Today’s trial meeting at Rangiora marks a milestone in New Zealand racing.

The meeting will be serviced by a new set of transportable, 14-gate Simtrack starting stalls, replacing the last of New Zealand’s old-style gates.  

After over 100 years of use, the old battery-operated Caddy gates, which were first used at the Avondale Cup meeting in 1913, have now been consigned to history.  While the gates did evolve over the years, increasing gate malfunctions led to their gradual replacement with the more reliable and safer Simtrack gates.

The Simtrack gates place an emphasis on safety for horse, jockey and handler, with horse-friendly running boards, extensive padding and greater headroom.  The engineering of the Simtrack gates means a lot of the internal overhead structure found in other gates has been eliminated, being replaced by a safety overhead pull-up handrail.

The new Simtrack gates will also be used at Ashburton, Timaru, Motukarara, Waimate and Blenheim.  Both the gates and the custom-built trailer were co-funded by NZTR, the New Zealand Racing Board Infrastructure Enhancement Fund and the Racing Minister’s Racing Safety Development Fund.