Racecourse upgrade on track

The Whangarei Racing Club is on track to host more Saturday feature racing after awarding tenders for the $877,000 expansion of the Ruakaka racecourse.

Downers Whangarei was awarded the earthworks contract and Advanced Irrigation, an Auckland firm was awarded the irrigation contract.

Tenders for the expansion were issued in March and and awarded in May. The project is split into two parts.

Phase one of the project costing $813,000, involves expanding the track's width to 25 metres for the circumference of the racetrack; establishing a new grass training track and building a new sand track. A new service road for work vehicles and ambulances will be built. "The project will take 6-8 weeks for the earthworks. The new sand-based grass surface will take six months to be ready for racing," said Dean Logan president of Whangarei Racing Club.

The second phase of the project that starts next year, involves making refinements to the current race course.

Mr Logan said there is increased demand on the Ruakaka Racecourse and Whangarei Racing Club will be able to host more race meets once the upgrade is complete.

"The track was okay when we used to race three or four times a year," said Mr Logan. "[But] of late there have been 10 or 11 races.

"Ruakaka Racecourse will be utilised for feature days. Te Rapa and Ruakaka are the two best surfaces in the north over June and July. Ruakaka will be used every second Saturday over that period. The current number of meets will be reallocated to Saturdays. The upside of this is that you get more patronage on Saturday," said Mr Logan.

Extending the race course will give Ruakaka the "best possible racing surface during the winter months and support the development and training opportunities at Ruakaka," said Campbell Moncur from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing.

More Saturday feature race days will be held starting next winter. Mr Moncur said there will be a two month block starting June 14 where a feature race will be held every second Saturday. Feature races have prize money ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

Half of the funding from the project comes from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR). Mr Moncur said Whangarei was the first club to receive funding from the NZTR's new national infrastructure fund.

The Whangarei District Council funded $200,000 towards the project. An additional $85,000 came from the national Racing Safety and Development Fund; $100,000 came from the Oxford Sports Trust with the rest of the funding coming from Whangarei Racing Club, said Karen Houlihan, finance and projects manager for Whangarei Race Club.