A detailed review will be held into New Zealand Cup week with industry leaders saying initial signs have been largely positive.
The sport’s biggest week wound up on Friday after the Cup and Show Day races at Addington and Ashburton’s “meeting of emerging talent” on Thursday.
“We knew Show day needed a good shake up and what was delivered was fantastic,” says New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club Chair John Hartnell, “and the turnover on Friday reflected that.”
Turnover was $4.3m on 13 races on Show Day Twilight, up by around a quarter on the $3.3m on 12 races the year before.
Leading the way were the two brand new slot races – the Hill, Lee and Scott THE VELOCITY won by Better Knuckle Up ($437,358) and the Majestic Horse Floats LP THE ASCENT ($399,734), which was taken out so impressively by Australian sensation Keayang Zahara.
Show Day Twilight followed a successful IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup Day where turnover was $7.2m for the 12-race programme. For the first time the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup and the Renwick Farms Dominion Trot were held on the same day, with the Cup attracting turnover of $1.8m while the Dominion was at around $600K, up nearly 40 percent on last year.
“We would love to see that total figure top $8m ideally but it was a very good result,” says HRNZ Chief Executive Brad Steele, “one we will build on.”
Total turnover for Ashburton’s lower grade meeting was up from $1.22m on 11 races last year to $1.68m on 14 races.
“Cup week is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people and it was a job well done,” says Steele.
Summary : NZ Cup Day, Show Day Twilight, and Ashburton
Turnover – $13,073,740 this year, $11,557,608 last year (13.1% increase)
NZ Cup day – $7.27m, up from $6.81m last year
Show Day Twilight was $4.38m, up 25.1% Year on Year with 1 extra race
Ashburton was $1.68m, up 32.7% with 3 extra races
