Racing: Wairoa club forced to relinquish meeting

The Wairoa Racing Club has been forced to relinquish its two race days this season after an inspection last week of the club's facilities.

The inspection of the Hawkes Bay club deemed the running rail on the racetrack and some of the on course buildings to be sub-standard.

The annual two-day fixture, planned for February 9 and February 12, will not be lost from the East Coast region however.

The Poverty Bay Turf Club and Hawkes Bay Racing have agreed to a joint venture that will see the two days run on the Makaraka racecourse in Gisborne instead.

"We have undertaken a joint venture with the Poverty Bay Turf Club to ensure that racing is not lost from the East Coast," Hawkes Bay Racing general manager John McGifford said this week.

"It will be called 'The Great Eastern Week Of Racing' and is fairly unique in that two clubs have entered into an arrangement where they will share in the profits and reduce the risks."

Campbell Moncur, racing manager for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, inspected the Wairoa Racing Club's racetrack and facilities along with chief stipendiary steward Noel McCutcheon, Hastings track manager Gary Foskett and John McGifford.

Wairoa Racing Club president Len Cook admitted there were two problems that needed to be addressed.

"The first was that our running rail was unsafe and has to be replaced and the second was some of our buildings need renovating," Cook said.

He said the club's track and facilities were first inspected on October 14 and the club was told then that work had to be undertaken to ensure the running rail met safety standards.

In an incident on the second day of last year's Wairoa race meeting, apprentice jockey Troy Harris broke both of his legs when he fell from his mount in the opening race and crashed against the running rail.

Cook and his fellow committee members were under the impression that lowering the running rail and covering the concrete feet at the bottom of the posts with soil would have been sufficient to allow the club to continue racing until a new running rail could be erected.

"But we were told it was unacceptable," Cook said.

"They gave us an assurance that we could race again in 2007 as long as we made the necessary improvements,"

The Wairoa Racing Club celebrated 125 years of racing in February 2004 and has been based at the present Te Kupenga racetrack, on the outskirts of Wairoa, since 1925.

- NZPA