A successful winter season has ended at Ruakaka with its seventh Saturday meeting since June 11 run on a good 4 rated track on Saturday. It is a shame local racing fans and owners must wait until June 10, 2023, for another weekend meeting.

Like most areas the winter has been wet with Whangarei recording nearly 800mm across May to the end of August, nearly 100mm above the historical average. Despite this rainfall the track was never presented worse than a soft 6 and the two September meetings were run on surfaces rated a good 4.

Track Manager Murray Marshall and his assistant Craig West are to be congratulated on the management of the track surface, its presentation and rail movement for such a demanding period of racing, seven meetings and a trial day, over fifteen weeks in winter.

A number of quality horses appreciated the surfaces presented and at the elite level Imperatriz (AUS), Dragon Leap (AUS), Lickety Split, Pacific Dragon, Turn The Ace and Sharp’N’Smart raced at the course in preparation for their future successes. Imperatriz (AUS) and Lickety Split have already shown the benefit with their subsequent performances at Te Rapa and in Australia.

Lickety Split’s success in the Cambridge Stud Northland Breeders Stakes augurs well for the retention of this Group 3 race as the NZ Pattern Committee has commenced a review to lower the percentage of Black Type races NZ to closer to 5% of all races, which is the internationally recognised benchmark. Lickety Split is a 2yo Group 1 winner and recently placed at Group 2 level at Caulfield. Named She’s Lickety Split in Australia she is expected to race in the Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas at Caulfield on October 12^th.

With eleven winners across the Saturday winter meetings the local stable of Kenny Rae and Krystal Williams-Tuhoro dominated the season, as did the very promising Deploy who was the only winner of three races at the track this year. A very promising future is in store for Deploy who was an unlucky 4^th in the Group 3 Cambridge Stud Northland Breeders Stakes. No doubt Deploy will be on Rae’s truck when it heads south for the Ricccarton feature races in November.

There was also a lot of pride for the stable with the success of their ex-apprentice Kelsey Hannan during the season, who appropriately won her first race at Ruakaka at the mid-week meeting back on May 4^th. In fact, Kelsey Hannan rode five winners for the Rae Racing team at the Ruakaka meetings in August and September and enjoyed success in both the Northern and Central Regions over a very busy winter.

Stephen Marsh won eight races through the same period and regularly sent his runners north to the local stable of Michelle Bradley to present on raceday.

The driver of income for the industry is the off-course wagering with the NZTAB and to a lessor extent the returns from offshore betting agreements. The Saturday meetings at Ruakaka in 2022 were well above previous years with four of the seven meetings at the $2 million or greater benchmark with the local TAB.

At nearly all the winter Saturday meetings the Ruakaka meeting are treated as the “second” meeting to the jumping days and the Hastings carnival so the level of exposure and promotion through Trackside TV and Love Racing NZ is very low. Achieving the wagering levels, it has reflected the punters acceptance of the track condition, quality of runners and the consistency of racing at the track.

The winter period is when NZTR deliberately has not increased the stakes for open level races and is increasingly focussed on raising stakes at all other times of the year.

A new initiative this year of the NZTR’s Innovation Fund was an important driver of the quality and number of runners this winter. The Club was able to access funds for two successful initiatives this winter.

An outstanding success was the ITM/GIB Northern Winter Championships with five $60,000 finals on July 16 won by Pacific Dragon, Turn The Ace, River Run, Oseleta (AUS) and Cakebytheocean. This series created considerable interest across the many heats that were held throughout the Northern Region and helped boost field sizes in the lead up to the Championships’ Day.

Agey Babe was successful twice during the season over 1600 metres including the $60,000 Harcourts For Hospice Fillies & Mares rating 82. The fillies and mares’ series were another successful initiative funded through the Innovation Fund.

The Club will look to repeat these initiatives for 2023 and with an earlier announcement of the two series the Club is optimistic of even better field sizes next year. A decision from NZTR is expected by the end of October if the initiatives will continue in 2023.

The Club is in discussion with trainers about what is required to better accommodate horses on race and trial days because the current facilities constructed back in the mid-1970s are no longer the best fit. The plan is to have a design ready and work able to commence before the winter of 2023.

The Club’s only two summer meetings are the best attended and attract two very different crowds. December 14^th attracts the local business crowd to celebrate year end with the Christmas at the Races. On Friday January 6^th, 2023, the Trigg Family Fun Raceday is very much family oriented with free kids’ activities and lots of fun on the track.