Egmont club celebrates 125 years of racing history at Hawera

TONY BIRD tony.bird@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Saturday, 19 May 2007
ANY thoughts of centralising racing elsewhere will be put on the back burner when the Egmont Racing Club celebrates its 125th anniversary at the Hawera racecourse tomorrow.
In a New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing report released last month, the Hawera racecourse was one of 14 tracks in New Zealand identified as non-essential to the industry.
But that's nothing new. As far back as 1961, centralisation of Taranaki racecourses was being mooted and hardly a decade has past since that the subject has not been a topic of hot debated.
But Taranaki still retains four racetracks - New Plymouth, Stratford, Hawera and Waverley. And, not surprisingly, no club has offered to close up shop and shift to another venue.
An extract from one opinion piece printed in the Sporting Life magazine in 1961 put forward a suggestion that it could be to the advantage of the Taranaki Jockey Club and Stratford Racing Clubs to exploit the possibility of utilising their raceday permits on the Hawera course.
"Amenities and facilities are among the best on the entire Taranaki circuit," the article, reprinted in the ERC's centenary booklet compiled in 1982 by the late Bill Donovan.
That was the case then, but forty-six years on even the most ardent fan of Hawera racecourse fan would have trouble justifying such praise. The track is one of the best around, but the grandstands are urgently in need of an upgrade.
That is one of the reasons why the club is seeking to join forces with a land developer to spruce up the track's facilities. Whether or not this comes to fruition is open for debate.
Perhaps tomorrow's celebrations will spark the impetus required for the course to continue to be an important part of the Taranaki racing scene.
The formation of the ERC came after horse races were first held in Hawera in a paddock on Boundary Rd near Dixon Ave, not far from the present racecourse.
As a result of the meeting of interested enthusiasts in December 1881, the club was formed in January 1882.
Its first race meeting was held in a paddock on the property of one George McLean on the corner of South and Ketemarae roads on March 24, 1882.
Later, meetings were held on land known as the Fantham Estate and the present racecourse was bought in 1902 - 28 hectares at a cost of $2600.
Sir Harry Atkinson was president and the following year, stands, a totalisator building and other buildings were provided at a cost of $7380.
In 1967, after efforts to have all clubs centralise at Hawera had failed, an interest in the land and buildings was taken up by the Hawera Trotting Club and the Opunake Racing Club and the Hawera Racecourse Partnership, still in force today, was formed.
Tomorrow, the ERC is putting on a number of promotions and festivities, including a Interprovincial Riders Challenge which brings a dozen leading riders from all over New Zealand to help mark this special occasion.
The ERC can look back with pride on its achievements.