This afternoon’s post-Cabinet briefing from the Prime Minister saw no change to the current alert levels across New Zealand.

Auckland remains in Alert Level 4 until 11.59pm on Tuesday, 21 September, with the remainder of the country at Alert Level 2 until the same time.  Cabinet will review these settings next Monday but has made an in-principle decision that Auckland will move to Alert Level 3 at that time.

Participants should note that rules concerning travel outside Auckland’s borders have not changed. We also remind those considering inter-Island travel of the need to adhere to the NZTR regulations explained here.

With regards to attendances at race meetings NZTR can advise that the Cambridge trials on Tuesday; Cambridge races on Wednesday; and Otaki-Maori races on Thursday will all be conducted behind closed doors.

NZTR is meeting tomorrow morning with clubs that are racing over the coming fortnight to determine the status of those meetings with regard to attendance of owners, sponsors, members and the public.

A further update will be provided tomorrow afternoon.

 Meeting and Trial Changes

Due to the real uncertainty that Ellerslie is unable to host the race-meeting on Saturday 25 September the following meeting and trial changes have been approved.

• Tuesday 14 September – Trials will now be on the synthetic at Cambridge

• Wednesday 22 September – This race-meeting will now be a Rotorua meeting at Arawa Park (minor distance changes as per the on-line programme)

• Saturday 25 September – This race-meeting will now be a Matamata meeting at Matamata (minor distance changes as per on-line programme with the Maiden 2YO now being staged over 1000m for a stake of $15,000)

Further to an earlier communication the Pakuranga Hunt meeting on Sunday 19 September will now be at Te Aroha.

The programme will remain the same with the exception that the R74 1200m showing in the hard-copy RPG will now be an Open 1200m race.

This meeting will also see the running of the final Amateur Riders’ race of the season. There will, however, be some distance changes for the jump races as follows:

Maiden Hurdle                     3100m (was 2760m)

Open Hurdle                   3100m (was 3350m)

Maiden Steeplechase          3500m (was 4150m)

Open Steeplechase        4200m (was 4900m)

Please check the on-line programme for the full race list.