Racing: Dodgy track sends Dargaville races off course

The third race ended up the last one at Dargaville Racing Club's spring meeting last year.

Despite its track not being up to scratch Dargaville Racing Club's popular spring meeting will still run thanks to an offer to hold it at Ruakaka.

"The race will go on. Whangarei [Racing Club] have very kindly offered to pick it up for us to make sure the meet stays in Northland," club president Tim Antonio said.

The Dargaville meeting, scheduled for November 17, was called off because repairs to a section of the track had not come through the wet winter well. That unsafe section was the cause of last year's spring meeting being stopped after only the third race.

Dargaville races, a unique sporting, social and cultural fixture at the club with no peer.

While this latest failure is an unwelcome turn of events, it does not cast a shadow on the club's future, he said.

"It's just a second bit of bad luck and some of our members are very disappointed," Mr Antonio said.

"But we hope a large number of the crowd we usually get will support the race meet at Ruakaka."

The meeting will be run as a Whangarei club event as, with the change of venue, the race licence also changes over.

It is not unusual for a course to fail its warrant of fitness, and the safety of jockeys and horses was paramount.

Last year, race meetings at Awapuni, Te Aroha, Waipa, Matamata, Otaki, Oamaru, Gore, Te Rapa, Wanganui and Winton were also cut short or abandoned. Reasons included high winds, fly-away plastic sheets, uneven surfaces and stable staff issues.

"Dry" conditions rather than wet ones nearly stymied last year's Dargaville picnic fixture before it started after the club failed to get a BYO licence.

Hospitality tents, Foxy's Bar in the old tote shed and The Cowshed Bar in the old cowshed all did a roaring trade, but many old timers said the atmosphere was not the same without the car-boot bars at the club with no grandstand.