Club

Riverton R.C.

The Riverton Racing Club is host to an Easter meeting which is a major social and sporting occasion for the Southland province. The meeting is on Saturday and Monday but it is the first day, featuring the listed Riverton Cup that is the big drawcard. An estimated crowd of 5000 was in attendance in 2021. Riverton racecourse is situated an easy 25 minute drive south west of Invercargill. The club race four times a year, with a meeting on New Year’s Day added to their dates in 2021. The Riverton Cup was won in 2017 by Patrick Erin, winner of the group one Metropolitan in Sydney the following year. Great Sensation, the 1958 winner, won three Wellington Cups; Eiffel Tower, the 1965 winner won a Wellington Cup, two Grand National Hurdles and Great Northern Steeplechase; St Bruno won the Riverton Cup as a 3yr-old in 1949 after success in the New Zealand Derby at Riccarton five months earlier and Royal Lancer, the 1941 winner, won the NZ Cup the following year. The success of the Riverton Easter meeting is a tribute to the work of successive committees. The Great Western Steeplechase, established in 1907, was a feature race staged by the club but had to be abandoned in 2021 due to insufficient jumpers available in the South Island. The Riverton track is 1700m with a 400m straight. Bill Hillis, twice leading New Zealand trainer in the 1960s, trained at Riverton where prominent trainers Kelvin and Aimee Tyler and others are now located. There has been racing in the Riverton district since the 1850s and The Wallace County Jockey Club who raced for several years was renamed the Riverton RC in 1886. The area has fine cafes and bars, access to sea fishing through charter boats and fishermen, trout fishing on the Aparima River that flows through the town, picturesque scenery, native bush walks and is the oldest European settlement in New Zealand, dating to 1837 as a whaling and sealing station. Accommodation is available through hotels, bed and breakfasts, motels and a camping ground.

Gallop South Membership: $99.00 ($49 for under 35s). Includes:

- A Membership card providing admission to all race meetings in Otago and Southland and access to the member’s only facilities.
- Opportunity to acquire up to 4 additional guest members passes for any Otago and Southland Meeting.
- FREE race books on presentation of card
- Voting rights at one nominated club
- Regular members newsletters or e-letters
- Free access to the member’s only marquee on Melbourne cup day at Wingatui racecourse.
- 10% discount off race day hospitality packages
- Reciprocal rights at most New Zealand Clubs

For more details and details on how to apply, visit events.loveracing.nz/Riverton