a horse in April.

Meanwhile, racing will return to Hawke’s Bay on November 16 with the first of three cup meetings on the Waipukurau track, which has not seen the gallops since the track’s licence to race was cancelled in 2020.

It has continued being used for training and jumpouts, but the licence is being reinstated as a temporary measure for the upcoming $35,000 Waipukurau Cup meeting, the Wairoa Cup meeting on February 15, and the Hawke’s Bay Cup meeting on April 26.

Doug Laing has been a newspaper reporter for more than 50 years, most if it in Hawke’s Bay covering most aspects of news, sports, and, occasionally racing.