Following the extension of the State of Emergency and ongoing recovery from the devastating effects of Cyclone Gabrielle on the Hawke’s Bay region, the decision was made by Hawke’s Bay Racing and NZTR to transfer the Little Avondale Lowland Stakes Raceday from Hastings to Awapuni on Wednesday 1 March.

The Hawke’s Bay Racing Centre is currently being utilised as a Distribution and Recovery Centre and an Animal Refuge and Welfare Centre. Hawke’s Bay Racing, with the support of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, want to continue to support the ongoing recovery work that is being done. Drawing regional resource away from this recovery would not be appropriate, with many families still trying to locate loved ones.

The programme for Wednesday 1 March will remain unchanged.

With Te Aroha still unavailable for racing due to recent weather events, the meeting scheduled for Te Aroha on Friday 10 March will now move to Wednesday 8 March and be conducted by the Taupo RC at Taupo. Due to a prior motor-racing commitment adjacent to the course, Taupo were unable to race on 10 March. As a consequence, the Otaki-Maori racemeeting scheduled for Wednesday 8 March will move to Friday 10 March. At this meeting there has been a minor programme alteration with the R60.

The Racemeeting originally scheduled for Awapuni on Friday 3 March will now be at Waverley as a consequence of other date shifts. The programme will remain as per the 3 March Awapuni schedule with the exception that the 1600m races will now be 1650m.

NZTR appreciates the co-operation from all the Clubs involved in these changes.