As at 3pm Thursday August 26

NZTR is working on contingency plans in the event that the four thoroughbred meetings scheduled for this weekend are unable to be staged.

The situation re the weekend will not be confirmed till the Prime Minister’s announcement on alert levels on Friday afternoon.

Attempts will be made to reschedule meetings where practical and the planning will also take into account any potential impact on the timing of the spring feature race schedule.

None of this will alter plans to run a meeting at Hawera next Tuesday, 31 August.

However, a confirmed programme for the Hawera meeting cannot be posted till around 5.30pm Friday night, after the Prime Minister’s announcement on alert levels – and provided that any meetings can be held next Tuesday.

There will be a number of maiden races programmed at Hawera and possibly some higher stake races if the Manawatu meeting doesn’t proceed on Saturday. It is also intended to have a distance race carded, with priority given to jumpers.

Nominations will open Friday night for on-line entries and continue through to 11am Saturday. Withdrawals will close at 12 noon. Fields will be drawn up after that and be available around 2pm Saturday. Phones will be manned on Saturday morning, albeit on a restricted basis. On-line and email (nrb@nztr.co.nz) entries are preferred during this period.

Nominations for the Cambridge synthetic meeting next Wednesday will also close at 11am Saturday and an extra race – a $12,000 MDN 1300m has been added to the Cambridge programme.

Once again, we strongly encourage all racing participants to get vaccinated if possible, for the protection of both themselves and the rest of the industry.

Everyone is also again reminded that there are various Covid-19 financial support schemes available. For further information on these, you can head to: https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/financial-support-for-businesses/

Canterbury JC to Race at Ashburton

The Alert Level 4 lockdown has had a significant impact on the ability of the Canterbury Jockey Club to undertake the required renovation to the Riccarton Park course proper following the Grand National Racing Festival. The regular schedule that occurs every August has the track repaired by the Friday following the third day, providing two clear weeks before this September date.  This was on target until the Alert Level 4 was imposed.

Level 4 limitations means the work is over a week behind schedule and a decision has been made to transfer the meeting on Saturday, 4 September, to the Ashburton Racing Club and to stage the meeting at Ashburton.

The Canterbury Jockey Club thanks the Ashburton Racing Club on behalf of Canterbury Stakeholders for enabling this Feature meeting to proceed.

The following distance changes are required:

• OPN HCP 1000m now 1200m
• Benchmark 74 2000m now 2100m
• Benchmark 65 1800m now 2100m
• Benchmark 65 1000m now 1200m
• 3YO 1000m now 1200m