A brand new Stathayr track is being laid as part of a major redevelopment of the Ellerslie Racecourse. Photo / Dean Purcell.
A brand new Stathayr track is being laid as part of a major redevelopment of the Ellerslie Racecourse. Photo / Dean Purcell.
A drier spring than Auckland’s waterlogged winter will have Ellerslie on target to host one of the most anticipated racedays in New Zealand in January.
Auckland Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Paul Wilcox says good spring weather is the last large piece of the puzzle for the completion of the track refurbishment at Ellerslie, which could see the mammoth Karaka Millions meeting staged there on January 27.
The Karaka Millions meeting has already become New Zealand’s most glamorous raceday but will go to a new level in 2024.
With a new four-year-old open race worth $1 million and the KM Three-Year-Old boosted to $1.5m, the twilight fixture will boast total stakes of more than $4m.
But just how big the event will be depends on where it is held.
The meeting was a success at Pukekohe this year, but if January’s meeting doubles as the official reopening of Ellerslie, which will have been closed for nearly two years for the installation of a StrathAyr track, it will celebrate a new racing era.
Wilcox says the spring weather is now the most crucial factor as to whether the KM-Ellerslie opening double act can happen.
“As of this week, the whole track will have been seeded and we hope is germinating,” he told the Herald.
A sub-surface profile of the StrathAyr track refurbishment at Ellerslie.
“The mile chute, which was seeded two weeks ago, germinated really quickly and everybody is thrilled with how that is coming along but what could slow up our progress is a colder spring and/or lots of rain.
“We can’t control the weather but we are hopeful, and if the weather plays its part, confident we can be racing here on KM night.”
Even if the Ellerslie track is a lush green by October, Wilcox says there are still several steps that would need to be reached before a January relaunch, and if his team have any doubts, then the reopening will be delayed.
“We have the track experts doing an assessment every month and then, all going well, we would have horses gallop over the new surface in late November.
“That would lead to jumpouts in December and then trials, and if everybody is happy, especially the jockeys, then we should be all go for the soft reopening with the usual pre-KM meeting here on January 14.”
If Ellerslie’s new surface is pleasing everybody by then, it would be used for the Avondale Cup meeting, Derby Day, Auckland Cup Day, the Easter meeting and the Futurity Stakes meeting next autumn.
Auckland Thoroughbred Racing’s board will meet this month to potentially approve the new season’s feature race stake levels which will include the support races on KM night, as well as what level Group races could be above the already-raised NZTR minimums.
