Racing back on track, but not in Hawke’s Bay

The Hawke's Bay New Year's Eve races in December last year. The New Year's Eve races will this year be held in New Plymouth. This Sunday's Waipukurau Cup will be raced at Woodville. Photo / NZME

One of Hawke’s Bay’s oldest horse races will be run in Woodville on Sunday as Hawke’s Bay Racing deals with the ramifications of the closure of its track for reconstruction.

Said to be its 164th running, the Waipukurau Jockey Club’s Waipukurau Cup, would have been raced at the Hastings racecourse, had it not been for the closure after a horse slipped on a bend in the opening race of the second day of Hawke’s Bay Racing’s Spring Racing carnival in September.

With such courses as Waipukurau and Wairoa’s Te Kupenga no longer licensed for race meetings, it resulted in major races on the rest of the programme, including the third day’s Livamol Spring Classic, being transferred to courses in Waikato.

A decision was then made by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing that there would be no more meetings in Hastings until reconstruction of the 1700-metre track.

With major other Central Districts track Awapuni, in Palmerston North, also out of action, most of Hawke’s Bay Racing’s other meetings in the 2024-2025 season have been allocated outside the region.

The New Year’s Eve races have gone across-country to New Plymouth on December 31, the Wairoa Cup meeting on February 16 to Tauherenikau, between Greytown and Featherston, and the Hawke’s Bay Cup meeting on April 12 to Otaki.

The annual twilight meeting at Hastings on December 11 will be a virtual affair, from 10.30am, being billed by Hawke’s Bay Racing as ideal for the end-of-year function or family gatherings, although the horses will go racing 240km away, also at Tauherenikau.

HBR chief executive officer Aaron Hamilton said the organisation and racing entities are currently “working through” the issues relating to rebuilding the track and making other facilities “fit for purpose”, including buildings that have in recent years failed earthquake-risk assessment.

Timelines are yet to be determined, and while the focus would be on getting the track back to racing standard – “without a track we can’t return to racing” – the work would continue on planning and upgrading the facilities – “hopefully together”.

“We are working through that right now, there are a lot of meetings, working out what is required,” he said.

Galloping trials were held at Waipukurau on October 31, with the club reporting “the track was in great order and allowed all runners to get their toe in the ground on a better surface.”

For the meeting on Sunday, free buses are being made available from Waipukurau to get to Woodville in time for the first race at 12.20pm.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.