Racing: Covid rules means meeting may go South

Rocket Spade wins the Group 2 Skycity Auckland Guineas (1600m) at Ellerslie 01 January 2020.

Racing bosses are adamant Saturday's crucial Avondale Guineas and Cup meeting will still go ahead but the question will be where.

Ellerslie is programmed to hold the meeting which provides the main lead-ups to the Vodafone Derby on March 6 and Auckland Cup on March 13 but Auckland Racing Club boss Paul Wilcox is unsure whether they will be allowed to conduct the meeting if Level 3 in the Auckland region is extended until Saturday.

Racing and trialling of horses can be conducted at Level 2, with no public allowed, although oddly owners will be allowed at today's Manawatu harness meeting but not Wednesday's Te Aroha gallops.

The Avondale meeting at Ellerslie is by far the biggest of the week though and ARC bosses will have to wait like everybody else to find out what level Auckland will be at by Saturday.

If Auckland is back to Level 2 the meeting will definitely be held at Ellerslie but without the public and possibly owners.

But if Level 3 remains until after the weekend then the ARC are speaking to at least two Waikato clubs about transferring the meeting south of the Bombays.

"Obviously we want to hold it at Ellerslie and will be endeavouring to do so," says Wilcox.
"But if we can't then it will have to go to the Waikato at either Te Rapa or even Te Aroha so the horses don't miss those leads up to the Cup carnival here.

"So we can't make that decision until after the Government makes their announcements in the next few days." While horses could actually travel to Auckland from the Waikato, where many of them are trained, at Level 3 people couldn't and that would mean not enough jockeys to hold a meeting among other logistical nightmares.

Whereas if the meeting is move to the Waikato there are plenty of jockeys there and in the lower part of the North Island and horses trained in the Auckland region could still compete at Level 3, their trainers just wouldn't be allowed to travel with them so would have to engage caretaker grooms to meet the horses at the meetings and look after them.

"Te Rapa would be a logical place to move to if we had to we would also like the meeting to be right-handed which is why we are considered Te Aroha as an option," says Wilcox.
"But of course they race on Wednesday and if the stays wet that could cut up their surface.

"So we are hoping we don't have to move but we have contingencies in place to ensure the meeting goes ahead for the industry."

Friday night's Alexandra Park meeting could actually be staged with horses and drivers from the Auckland region alone so is more likely to go ahead.

But the standardbred yearling sales which were to have moved to Christchurch on Monday for three days of selling have been delayed until next Monday, with NZBS to be flexible depending on what the alert levels are by the weekend.

** Unbeaten three-year-old Aegon flew to Sydney last night and will make his Australian debut in the Hobartville Stakes on Saturday for which the TAB has him as the pre-draw favourite.

But fellow Kiwi three-year-old Brando is returning home from Melbourne after racing below his best, all be it with no luck, at Flemington on Saturday.

And no decision will be made on whether classy filly Amarelinha is a late entry for the Vodafone Derby until after her team watch the Avondale Guineas on Saturday and asses her three options, the Derby, NZ Oaks or an Australian campaign.