Race day 2020, clerk of the course (in red) leads the winners past the crowd for weigh-in. Photo/Taupō Racing Club Inc
It's a North Island favourite.
Change is in the wind for thoroughbred horse racing in regional New Zealand but according to a review of the New Zealand horse racing industry by Australian expert John Messara, Taupō Racing Club Inc is a good example of how to run a racing club.
A 2018 review of regional thoroughbred racing clubs around New Zealand, known as the Messara Report, recommended the closure of 28 out of 48 thoroughbred racing tracks around the country. The report was commissioned by Racing Minister Winston Peters, who in 2017 vowed to shake up the racing industry to save it from stagnation and a slow death.
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Taupō Racing Club president Terry Campbell says Taupō has been highly proactive in recent years
"[We] haven't just got our hand out to New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing."
He says providing quality facilities to horse trainers is key. In the past 10 years Taupō Racing Club has invested in a new judges' tower with capacity for judges, timers and television crew. The stables have been upgraded and extended, with all-weather facilities for 100-plus horses.
"We want to make the facilities attractive to the trainers and jockeys so they want to come here."
New plastic railings installed just prior to the December 30, 2019 race proved to be a saving grace for one jockey who was thrown off his horse.
"The jockey went into the new plastic rails, the rails collapsed as they are designed to and the jockey went on to ride again that day. In the past he would have been hospitalised after hitting galvanised railings," says Terry.
The space in the middle of the track is leased out to baleage contractors and an unused hill plus sheds are leased out for equestrian purposes.
The club enjoys strong community support from local and national businesses. Terry says this is a key point of difference that the club has worked hard to achieve.
The Messara Report is particularly critical of regional facilities that look shabby.
"Taupō is lucky in that our buildings are relatively low maintenance. We don't have the big historic grandstands and the club isn't faced with future large earthquake strengthening builds."
Running the club as an incorporated society and leasing the land from the Taupō District Council are distinct advantages.
"We are accountable to the council to provide entertainment that boosts the local economy," says Terry.
The Messara Report shows those with freehold land are hard-pressed to show a return, with alternative land uses having the potential to generate at least five times the revenue.
The race day calendar currently has four events, with the Taupō Racing club pushing New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing for a November event. Terry says the club is also a favourite for trial days, where trainers get to gallop their horses prior to a race start.
"At the start of the season it is very exciting, the best horses in New Zealand become apparent, and it happens right here in Taupō. These horses then go onto compete in other major race events in the North Island. The strength really is our all-weather turf."
For the future, a new synthetic track is currently under construction in Cambridge. Terry says that will bring pros and cons for Taupō racing, but overall he hopes the increased interest generated in thoroughbred racing will benefit it.