Horse racing: Inter-island flights for racehorses a boost for south

Inter-island flights for racehorses look set to return.

Regular inter-island flights for racehorses look set to return, with the first major beneficiary to be New Zealand Cup week in November.

Negotiations are being completed that could confirm weekly flights between Auckland and Christchurch starting as early as the third week of October, giving the connections of horses heading to Canterbury’s Cup Week the option to fly them down.

Just as importantly, if the new deal is struck, horses who head to Cup week, or any South Island race meeting, can fly back to Auckland.

That could be a crucial deciding factor for some trainers who are reluctant to transport their horses from the north by road and then Cook Strait ferry to Christchurch for fear of it ruining their summer preparation.

Some horses handle a road trip home from Riccarton to Cambridge or Matamata fine — Prowess and Legarto both did it last season and had stellar summers afterwards — but others don’t.

They can find the rigours of travelling, racing at Group 1 level and then the long trip home too much and need a decent spell, which can shorten their summer campaigns.

Those days may be gone if the regular scheduled flights that have been grounded for several years and weren’t help by Covid restrictions are set to return.

“We are confident they will come back,” says Richard Cole, managing director of International Racehorse Transport.

“While we’ve had charter services that have flown occasionally in recent years, we’re hoping and planning for a regular scheduled service each week down to Christchurch and back to Auckland.

“That would be great for busy times of the year like Cup week and the lead-ins to that, but with southern racing getting stronger, we could see consistent demand. And once the horses are in Auckland, it’s a lot easier to fly them to Australia.”

IRT and New Zealand Bloodstock Airfreight would use the inter-island service run by Tasman Cargo Airlines, a subsidiary of DHL.

The freight-only plane could have room at peak horse-demand times for 11 pallets per flight, each pallet carrying three horses.

The likelihood of regular scheduled flights returning can only be good news for Addington and perhaps even more so Riccarton, which holds the 1000 and 2000 Guineas.

Both Group 1s were in danger of being moved north, and while regular flights won’t guarantee they stay in Christchurch, they would seem certain to boost the quality of the fields, an important factor in the ratings of the races at the end of each season.

The best example is last season’s Karaka Million winner and brilliant last-start returnee Tokyo Tycoon.

His co-trainer Mark Walker was initially not keen on a road trip to Christchurch with the slight gelding but did state after his last-start win in the El Roca Trophy that he could be more likely of making the trip if he could fly there and back.

Walker believes that would put less pressure on his campaign towards his main aim for the summer, the $1.5 million Karaka Million Three-Year-Old on January 27.