Horse racing: Te Rapa set to hold pair of iconic jumps races

The Cossack will target the Pakuranga Hunt Cup and Great Northern steeplechases, with both races now being held at Te Rapa.Photo / Race Images

Two of jumps racing’s biggest days of the season are returning to Te Rapa in a move that will please many in the jumping racing fraternity.

Both the Pakuranga Hunt and Great Northern meetings will be held at the Hamilton track and the first of those will create a “something for everybody” winter treat on August 26.

The two huge meetings were traditionally held at Ellerslie but have had to find a new home because not only is the Auckland track undergoing extensive renovation but jumps racing won’t be held there in the future.

The StrathAyr track doesn’t support hurdle racing and the famous Ellerslie hill has been sold to help secure the financial future of Auckland Thoroughbred Racing.

That new home of northern jumps racing was supposed to be Te Aroha but the track renovations there have not gone well and it could be some time before racing returns.

Initially New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing moved the Pakuranga Hunt meeting to Hāwera with the Great Northern to be held at Te Rapa but after consultation with the very passionate members of the NZ Jumping Association it has been agreed Te Rapa hosting both meetings makes more sense.

So the Pakuranga Hunt Cup Steeple and the open hurdle will be part of the Waikato Thoroughbred Racing meeting on August 26 while the Great Northerns will be run at Te Rapa on Sunday, September 17.

The August 26 meeting is a Saturday and will now provide a real rarity with the first really big bang thoroughbred flat race of the northern season, the $150,000 Waikato Stud Foxbridge Plate, being run on the same card as two major jumps races.

The Foxbridge was won last season by Imperatriz so is a serious race and it is rare for that level of horse to be racing on the same card as the elite jumpers.

“It makes more sense, with the Pakuranga Hunt Cup being the natural stepping stone to the Great Northern and the same with the two hurdle races, that they are now held on the same track,” says Te Rapa boss Andrew Castles. “It means we will have to run Pakuranga Hunt’s open hurdle as the first race on the card so we can set up the hurdles the day before and then take them down straight after the first but the Steeplechase will be later in the programme.”

The change was met with approval by the jumping trainers the Herald spoke to, with the two meetings being run at the same venue three weeks apart seen as the best possible outcome after the Te Aroha setback.

The move has all but sealed the deal for trainer Paul Nelson who will now bypass the National meeting at Riccarton and aim star steeplechaser The Cossack at the Pakuranga Hunt Cup and Northern Steeples double.

“That is the plan, no Riccarton, maybe a run at Rotorua on the flat the week before the Pakuranga Hunt Cup and then into the Great Northern,” said Nelson.