Auckland Cup turnout stirs visions of bright future

Zarius was the punters' favourite but finished third. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Auckland can match Melbourne for its weather and yesterday it did, but it is still a long way off emulating the Australian city for a major race day.

The Auckland Cup at Ellerslie drew a reasonably strong and positive crowd in variable breezy, showery and sunny conditions, but unlike Melbourne you could actually see the horses for the people.

Chris Weaver, Auckland Racing Club chief executive, was not bothered with the Melbourne comparisons despite the new mid-week event and race days leading up to it being touted as a fledgling Melbourne Cup.

"That's a different story. They get 120,000 people ... Our biggest race meetings in New Zealand only get about 20,000."

At Ellerslie yesterday Mr Weaver estimated close to 10,000 people attended, which compared with a fine weather New Year's Day meeting where they would get crowds of about 15,000.

Mr Weaver said $4.7 million was bet on the Auckland Cup day races, including $1.2 million in on-course betting.

To put it in perspective, he said that on race five (a standard horse race) punters had bet $107,000, which was more than they would bet on a whole mid-week race meeting.

"We're rapt with the results, which are over our budgets."

Mr Weaver was a little disappointed with the weather but pleased with the "happy" crowd.

"We've got such great renovated facilities everyone's been able to get under shelter."

In the 5.45pm Auckland Cup, the race that everyone had been waiting for, the favourites came in pretty much as expected in the 3200m run, which was won by Pentane.

Zabeat came in second and Zarius, the 4-year-old gelding the Herald has been following for the past week, came in third.

By the time the bets were in Zarius had been the one that punters had put as favourite, followed by Pentane and then Kerry O'Reilly.

Before the race Zarius' owner Bob Emery had been a little concerned the horses running from the back, as Zarius did, were finding the field difficult.

The race commentator called Zarius "tailor-made" for the race and the one to beat.

After the race Mr Emery said he was happy enough with the third place, which had earned him $51,000.

Pentane's owner walked away with $360,000 in winnings.

Racehorse owner Chris Luoni said it would take about five years to bring the Auckland Cup to something similar to the Melbourne Cup as an event to attract a wide range of interest.

"It is a magic concept and should be embraced by the leaders of the city."

Gerald Fell, horse breeder and chairman of the racing hall of fame, said the shifting of the Auckland Cup to March had his full support.

"It's good the horses had an opportunity to race for the best money."

Regular racegoer Steven Grant said he thought the day was quite good but the facilities for the general public could be improved.

"They had problems with the Lion Red."

Long time race follower Margaret Jones enjoyed herself despite losing all her quinellas and was impressed at the number of people who turned up despite the weather forecasts.

Noel Dempsey, who grew up in Melbourne, said Auckland needed something like the Melbourne Cup.

"It needs events to galvanise people and get them together for a good time."


Coming up

* Today - Auckland Greyhound Cup.
* Tomorrow - Auckland Trotting Cup
* Saturday - Diamond Day at Ellerslie