“We completely realise the interest and would love to be able to provide an exciting update,” he said. “This will come in the near future.”
New HBR president Richard Riddell said there was a commitment with NZTR to come to an agreement by July 31, and he was sure there would be proposals with options out for discussion beforehand with a view to establishing facilities well into the future - “not just a 3-5 year fix”.
That’s in line with NZTR’s commitment to have Hastings regarded as a significant metropolitan race track, and also as a community facility.
With HBR aware for some years of the need to upgrade or replace buildings, the bolt-from-the-blue came when the track was declared unsafe on September 28 after a horse slipped in the first race of the second day of the Spring carnival.
The rest of the day’s programme was abandoned, the feature races were run at Matamata a few days later, and, despite the track passing an inspection after trials in the same week, the major races scheduled for the third day were run at Te Rapa, Hamilton.
With 14 race days having been allocated to Hastings for the season, it was effectively the end of racing in Hawke’s Bay with less than two months gone, for a period likely to be at least 18 months for plans to be made and redevelopment to take place, and the annual New Year races were allocated to New Plymouth and the Hawke’s Bay Cup will be raced on April 12 at Ōtaki.
Racing in Waipukurau and at Wairoa’s Te Kupenga course had ended in recent years, with licences no longer issued for racing at the venues, although the Waipukurau Jockey Club and Wairoa Racing Club remain intact.
Waipukurau is also used as a training venue, increasingly so this week with the Hastings track closed for training with the facilities overtaken by a New Zealand Motor Caravan Association annual national rally, with 550 motorhomes at the racecourse.
The nearest racecourses to Hastings licensed for race meetings are Woodville, 137km to the south, Awapuni, 172km away in Palmerston North, Taupō 159km to the northwest, and Rotorua, 234km to the north.
But the other tracks are also not without their problems, with track safety issues causing trials at Taupō on Tuesday called-off after the first event, a situation which also befell racing on Sunday at Wairarapa track Tauherenīkau, a course that had been used for some of the races originally scheduled for Hastings during the summer.
Last Sunday’s Tauherenīkau abandonment followed by the abandonment of Tuesday’s Taupō trials, after the running of one heat, has added to growing frustration within the thoroughbred racing industry surrounding the sport’s infrastructure.
“I think we are starting to get to a point where we have got a bit of a crisis with our infrastructure,” New Zealand Trainers’ Association president Shaun Clotworthy said.
“We probably need to look at a complete review of our processes and get someone in to have a different look at it from a different angle because it’s not working at the moment.
“The cost is huge to the industry and especially to the owners, who are getting really sick of it, and trainers, who have to reorganise staff and pay different people and juggle things around, so it comes at a personal cost to them as well.”
Balcombe said the latest string of abandonments is frustrating for the industry, with a number of provincial tracks feeling the pressure of extra racedays, with a number of metropolitan tracks currently out of commission while renovations are taking place.
“We completely feel for the industry stakeholders that have been to these meetings that have been called off,” Balcombe said. “It is a terrible situation, and it is a big drain on the industry.
“The tracks are struggling with the weight of racing on them at the moment and that is causing issues.
“It is putting pressure on a number of our provincial tracks that generally are set up to run three to four race days a season and are being asked now to run seven or eight, and the stress is showing on those tracks.
“We need to ensure that we are getting these tracks up to speed as early as possible to make sure it doesn’t carry on.
“It makes it very difficult to be an owner when these things are happening, so we have got to get it right and we are working hard to get it right.”
Meanwhile, hopes are still held of reviving the annual races in Wairoa, says club president Paul Toothill.
Discussion is also taking place about the possibility of the Wairoa A and P Show relocating to Te Kupenga. The show was in January cancelled for a second year in a row as a result of the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
