Racing returns to Hastings
Racing returned to Hastings Racecourse for the first time in 20 months on Thursday, with the track given a green tick of approval following a successful six-race card.
Local racing fans flocked to the course to take in the returning meeting, the first since the second day of the 2024 Spring Carnival, which was abandoned following a slip in the first race.
Subsequent remedial work took place to bring the track up to a safe racing standard, and after fulfilling its return to racing protocol obligations, including a successful set of trials three weeks ago, the club was given the green light to race.
The aptly named Sundown Sav took out the first race, with club patrons toasting the return to racing, with the subsequent five races taking place without incident.
In-form apprentice jockey Toni Davies and senior rider Leah Hemi won two races apiece, and while Hemi said it was tough going competing on the Heavy9 track, there were zero safety concerns.
“It was Heavy, it was hard work, but there were no safety issues at all,” she said. “It has been quite a long time (since we have raced at Hastings) and they have done quite a good job. It will be nice to have another track that we can use again in the Central Districts.”
Hawke’s Bay Racing chief executive Darin Balcombe was rapt with the outcome of the meeting and the support it received.
“We are really happy, we had a really big crowd and a really good feel to it. Everyone was really excited to have racing back,” he said.
“It (track) was heavier than we would have liked, we had it in a really good position last week. We put a little bit of water on to keep it there and we ended up getting 15ml (of rain) that we weren’t forecast on Sunday through to Tuesday.
“We vertidrained two weeks ago as well, so there was definitely cut in the ground and they were punching into it, so it was quite testing but it played really well and we are happy. It was safe as houses.”
Balcombe has been pleased with the remedial work carried out on the track, which included recambering the track.
“The track has always had a good camber out to 9m and then it went to a reverse camber,” Balcombe said.
“We built the camber from the 9m mark at about a three-degree camber to the outside of the track.
“We did it from the winning post right around to the 1200m, and at the 1600m mark it got raised about 1.5m on the outside.”
Balcombe said the club also took an innovative and time effective approach to returfing the track, which was very much like a hair transplant.
“This project was the first one in New Zealand where we turfed the track rather than seed it,” he said.
“We did it in 100m lots and took the turf from our chutes – the 800m chute and 2000m chute. You cut up about 50mm and roll it like a mat and roll it back down again. Because you are laying the turf down, the root structure goes strong really quick.
“We used that turf to do each 100m block and then we would put the turf back down in those chutes and cycle the turf around.
“That brought the project along a lot quicker than we thought. We got the turf finished in November and here we are racing again in May. Had we gone down the road of seeding it we would have been touch and go to get ready for spring.”
The return to racing at Hastings Racecourse is just phase one in an exciting few years of change for the club, which is set to develop a Greenfields site in Flaxmere into their new home for Hawke’s Bay racing.
“Following September 2024, we looked at the track and what we could do, but in the background we had to look at buildings because they were coming up for their earthquake-prone status deadline, so we needed to do something about that,” Balcombe said.
“The more we worked the numbers it just became very clear that it was getting very bad to stay at this venue because it is too small and once we knocked down the buildings and other things we would have had a lot of debt that we wouldn’t have been able to service.
“We started to look at our options and that is why it took a little bit longer to get started on the project. This project (remedial work) has a five-year lifespan whereas if we were going to stay we would have had to do something a lot more substantial and do the whole track, drainage, irrigation and the whole works.
“Once we figured out that the Greenfields was the go, we decided to undertake this initial five-year project (for racing’s initial return).
“At the moment it (Greenfields site) is going through the plan stage process with Council, so all going well that will hopefully be done by the end of this year or early next year.
“From that time, the track will be the first thing that is constructed, so they will get straight into that, and after the track is done, they will move into (constructing) all the buildings and everything else.
“The aim is to be in the course ready for the 2029 spring carnival.”
While excited about moving into that next phase early next year, Balcombe said his current focus is on this year’s Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival and delivering an iconic event to locals, who have been starved of live racing for two years.
“The mower is already out,” said Balcombe, with the track now being rested until next season. “We are just taking off the turf and we are going to scarify that and then we will reseed it, let it grow and get it 110 percent for spring.
“We are racing back on the 22nd of August so we will be full steam ahead towards the spring carnival. We are very excited and we will have (hospitality) packages going out in the next couple of weeks, we can’t wait.”
Balcombe said Hastings’ return to racing is a tonic for the Central Districts, who have had a trying last couple of years with both Hastings and Awapuni out of action.
“It has been pretty tough, especially having Awapuni and Hastings out at the same time,” Balcombe said. “It has been really tough for all the participants in the CD, they are having to do a lot of travel, they have been very patient, and I can’t wait to have something here to give back for them.”
