Horse racing: Avondale supporters hoping today’s last meeting not so final

The last dance?

There will be no closing ceremony when Avondale races for the last time in 136 years today.

Because the people who run and love the West Auckland thoroughbred track are hoping today’s low-key meeting won’t be their last.

And it definitely won’t be the last time the much-maligned facility is used by the industry.

“We have trials here next week,” Avondale Jockey Club acting president Andrew Skinner said.

Which sums up the weirdness of today’s official closure of a track that has been graced by champions like Balmerino and Bonecrusher.

To cut a very, very long story short, Avondale has been deemed surplus to Auckland racing’s needs, with Auckland Thoroughbred Racing having the country’s best track in Ellerslie, as well as Pukekohe Park.

Avondale has a good racing and trialling surface but the facilities are in disarray, looking like something from the Eastern Bloc in the 1970s.

So today’s final race meeting will proceed without the usual scenes associated with a major racetrack closure. There will be no nostalgic crowds or fans rushing to grab memorabilia after the last race just before 4pm today.

Because many of the trainers and jockeys who are there today will be back there for trials next Tuesday, and the month after that and the month after that.

Skinner and his small band of incredibly loyal members say they don’t believe or acknowledge this is the end for a club that started in 1890.

“How could we be sure?” Skinner asked.

“We still have trials meetings programmed and the way things are in New Zealand racing, who knows what could happen next?”

Given the current state of New Zealand racing, with its uncertainty, the looming dogfight which will be the release of Project Stamina and quite simply how many meetings we lose a season to poor weather or poor tracks, would anybody really be surprised if Avondale was “needed” to fill a gap in the months ahead?

“Because we have trials programmed, we will still have a track manager and the track will still be ready to go,” Skinner said.

“There is so much uncertainty in New Zealand racing at the moment, we aren’t having a closing ceremony or anything today, we are treating it as our last meeting of the season.”

Avondale has no race meetings programmed for next season and New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) general manager of racing Mitch Lamb has told the Herald that there are no plans for the track to race again.

“While there are no plans for racing to return to the venue, discussions regarding the future of the site remain ongoing,” Lamb said.

“NZTR continues to work with the Avondale Jockey Club and engage with key stakeholders on the best long-term outcome for the racing industry and the wider community.”

Even if today is the last time Avondale races, it won’t be the last time it is of crucial importance to the New Zealand racing industry.

It will almost certainly be sold and how that money flows back into the industry could be the most obvious answer to some huge infrastructure and development questions.

It wouldn’t surprise to see some sort of partial merger with Auckland Thoroughbred Racing so whatever money a future sale of Avondale unlocks could be kept in the northern region to help fund racing here, rather than dispersed nationally.

Or that money, which will be well over $100 million, could become part of the national racing property vehicle or trust being recommended by the TAB Advisory Group, with Avondale possibly wanting a seat at the table of the board who decides who gets future infrastructure funding and who doesn’t.

These are complex negotiations that have been going on for years and the future use of Avondale’s land must also include the West Auckland community, because while it is few people’s favourite race track, it has great value to that community as a sporting hub and the home to local markets.

As for today’s seven-race meeting, set to be held on a Heavy 10 track, it wouldn’t appear to have too many diamonds hiding in the mud.

It would be appropriate, though, to see trainers Shaun and Emma Clotworthy win a race, most likely with Colgate (Race 6, No 1).

Shaun Clotworthy’s father Kim Clotworthy was the original trainer and owner of the great Uncle Remus, who won the Avondale Guineas in 1977.

It was a golden era for the track, with subsequent Arc De Triomphe runner-up Balmerino, Ring The Bell, Altitude, I’m Henry, Tidal Light and Bonecrusher among those who won the Guineas in a remarkable 11-year span.

“It was a great race back then and it is still a good susface, just the facilities have become so run down,” Shaun Clotworthy said.

“But if it is to be their last meeting then we’d love to win a race and Colgate would be our best chance.”

For all its mistakes (night racing), challenges and decay, if today is to be Avondale’s last race meeting then punters, owners, trainers and jockeys owe Avondale and those who have kept the gate open a “thanks for the memories”.

But the reality is, for plenty of industry participants, it will actually be: “See you again next week.”

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.