High stakes: the fight over a $1.7b industry and a ‘Stalinist’ intervention

Sunday, 5 July 2026

As community racing clubs and richlister-backed bloodstocks jockey for control of a billion dollar industry, the Avondale community is asking: What is happening to our racecourse? Jonathan Killick investigates.

“We’ve got one of the best tracks in the country and they want to turn it into houses? Where is the logic?” questions Avondale Jockey Club president Andrew Skinner.

“But, our backs are not against the wall,” he says. “The race dates don’t make us much money - it’s just part of the history right? But, we pay our bills and we carry on.”

That defiant attitude is in the face of sweeping industry reform that has the backing of Racing Minister Winston Peters and an influential committee of wealthy stud masters.

While the role of “rugby, racing and beer” in New Zealand society may be in decline, a $1.72b horse racing industry remains - and its high stakes future is hotly debated.

A new report released by breeders Sirs Peter Vela and Brendan Lindsay, NBR richlisters, has only stirred the pot further, warning if the once glamorous industry doesn’t stem a $50m-a-year deficit, the party will soon be over.

It claims that without changes, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) and Harness Racing will exhaust their financial reserves by the end of the 2027/28 racing season.

The answer, says Sir Peter, is unlocking $700m sequestered by “fragmented ownership of industry assets” - among them the $77m+ grounds at Avondale.

“Every dollar tied up in duplication or unresolved property is a dollar that cannot go into stakes, infrastructure or horse supply,” he tells the Sunday Star-Times.

But the punters at Avondale say the industry’s problems are not their 135-year-old club’s problems - which, far from insolvent, continues to be bolstered by leasing sports grounds to the council and the iconic Sunday Markets.

“We don't owe anybody any money. It's them that are in the shit,” one said.

For the wider community, the racecourse is a vital green space with cricket, rugby and football teams regularly making use of the pitch along with 20,000 weekly visitors that frequent the market.

Looming in the background is Winston Peters, who has warned that the racing industry must consolidate and if it can’t agree how to do it from within, he’ll do it for them.

“I’ve told them, I’m going to have Stalinist change,” Peters has said publicly. “You’ll probably hate me for it, but I’ve done more for a race than anybody else has.”

Since the minister introduced legislation in 2020 that would allow for forced “transfer” of assets, negotiations between NZTR and the Avondale Jockey Club have been shrouded in secrecy, with both parties refusing to comment.

“It's clearly a really sensitive issue and we've been shafted; that's the only word I can use,” a jockey club member, who didn’t want to be named, says.

NZTR has also been tight lipped, but its chief executive Matt Ballesty makes one point clear: “Avondale is a venue that NZTR considers surplus to the long-term requirements.”

NZTR has made a submission under Plan Change 120 to rezone the racecourse for terraced housing and apartments.

“The Racecourse would be able to absorb significant, intensive development which could be designed to have limited if any adverse impacts on the residential amenity of surrounding areas,” it says.

Members at Avondale say they got that message loud and clear when NZTR refused to allocate them further race days - a move they interpret as an attempt to pull them under. NZTR emphatically rejects that, saying the planned conclusion of racing at Avondale has been signalled for several years as part of a “broader strategic approach”.

But the club has again proven it’s made of sturdier stuff; many recall in the 1990s how it had to take on a high interest loan after the industry refused it funds to renew its track.

“Yes, the place went a little bit derelict but it [the club] still raced and paid all the debt back,” says one member.

“We’ve never had any money poured into us like Ellerslie, Trentham or Riccarton … We've never had a hand up or a hand out, but they see us as a cash cow.”

Taking a gamble on the TAB

For outside observers the writing was on the wall for the course when it was announced that this racing season would be its last, with the final meet to be held on July 15.

But, the club has a dark horse in Andrew Skinner who recently became standing president after ousting TV and film producer Dan Higgins.

“The Skinners have been part of the Avondale legacy, and the last thing I want is to shut shop,” Skinner says, agreeing to speak to the Star-Times to “stop the noise in the background”.

It can be revealed that the club has begun work with the TAB to produce a report on the value of the 35-hectare site and whether the footprint of racing could be reduced to allow for partial redevelopment.

Planning and engineering consultants have been hired and the club has been given until the end of the month to come up with a concept plan.

“Our commitment to the racing industry is to do that because they need some money, but we want to keep racing,” says Skinner.

The TAB confirmed to the Star-Times that it is “working alongside” the jockey club as “a potential funder to explore future options for the club and the racecourse”.

The proposal has come out of left field for Auckland Council which has been considering a future purchase of the grounds as part of its long term budget.

The Star-Times has discovered that members of Mayor Wayne Brown’s office met with NZTR last month in what was described as a stakeholders’ meeting.

It’s understood that the jockey club and TAB were invited to the meeting, but at the last minute pulled out during a phone call with mayoral relationship manager Simon Johnston.

Meanwhile, Whau councillor Sarah Paterson-Hamlin was surprised to hear of plans of a possible return of racing to Avondale when approached by the Star-Times.

“Look… Avondale Jockey Club are the current owners. It is their prerogative to plan for the future of that land, if that is what the racing industry is in a position to achieve.”

But some in the club are not entirely confident that the TAB is going to come in and save the day at Avondale.

“If they’ve been telling you that, well that’s BS,” says a member.

Nonetheless, Skinner puts his best foot forward, telling the Star-Times he’s already received quotes for demolishing the aged grandstands so things can “move forward”.

And he says the club has “bold plans” with “hypotheticals” on the cards, like a hotel targeting Chinese tourists, offering them a race day experience.

“There’s got to be a way of making it a going concern. The future is not on a [betting] phone app and people sitting in their lounge. You’ve got to create a spectacle, an environment for people to turn up to.”

A ‘culture of veto’

But, for Sir Peter Vela, the refusal of community clubs to accept consolidation is part of “a culture of veto” that is damaging the wider industry.

“There’s no point pretending otherwise: local interests do get in the way of reform,” he tells the Star-Times from the UK, where he has been attending the Royal Ascot race meet.

Sir Peter is an influential figure in the industry, having founded Hamilton’s Pencarrow Stud, building up Karaka’s New Zealand Bloodstock and supporting the country’s “richest race”, the Karaka million at Ellerslie.

The estimated $320m net worth richlister is also a substantial donor to New Zealand First, having chipped in $150,000 this year and $65,000 in 2023.

And as chair of the TAB Advisory Committee, Sir Peter this month put out a report calling for a “strategic property vehicle” into which clubs and codes would transfer ownership of their grounds.

Clubs would become “unit holders” with shares based on “equity contributions”. The vehicle would then “allocate capital based on strategic merit, investing in yield-generating assets”.

It wouldn’t be “compulsory” for clubs to transfer their assets, but if they don’t they won’t be able to access “future industry infrastructure funding”.

It’s going to involve “hard decisions”, says Vela, “not every venue can be prioritised, and not every asset left untouched”.

The Star-Times understands that as part of negotiations with NZTR there have been discussions with Avondale Jockey Club about a merger with Auckland Thoroughbred Racing, the operator of Ellerslie and Pukekohe racecourses.

Meanwhile, major investment with the backing of NZTR is set to go in to Waikato Greenfields - a 150ha racing and training centre - to be based next to Pencarrow.

Says Sir Peter: “The choice is to keep spreading scarce capital thinly across too many assets, or to back the projects that genuinely strengthen the product.”

But Skinner worries what would happen to a club like Avondale if it were to become a “tenant club”, having to use the grounds of others for its race meetings.

“You want Avondale to roll over, but where is the money going? How much money would we have to retain four or five race days?”

And members tell the Star-Times they fear the club’s working class spirit is unlikely to gel with Ellerslie’s upmarket culture.

“We know our place in society. We’re not stupid,” one said. “We've got no qualms about trying to be dressed up with feathered hats and stuff, you know what I mean?”

A ‘Stalinist’ intervention

Winston Peters, meanwhile, warns the industry that if they don’t get organised within six months after the election, he’ll do it himself.

“If you can't have change from the bottom, having consulted yourself stupid, then you better have a bit of Stalinist change from the top,” he says in an appearance on the Millsy & Guy podcast.

In a statement to the Star-Times, Peters added that intervention would be a “last resort”.

Jaclyn Bonnici of the Avondale Racecourse Alliance says that for the community’s sake, she hopes that doesn’t transpire.

“It just compounds the concern that this could devolve into a scrap within the industry, and generations of West Aucklanders will lose out.”

Her concern is that the TAB has not entered negotiations “to make these racing boys’ dreams come true”, and further delays might meant a potential deal with the council falls through the cracks.

“We are just there to try and shore up this land for future generations, and we are worried that [the club] will miss a trick.

“We’ve got 200,000 people from Titirangi to Mount Roskill who are relying on a good outcome here. There’s a lot of unmet needs we are wanting to be met by that racecourse.”

For Sir Peter Vela, it’s the future of a billion dollar industry and 12,500 jobs that are at stake.

“New Zealand racing has not struggled because people don't care. It has struggled to reform because the structure asks each part of the industry to look after its own, and leaves no one accountable for the health of the whole,” he says.

The jockey club, meanwhile, sees itself as the custodians of a 135-year legacy of racing at Avondale.

“We want to keep out identity going for as long as we can. That’s my dream,” says Andrew Skinner.