Ronnie Welby has been going to the Whanganui races for 40 years but says last Saturday he and his wife were treated like "third-class citizens".
"Just about every grandstand I went to I was turned away, they'd say 'are you a member?'," he said.
"We eventually found the public stand, which was the worst set up I've ever seen in my life.
"When we took our bets and wanted to go out the front we weren't allowed outside.
"We had to walk down to get outside in the torrential rain, when we got there there was no where for the public to sit. It was just horrible.