Friday’s announcement that New Zealand will remain in Alert Level 4 until 11:59pm on Tuesday has required New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing to reshuffle the deck when it comes to racing programs in the coming weeks.
All regions except Auckland and Northland will move to Alert Level 3 on Wednesday, conditions under which racing, trials and jumpouts can take place, albeit with significant restrictions in place.
The Gr.2 Valachi Downs Foxbridge Plate meeting that was scheduled for Te Rapa on Saturday August 28 will now move back a week and be conducted on Saturday September 4.
New Zealand’s first Group One of the season, the Tarzino Trophy (1400m) has been pushed back a week to Saturday September 18 to allow the standard fortnight between runs for those contesting the Foxbridge.
Racing will spring back to life on Wednesday with 11-race programs carded at both Matamata and Ashburton.
“We have got a program kicking off from Wednesday. We can’t race this weekend under Alert Level 4, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel,” New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing chief executive Bernard Saundry said.
“The feature meeting at Te Rapa will take place next Saturday with new nominations and on that card we will run the Foxbridge Plate and the Northland Breeders Stakes’ (Gr.3, 1200m) and Wanganui will be the other meeting we program next Saturday.
“There has been some frustration over the past ten or 12 days as to why we couldn’t race under Alert Level 4, but I think people are starting to understand.
“We have lobbied as hard as we can, right to the top of Government. We have been back and forth four or five times over the last eight to 12 months.
“It is a very different lockdown here compared to Australia, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying to lobby Government.
“Once we get to a certain level of vaccination in the community, things will start to open up. I do encourage everyone in the industry to get vaccinated because that is the quickest way to being a safer community and when we can race with some certainty.”
Below is a rundown of racemeetings and trials over the next week and a half as the industry plays catch-up after two weeks of Level 4:
- Wednesday 1 September: Matamata races; Ashburton races
- Thursday 2 September: Cambridge races; Foxton trials
- Friday 3 September: Hawera races; Cambridge trials
- Saturday 4 September: Waikato races (including Northland Breeders’ Stakes and Foxbridge Plate); Wanganui races
- Sunday 5 September: Te Aroha races (including jumps)
- Monday 6 September: Ashburton races; Cambridge trials
- Tuesday 7 September: Taupo races
- Wednesday 8 September: Cambridge races
- Thursday 9 September: Woodville races
- Friday 10 September: Otago races
- Saturday 11 September: Waikato races; New Plymouth races
- The race meeting scheduled for New Plymouth on Saturday 18 September will now take place on Saturday 11 September
- The race meeting scheduled for Hastings (Tarzino Day) on Saturday 11 September will now take place on Saturday 18 September
Conditions of Racing at Alert Level 3:
- All attendees must wear masks at all areas of the racecourse, with jockeys being permitted to temporarily remove their masks during the running of their races. Refusal will result in expulsion from the race meeting;
- The race meetings will be conducted behind closed doors, i.e. only jockeys, trainers and their staff (along with their nominated horses), and others essential to servicing the meetings will be allowed on-course;
- There will be no on-course catering, so people must bring their own food to the race meetings;
- All attendees will be required to complete and bring a health declaration form to the race meetings;
- All attendees will be required to scan into the race meetings through the NZ Covid Tracer App;
- All attendees must practise social distancing where possible;
- All attendees are encouraged to frequently use soap and or hand sanitiser; and
Anyone with cold or flu symptoms or who has been identified as any kind of potential contact of Covid-positive people should stay home and arrange a Covid test.
