And by complete fluke that Group 1, renamed the Proisir Plate, will now be run at Ellerslie.
The first Group 1 is usually held at Hastings and has recently been known as the Tarzino Trophy, but the Hastings track is closed this spring for re-cambering work.
That means Ellerslie wins the battle to host the race that officially launches spring racing, the Gold Trail Stakes and, quite appropriately considering the rugby tie-in, the Sir Colin Meads Trophy.
The other two legs of what is usually the Hawkes Bay Triple Crown have also been moved, with NZTR announcing on Wednesday they will also come north after earlier programming them for Awapuni.
The $400,000 1600m Group 1 formerly known as the Arrowfield Plate will now be held at Te Rapa on September 27 while what was known as the Livamol, the $550,000 Group 1 over 2040m, will also be held at Ellerslie on October 18.
But it is the September 6 meeting which promises a unique racing-rugby crossover in Auckland.
As anybody who has traveled to an All Blacks test in New Zealand knows, test day features hundreds, sometimes thousands, of rugby supporters dressed in black wandering from cafes to bars filling in time before the now usual 7.05pm kick-off.
Wilcox has a ready made gathering point for them.
“It is going to be a huge day for Auckland sport and we are as excited as anybody about the Springboks coming to Auckland,” says the Auckland Thoroughbred Racing chief executive.
“But having our new Proisir Plate day on in the hours before is too good an opportunity to miss.
“So we are looking at ways of accommodating rugby fans who are in town and want to get warmed up for the test with some world-class racing and a place to get together.
“We are open to options and that at time of the season the racing is over nice and early so it gives the heaps of time to get to Eden Park.
“You can even get the train there from here so it is going to be a very cool day for people who love their racing and rugby.
“We know a lot of people will be heading to their hospitality options at the test around 5pm but we will give them somewhere to start their day first.”
Star stallion Proisir will be the new name on the first Group 1 of the season over 1400m, with Rich Hill Stud jumping at the chance to help launch spring racing.
The September 6 date will now loom large not only for rugby fans but also racing participants already growing tired of the constant heavy tracks this winter has dished up.
While there are winter highlights like West Coast’s attempt to win a fourth Grand National at Riccarton and the Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa on August 23 still to come, Ellerslie’s first meeting of the season will now be the one circled on many calendars.
Ellerslie have finished a hugely successful season where after a tricky bedding first stint for their StrathAyr track, it raced beautifully this term.
“We were stoked with the track and it has had its annual maintenance and is looking really good,” says Wilcox.
Ellerslie has already started looking even further into the 2025-26 season, which starts on August 1, with tickets on sale for its major racedays.
That includes tickets for most meetings up until January 1 but also next year’s Karaka Millions meeting (January 24) and Champions Day (March 7).
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
