\u201cBut after careful consideration, it has become the only realistic option for me and my family.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacing has never simply been a job to me, it has been a lifelong passion and a significant part of who I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been incredibly fortunate to spend more than 30 years working in an industry that I care deeply about and one that has given me experiences and friendships that have shaped my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel proud to have played a part in some defining chapters within New Zealand racing, including during my time at WTR, and I genuinely believe the club is well positioned for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI leave with great confidence in where it is heading and wish all of the team well as they navigate this exciting period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to sincerely thank the entire WTR team, board, members, sponsors and participants for their commitment and friendship throughout my time with the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have worked alongside some outstanding people and will always be grateful for their support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile stepping away is incredibly difficult, I do so knowing the club is in a strong position and with enormous pride in what has been achieved together.\u201d<\/p>\n
While his early retirement will be hard for a man who has excelled in so many facets of racing, Castle\u2019s absence will be even harder for the racing industry to replace.<\/p>\n
Horse racing has had plenty of administrators, some good, some bad, but few as involved on as many levels as Castles and as respected for his body of work.<\/p>\n
He has worked for the \u014ctaki-M\u0101ori Racing Club, been chief executive at Hawkes Bay and for some in the industry will be best known for his time as executive general manager of racing at Ellerslie, a role he made much broader than the usual racing manager\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
Castles is also well known for his Trackside television and radio work and has managed jockeys like good friend Leith Innes and Michael Walker, as well as having advised on many of the New Zealand racing panels or groups that actually matter.<\/p>\n
While he is confident Waikato Thoroughbred Racing has the right people and framework in place to succeed with the Greenfields project which has been so close to his heart, filling the hole Castle\u2019s retirement leaves in the thoroughbred industry as a whole will be near impossible.<\/p>\n
For many in the industry, from those who run racing to those who clean the horse boxes, Castles has been their go-to man.<\/p>\n
He has an almost encyclopedic knowledge not only of the industry\u2019s rules, regulations and systems but of its people and history. What has worked and what has not.<\/p>\n
He is often the first phone call made when somebody needs to understand the handicapping system, programming, the dates calendar, track conditions or about 10 other things.<\/p>\n
Castles has accrued over 30 years of knowledge but without the racing industry curse of being so involved he is too scared to say anything controversial for fear of who that may upset.<\/p>\n
Friends, foes or unknowns, Castles has never held back from telling a truth he believes is the right thing for the industry.<\/p>\n
Of course there is no point having a sharp tongue if it is connected to a small brain but Castles\u2019 knowledge of what really matters in New Zealand racing is almost unmatched.<\/p>\n
With his retirement, that will be sadly missed in the months and years ahead at a time when the racing industry has rarely needed common sense and genuine knowledge more.<\/p>\n
But for now, Castles has something even more important than his beloved racing industry to fight for: wife Tess Castles and children Hunter and Frankie Castles.<\/p>\n
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald\u2019s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world\u2019s biggest horse racing carnivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBut after careful consideration, it has become the only realistic option for me and my family. \u201cRacing has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28492,74,20251,806,5195,93588,4888,6097,1872,15124,1958,16773,14568,13640,46564,14771,130,111,139,69,1118,5270,3512,36061,213,3057,61,50898,1530,80],"class_list":["post-446724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-administrators","tag-after","tag-andrew","tag-as","tag-be","tag-castles","tag-coal","tag-down","tag-face","tag-fight","tag-focus","tag-great","tag-horse","tag-important","tag-laying","tag-missed","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-one","tag-racing","tag-racings","tag-sports","tag-steps","tag-to","tag-tools","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}