New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing bosses also took into account reports of the Trentham grandstand not being earthquake compliant and the sale of the land where the Trentham stables are.<\/p>\n
NZTR has, however, vowed to listen to clubs who want to put their case for a reversal of any closure decision, and Wellington Racing Club president Simon Barber is already booking his place at the front of that queue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we thought closing Trentham was genuinely in the best interests of New Zealand racing then we would sadly agree to it, but it simply isn\u2019t,\u201d Barber told the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow anybody can think having no racing in one of your biggest cities, let alone your capital, is a good idea doesn\u2019t make any sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are told one of the reasons is the travel time for Central Districts trainers to get to Trentham causes \u2018friction\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201dIn that case plenty of the world\u2019s great racetracks are in trouble because there aren\u2019t many horses trained anywhere close to Ellerslie or Ascot in England or some of the other biggest tracks in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barber says while NZTR may have taken into account a damning report suggesting the main Trentham stand and raceday administration area are unsafe, WRC has a more recent report confirming that building is earthquake compliant and perfectly safe until at least 2042.<\/p>\n
The Herald has seen that second report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe admit that building needs maintenance but that was delayed firstly because we were hoping to build a new multi-purpose facility there, possibly including a conference centre or hotel on the site, but that was all delayed by this uncertainty,\u201d explains Barber.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can easily improve that and the concerns about the stalls and tie-up area being sold is rubbish as the money we receive for that land has been set aside to build modern new stalls and tie-ups closer to the actual track so it is a good thing, not a bad one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is, with some certainty about our future we can have the main stand improved, better housing for the horses and we have options to maximise revenue from other buildings we own on the track.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barber and many of his members believe WRC needs to exit the RACE consortium to enable a singular focus on Trentham as it fights for survival. <\/p>\n
\u201cAwapuni needs NZTR to assist in resolving their track issues and WRC needs to redirect its funds and focus closer to home\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf NZTR are honest about listening to a fair business case for keeping Trentham open and what we have planned then it really should be a no brainer it stays.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless they want to be the people who closed down racing forever in Wellington and then wonder why people in one of our biggest cities lose interest in the industry,\u201d says Barber, who has extensive racing interests.<\/p>\n
Barber\u2019s suggestion the \u201ctravel factor\u201d to Trentham shouldn\u2019t hold much weight is hard to argue with when Ellerslie, the shining light of New Zealand racing, has a similar issue, with many of the starters there coming from the racing powerhouses at Cambridge and Matamata.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am an owner and we pay the bills and owners want to race where they want to race,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrentham is an icon of New Zealand racing and it is aspirational for plenty of people to try to win a race there.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust look how many South Island trainers make the trip to race here but never consider going to other North Island tracks. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t hear them complaining about travel friction; they choose to come here even though it means crossing Cook Strait because they love it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo can anybody honestly ask people to believe trainers don\u2019t want to travel to Trentham?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what about all the Wellington-based owners and punters who don\u2019t want to travel to Awapuni to watch their horse race or for a day at the races?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe there are a few people at NZTR who don\u2019t want racing at Trentham, but the reasons just don\u2019t stand up.\u201d<\/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":"New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing bosses also took into account reports of the Trentham grandstand not being earthquake compliant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[806,1558,11154,1970,17940,1121,15124,85098,42,809,19052,43,5493,161222,13120,8229,61,40,38,41,39,22974,110477,1337,1533],"class_list":["post-549096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-as","tag-been","tag-begins","tag-believe","tag-bosses","tag-case","tag-fight","tag-fightback","tag-headlines","tag-keep","tag-misinformation","tag-news","tag-open","tag-outline","tag-remain","tag-they","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-track","tag-trentham","tag-victim","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549096","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=549096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}