Racing could return to the Hastings track in the new racing season, commencing August 1 next year, if remedial work can be carried out in the coming months at a reasonable cost.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Bruce Sharrock outlined plans for Hawke’s Bay Racing in an interview with Michael Guerin on the Trackside TV programme The Guerin Report on Monday.
Sharrock said the plan is the re-camber the problem areas on the Hastings track and, if this is done, he can envisage racing resuming there in six months’ time.
He added that this will get Hawke’s Bay Racing through the next three years and, during that time, a detailed master plan for the club’s future needs to be drawn up and presented to the NZTR board.
Sharrock recently met with the Hawke’s Bay Racing executive and the Hastings District Council and said there are now people looking into the cost of the re-cambering.
“Hawke’s Bay Racing has been given the assurance that NZTR sees Hastings as a strategic racing venue going forward but it needs to see a venue that stands up to the metro status that it is given,” Sharrock said.
He added that the present Hawke’s Bay Racing site, in the middle of Hastings, is seen as the ideal place to continue racing and is seen as the location of the future.
“But Hawke’s Bay Racing needs to have a master plan that aligns with NZTR’s master plan, with a 10 to 20 year vision for the industry,” Sharrock added.
Asked about Hawke’s Bay Racing’s present financial position, Sharrock said the club’s balance sheet is extremely strong as it owns a freehold block of land that is worth $45 to $50million. But the club does have a cashflow issue.
He said that the Hawke’s Bay Spring carnival produces up to 70 per cent of Hawke’s Bay Racing’s revenue for the year.
This year the first day of the carnival, on September 7, was a success and the racing surface was described by participants as perfect.
However a horse slipped, on the bend going out of the home straight, in race one on the second day of the carnival, on September 28, and the remaining eight races on that programme were abandoned.
NZTR then made the call to transfer the third day of the carnival, Livamol Classic Day, to the Te Rapa track in October.
The combination of those two decisions has had a huge financial impact on Hawke’s Bay Racing.
Sharrock’s thoughts are that Hawke’s Bay Racing can resume racing by re-cambering the track and that will assist with its cashflow.
He said that NZTR’s head of finance and the Board of Hawke’s Bay Racing have been working through a detailed cashflow plan that will be presented to Sharrock and the NZTR Board next Monday.
“We will have a clear picture of what that looks like before we make other decisions,” he added.
There are eight remaining race meetings this season that were scheduled to be held on the Hastings track but have now been transferred to other venues.
The first of these is on Tuesday, December 31, which will now be a Taranaki meeting and run at New Plymouth.
The Hawke’s Bay date on January 29 will now be a Waverley meeting run at Waverley and the Wairoa Racing Club’s annual race day, which would have been at Hastings on February 16, is now a Wairarapa meeting run at Tauherenikau.
Hawke’s Bay Racing’s date on February 28 is now an Egmont meeting at Hawera and the Hawke’s Bay date on March 15 is now a Wanganui meeting and run at Wanganui.
There were two race days set down to be run at Hastings in April next year, April 12 and April 30. The first of these will now be an Otaki meeting at Otaki and the second will now be a Woodville meeting run at Woodville.
The Hawke’s Bay winter meeting, set down for July 12, will now be an Egmont meeting run at Hawera.
Party Rocking’s connections celebrate again
It has been a long time between celebration drinks for the connections of Hastings-trained Parting Rocking but the four-year-old could not have been more impressive when winning a Rating 65 race at Wanganui last Saturday.
The Belardo gelding, prepared by John Bary, bounced straight to the front in the 1200m event and never looked like being headed, crossing the line with a 3-1/2 length advantage over his rivals.
It was Party Rocking’s second success but his first since he made a winning debut as a two-year-old in an 800m race at Hastings in July last year. He led all the way that day too and that was on a heavy track.
Party Rocking was having just his 13th start when he lined up at Wanganui and seemed to cope just as well with the good-4 track conditions, clocking a very quick 1:09.96s for the 1200m distance.
Apprentice jockey Jim Ching had no hesitation in taking the horse to the front once he jumped so quickly from the gates and had the horse travelling comfortably all the way.
Chung put a break on the field rounding the home bend and left his rivals struggling in his wake.
It was Party Rocking’s fifth start this time in, with the previous best result from those runs being a third over 1200m on the Awapuni synthetic track three starts back.
His record now stands at two wins, a second and two fourths and has amassed $47,990 in stakemoney.
Bary purchased the horse for $42,000 from the Karaka 2022 yearling sales and has retained a racing share along with several others, including Hawke’s Bay Racing Board member Tim Gillespie.
Durrant now Te Akau assistant trainer
Former Hawke’s Bay-based Hunter Durrant has been rewarded for his commitment to leading Te Akau Racing’s Riccarton barn with promotion to assistant trainer for the trans-Tasman operation.
Te Akau principal David Ellis was impressed with Durrant’s dedication and success as foreman for their Riccarton stable last season, with their southern base contributing 63 wins to Te Akau trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson’s national premiership-winning 169-win season tally, and Ellis felt it was fitting to reward Durrant with a promotion.
“Hunter looked after everything when we started a permanent base of stables last season at Riccarton, and he continues to do a fantastic job,” Ellis said.
“Much like Nicole Shailer, our assistant trainer in the stables at Matamata, and Ben Gleeson, our assistant trainer at Cranbourne in Melbourne, Hunter is the eyes and ears for Mark and Sam when it comes to how the horses and staff are performing, and the training regimes are worked out through the upkeep of data and communications.
“We love supporting South Island racing and first had stables in 2002 at Rangiora, which helped Mark (Walker) to win five premierships before he left to set up stables for us in 2011 in Singapore.
“It was timely to set up permanently again there last season, with the stables at Riccarton, and Hunter has been instrumental in the success.
“He’s a level-headed young man, a really good horseman, doesn’t get flustered, and has a great personality to get on with our owners and staff.
“We feel very fortunate to have Hunter in our team and elevating him to assistant trainer is the right thing to do because he deserves that sort of reward for all his hard work.”
Durrant, 24, started out as an apprentice jockey in the then Hastings sable of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen and rode one winner from a limited number of race-rides before increasing weight brought about an early retirement.
That success was aboard Royal Ruby, who he rode to an all the way win in a Rating 65 race over 1600m at the Hawke’s Bay New Year race meeting, on January 1, 2019.
Durrant did a stint working for Australian trainer Paddy Payne before returning to New Zealand and joining Te Akau Racing.
Farag heads Kiwi-bred trifecta in Jericho Cup
Former New Zealand galloper Farag was simply unstoppable in last Sunday’s A$300,000 Jericho Cup (4600m), topping a Kiwi-bred trifecta in the iconic feature at Warrnambool.
The son of Sacred Falls had 14 starts in his homeland for Shelley Wright and managed a trio of third placings, with his staying promise catching the attention of Australian owner Peter Groidis.
The gelding swiftly got on the board across the Tasman in January, and since then, has won a further five races over 2400m.
Coming into Sunday’s contest, Farag had finished fourth in the Road To The Jericho (3800m) at The Valley and was at $9.10 on the New Zealand TAB market, with the Kiwi representative Split, racing in the colours of his owner Jo Rathbone, a $12 chance.
Split was positively away from the barriers and remained prominent through the mid-stages, allowing Golden Garden to lead by a lengthy margin as they navigated the unique course.
Farag remained in touch tracking Split, before jockey Will Gordon made his move to lead at the 1000m, and the race was all but over as the seven-year-old continued to extend the margin to 20 lengths at the post, with Split finishing bravely into second ahead of Roc De Cambes gelding Glen Massey.
Bred by Bruce Sherwin, Farag was initially sold to Shelley and Ian Wright for $1000 via gavelhouse.com. Out of a Yamanin Vital mare Flightime, Farag is a half-brother to seven-race winner Fantasy Flight.
Farag is the second-Kiwi bred victor of the Jericho in a row, after Nassak Diamond’s similarly impressive romp last year for trainers Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray.