The re-cambering work at the Hastings racetrack is progressing well with fresh grass now re-laid in three sections, including the 1400m chute and 1400m bend on the course proper.

A special machine has been in operation, cutting out slices of turf on the course proper at a depth of 50 millimetres.

The machine rolls these slices and they are put on wooden pallets for easy transportation.

Where the sections on the course proper have had the grass cut and removed the underneath soil has been sloped and additional soil has been used to build up a camber that tapers from more than a metre high, at the point where a new outside running rail will be erected, back down to the inside rail. The strips of grass and then re-laid on top.

The areas where the grass has already been re-laid have taken so well that the section joins are not visible and racecourse employee Phillip Lyons says he has already mowed the new grass three times.  

Acting Hawke’s Bay Racing Chief Executive Darin Balcombe said he envisages the re-cambering work to be completed by Christmas and, with good grass growth over the following months, racing will hopefully recommence on the Hastings racetrack earlier than the initial predicted return time of next spring.

Racing returns to Waipukurau

The Waipukurau Jockey Club is expecting a bumper crowd in attendance when racing returns to the Waipukurau racecourse this Sunday after a break of more than five years.

President Kirsty Lawrence says the hospitality areas on course are sold out and she is also expecting a big roll up crowd of locals and other keen racegoers, especially given the forecast is for fine weather.

“We are rapt with how everything has come together and are expecting a big day,” Lawrence said.

She said more than 400 people are being catered for in the hospitality areas and marquees.

“You can not get hospitality anywhere on course…it’s a sell out,” she added.

Trainers have also got behind the race meeting with more than 120 horses entered for the nine race card and capacity fields in five of the races. Dress rugs will be presented for every race winner.

The feature race will be the $35,000 DMAK Electrical Waipukurau Cup (2100m). The Rating 75 event is part of a seven-race Country Cups series being run over this season’s spring and summer months.

Known as the Prezzy Card Country Cups Bonus Series, the races are being run between October and December with points attached to each and a $50,000 winner take all bonus at the end.

This Sunday’s race meeting is the first of three race dates the Waipukurau Jockey Club has been allocated for this racing season, the others being on February 15 and April 26 next year.  

Vale Kaye Tinsley

Hawke’s Bay-born Kaye Tinsley, a leading New Zealand jockey during the 1960s who later became a successful trainer in Queensland, died on the Gold Coast last month.

He was in his early 80s and had battled cancer in recent years.

Kaye Tinsley was a son of Ivan Tinsley, who trained on the old Greenmeadows track in Napier and was the first trainer of the champion galloper Kindergarten.

He was the leading apprentice in the country in the 1960-61 season when rode 51 winners and finished third behind Bill and Bob Skelton on the national jockeys’ premiership.

He rode seven winners at the spring Wellington meeting that season and ended his apprenticeship with 145 wins, breaking the record for an apprentice at that time which had stood since Tommy Green came out of his time in 1928 with a tally of 142.

Kaye Tinsley rode 492 winners in New Zealand before moving to the Gold Coast of Australia, where he continued his riding career before turning his hand to training thoroughbreds until the 2006-07 season.

Tinsley won Group races as a trainer and produced City Fair to finish a close second in Queensland’s greatest race, the 1999 Stradbroke Handicap.

The Tinsley stable also enjoyed great success with gallopers such as Strange Aura, Brighter Scene, Heroism, Counter Agent and Princess Clang, among others.

Heroism’s triumph in the 2001 Queensland Guineas – which was run at Group 2 level – will go down as one of his best results as a conditioner.

Tinsley’s two biggest wins as a jockey in New Zealand were the 1967 New Zealand Derby on Jazz and the 1967 New Zealand Cup on Laramie.

Mr Mink was one of the best horses he was associated with and he recorded six consecutive wins on the Brian Deacon-trained galloper before he was sold to American interests.

Mr Mink and Tinsley won a two-year-old double at the Wellington March meeting, the Plunket Nursery and Wakefield Challenge Stakes. He then headed to Ellerslie where he beat the best youngsters in the ARC Great Northern Champagne Stakes and Wills Championship Stakes.

Tinsley was also associated with a number of other top New Zealand gallopers. He rode Whakamoa to win both the Hawke’s Bay Cup and Feilding Cup in 1968 and also won the 1969 Feilding Cup on Yoshiko.

Nerula was another horse he had a great record on, the pair combining to win three major races at Trentham in 1961, the Harcourt Stakes, Whyte Handicap and Parliamentary Handicap.

He also won the 1966 Whyte Handicap on Maria Mitchell and completed back-to-back wins in the Harcourt Stakes aboard Raidan (1966) and Laramie (1967) and took out the 1962 Wanganui Guineas on Tara’s Pride and 1970 North Island Challenge stakes on Astrella.

After finishing third on the national jockeys’ premiership behind Bill and Bob Skelton with 51 winners in the 1960-61 season he chalked up the exact same number the following season and finished third behind the Skelton brothers again.

Kaye Tinsley will also be fondly remembered for his tutelage of young jockeys.

Jason Taylor and Glen Boss – who have both won multiple Group 1s in the saddle – were two of his star pupils during his tenure on the Gold Coast.

Promising three-year-old sold

The Hastings stable of Guy Lowry and Leah Zyndenbos has sold another promising young galloper to Australia.

Overcast, a three-year-old gelding by Time Test out of the Per Incanto mare Maggie O’Reilly, has been purchased by the prominent Australian syndication group OTI Racing and will begin his racing career across the Tasman.

Overcast obviously created a big impression when finishing third in a 1300m barrier trial at Taupo on October 30, where he came from well off the pace on the home turn to finish less than two lengths from the winner.

Guy Lowry has sold several promising gallopers from his stable in recent years, the most notable being Jimmysstar.

That Per Incanto gelding was prepared by Lowry for his first three starts, recording two wins and a second. He was then sold to clients of successful Australian trainer Ciaron Maher and has since gone on to win another eight races in Australia, two at Group 1 level, and has taken his stake earnings to more than A$6million.