Greymouth trotting club

[Ludwig]

I know it's a few years since Greymouth raced at Victoria Park . Does anyone know what happened to the club and its assets. ? Did it fold, did they try and race at Omoto? Or did it all just conk out?

[Enteebee]

The Trust that owned the land put the lease costs up and was no longer sustainable to race - history on this story http://www.harnessbred.com/racetracks-world-new-zealand-west-coast/

[mikeynz]

Does anybody know what they are doing with Victoria Park.

[Rangatira]

9 minutes ago, mikeynz said:

Does anybody know what they are doing with Victoria Park.

Little or nothing since the Trotting Club vacated.

[Ludwig]

2 minutes ago, Rangatira said:

Little or nothing since the Trotting Club vacated.

That's sad, because for some reason I enjoyed the races from there. Not sure if it was the hair raising bends, or listening to Ian Chambers sneeze mid commentary.

[Rangatira]

1 minute ago, Ludwig said:

That's sad, because for some reason I enjoyed the races from there. Not sure if it was the hair raising bends, or listening to Ian Chambers sneeze mid commentary.

Was a grouse trip away. Whitebaiting in October. Cup meeting in March. Back to Christchurch for a holiday.

[Ludwig]

2 minutes ago, Rangatira said:

Was a grouse trip away. Whitebaiting in October. Cup meeting in March. Back to Christchurch for a holiday.

Do you know if any horses are still trained there?

[Rangatira]

13 minutes ago, Ludwig said:

Do you know if any horses are still trained there?

Nah it's just wasteland going to waste.

Last time I looked on Google maps you could just make out where the track once was. Buildings, stands, stables well gone.

West Coast beat the touring England Rugby League team there just after the 2nd World War. I think it was The Brodster that said he played in the curtain raiser. 

[Brodie]

3 minutes ago, Rangatira said:

Nah it's just wasteland going to waste.

Last time I looked on Google maps you could just make out where the track once was. Buildings, stands, stables well gone.

West Coast beat the touring England Rugby League team there just after the 2nd World War. I think it was The Brodster that said he played in the curtain raiser. 

The Club went backwards after Purdon stopped campaigning his large team over there,didn’t it Ranga?

Dont bother posting the one and only photo you seem obsessed about!

[Rangatira]

3 minutes ago, Brodie said:

The Club went backwards after Purdon stopped campaigning his large team over there,didn’t it Ranga?

Dont bother posting the one and only photo you seem obsessed about!

Modest team.

What about a video clip?

[Chief Stipe]

12 hours ago, Ludwig said:

Do you know if any horses are still trained there?

Doesn't look like it!  See picture below.  Like most businesses in Greymouth the land was leased from the Mawhera Incorporation. http://mawhera.org.nz  All the southern side of the Grey River is Maori Lease.  Probably the biggest handicap to Greymouth developing.  Would make an interesting case study on the property rights particularly when you compare it to Hokitika where the businesses are generally all privately owned.

[Chief Stipe]

Some better pictures from days gone by:

[Chief Stipe]

[Chief Stipe]

[Chief Stipe]

Watched many a race from here in my school days on the Coast.

[Chief Stipe]

The final race from Victoria Park Raceway, Greymouth. @Gammalite likes these tight tracks!  If memory serves me correctly they used to drive the Mobile over from Addington for the meeting.  If you watch closely you will see the horses on the inside clipping the running about 50m past the winning post.  Tossed many a drive out.  They never ever fixed it!

[Ludwig]

Thanks for the pics. I certainly remember those tight bends. Oh for the days when you could get a crowd that size

[Chief Stipe]

This story will wind dear old @the galah up and give @Gammalite a bit of a laugh!

I guess the RIU has no retrospective powers for race fixing but I remember my Dad had a number of horses race there.  He got a call from the trainer one night to say that one of Dad's horses was going extra.  Had a good quiet run at the trials and would win depending on a decent front line draw.  "Can you help?"  Dad said sure I'll see what I can do.

Anyway in those days the local Committee used to do the draws over a few beers and one or two whiskey's.  Sure enough out come the fields and Dad's horse has drawn 4.

The horse duly won but didn't pay as much as its form said it should.  Which isn't surprising given the locals liked a good punt.  Over the years Dad got a bit suspicious about how the locals knew his horses were "going off" especially when they'd tell him in the local TAB.  He eventually twigged onto what was happening.  

His horses were trained in Richmond, Nelson and the phone calls to Hokitika in those days were a toll call.  Dad always said call him collect.  Our phone number was on a party line - i.e. we shared it with others in town.  Great way to learn morse code as each particular number ended in a letter.  Ours was 895-M.  M in morse code is two dashes - so when our number rang we would hear two long rings pause two long rings.

Now the Hokitika Exchange - upstairs in the Post Office building (see picture below) was a manual exchange.  I think it was one of the last ones to go automatic.  So connecting calls required an operator pulling and inserting plugs.  If it was collect call or toll call then the operator would patch in on the initial part of the call.  What Dad twigged to was that the exchange operators knew when his horse trainer was calling and duly got the oil at the same time as he did!

[Chief Stipe]

Some irony in that last race from Victoria Park Raceway, 15 March 2009.

 

 

[Chief Stipe]

59 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Some better pictures from days gone by:

The Ferris Wheel in the bottom left of the picture brings back memories as well.  What was the name of the travelling amusements family that did all the Coast Circuit and Nelson/Marlborough?  Candy Floss and Hot Dogs.....

[Ludwig]

Was there any thought of moving to Omoto or was that not an option?

[With A Dream]

14 hours ago, Rangatira said:

Little or nothing since the Trotting Club vacated.

I wonder if Mawhera Corp regret what seemed to  be a greedy decision to price the GTC off the land which  resulted in them getting no revenue for the site since the Trotting Club quit the lease?

If so, it serves them right

[With A Dream]

I remember Jack Carmichael had a horse called Rostriever Child had terrible form in Canterbury but seemed to grow an extra leg when taken to Greymouth.

As a young teenager I remember backing it at Greymouth $1 each way in those days and getting a nice dividend.

[Chief Stipe]

25 minutes ago, Ludwig said:

Was there any thought of moving to Omoto or was that not an option?

They did race there a few times as part of joint code meetings.  Westland Racing Club at Hokitika did the same.  

[Mikie]

32 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

They did race there a few times as part of joint code meetings.  Westland Racing Club at Hokitika did the same.  

You may accuse me of being picky but they weren’t joint code meetings

They were TB licenced days on which the TB Club ran a couple of trotting races, and the TB Club paid the stakes