NZ Hunt Clubs

[Gezzah Potts 75]

I notice the fields for the Rotorua BOP Hunt meeting on Sunday have quite decent sized fields and the Hunt Cup itself has 10 acceptors. My question is what happened to all the other Hunt Clubs who used to stage race meetings? I know the Eastern Southland and Birchwood Hunts where I grew up no longer do, but from memory there were others like the Egmont Wanganui Hunt Club, Hawkes Bay HC, Manawatu HC, Rangitikei HC, Maramarua HC, etc. Did they have their race dates revoked? 

[Pam Robson 1,894]

On 8/16/2024 at 12:38 PM, Gezzah Potts said:

I notice the fields for the Rotorua BOP Hunt meeting on Sunday have quite decent sized fields and the Hunt Cup itself has 10 acceptors. My question is what happened to all the other Hunt Clubs who used to stage race meetings? I know the Eastern Southland and Birchwood Hunts where I grew up no longer do, but from memory there were others like the Egmont Wanganui Hunt Club, Hawkes Bay HC, Manawatu HC, Rangitikei HC, Maramarua HC, etc. Did they have their race dates revoked? 

Again, not my area, but the Christchurch Hunt used to race leading up to the Grand National meeting at Riccarton, holding the time-honoured Homeby Steeplechase, Brabazon Hcp and the Haldon Plate.     A Hunt Club member told me how dissatisfied [ read pissed off ] they were, as they were required to pay 'too much' for the privilege of racing at Riccarton.   I got the impression she thought they shouldn't have had to pay anything at all.

At any rate they eventually gave their day up, and it was taken up by the CJC rather than lose the date altogether.

Birchwood Hunt day was a valuable intro. to the Great Western meeting at Riverton - the horses had a decent hit-out before hitting the often very testing ground at Riverton.

The Rotorua day with all the races ridden by jump jockeys was a great move, IMO..and if we had more such days, the lack of jump riders/jumpers could be at least partially addressed.

[MrBigStuff 478]

3 hours ago, Pam Robson said:

Again, not my area, but the Christchurch Hunt used to race leading up to the Grand National meeting at Riccarton, holding the time-honoured Homeby Steeplechase, Brabazon Hcp and the Haldon Plate.     A Hunt Club member told me how dissatisfied [ read pissed off ] they were, as they were required to pay 'too much' for the privilege of racing at Riccarton.   I got the impression she thought they shouldn't have had to pay anything at all.

At any rate they eventually gave their day up, and it was taken up by the CJC rather than lose the date altogether.

Birchwood Hunt day was a valuable intro. to the Great Western meeting at Riverton - the horses had a decent hit-out before hitting the often very testing ground at Riverton.

The Rotorua day with all the races ridden by jump jockeys was a great move, IMO..and if we had more such days, the lack of jump riders/jumpers could be at least partially addressed.

Maramarua use to race at Paeroa didn’t they? And Waikato Hunt was at Te Rapa

[Alf Riston 2,142]

Pakuranga Hunt & the McGregor Grant Steeplechase? 

Another tradition destroyed in the interest of progress......

[skoota 66]

Does the Egmont Wanganui Hunt Club still race at Waverley or Whanganui ? 

[Lord Wilf 90]

3 hours ago, Pam Robson said:

Again, not my area, but the Christchurch Hunt used to race leading up to the Grand National meeting at Riccarton, holding the time-honoured Homeby Steeplechase, Brabazon Hcp and the Haldon Plate.     A Hunt Club member told me how dissatisfied [ read pissed off ] they were, as they were required to pay 'too much' for the privilege of racing at Riccarton.   I got the impression she thought they shouldn't have had to pay anything at all.

At any rate they eventually gave their day up, and it was taken up by the CJC rather than lose the date altogether.

Birchwood Hunt day was a valuable intro. to the Great Western meeting at Riverton - the horses had a decent hit-out before hitting the often very testing ground at Riverton.

The Rotorua day with all the races ridden by jump jockeys was a great move, IMO..and if we had more such days, the lack of jump riders/jumpers could be at least partially addressed.

The thing that intrigued me about Rotorua was the physical quality of the fences, both the hurdles and steeples..They looked way past their best.

[Pam Robson 1,894]

42 minutes ago, Lord Wilf said:

The thing that intrigued me about Rotorua was the physical quality of the fences, both the hurdles and steeples..They looked way past their best.

Yes.  Very much.

But hard to get enthused about maintenance of something that is likely to be not required very soon.

[Leggy 4,194]

45 minutes ago, Lord Wilf said:

The thing that intrigued me about Rotorua was the physical quality of the fences, both the hurdles and steeples..They looked way past their best.

Nice safe looking wings though.

[MrBigStuff 478]

51 minutes ago, Lord Wilf said:

The thing that intrigued me about Rotorua was the physical quality of the fences, both the hurdles and steeples..They looked way past their best.

Yes they were scruffy looking fences. Rotorua use to have live fences but for whatever reason maiden steeplechases use to have a lot of fallers and lost riders. Was like mad movies, horses escaping the course out onto Fenton Street etc. for whatever reason it just was not a good track for maiden chasers. 

[Lord Wilf 90]

10 hours ago, Pam Robson said:

Yes.  Very much.

But hard to get enthused about maintenance of something that is likely to be not required very soon.

True. I am intrigued that some of the southern clubs retain their permanent jumps fences.

[gubellini 4,551]

In the 1924-25 season 14 Hunt Clubs had race days. By 1974-75 the number increased to 16. Such meetings are now an endangered species. 

[We're Doomed 5,908]

2 hours ago, gubellini said:

In the 1924-25 season 14 Hunt Clubs had race days. By 1974-75 the number increased to 16. Such meetings are now an endangered species. 

That Rotorua meeting may be the only actual Hunt Club that still holds a meeting of its own. I'm not sure of the status of the Pakuranga meeting. I don't think it is an actual Pakuranga meeting. I think Waikato just names a couple of races after them. I may be wrong.

I think the SI historically had 6 Hunt meetings: Christchurch,  South Canterbury, Waimate, Otago, Eastern Southland and Birchwood. There may have been more in deepest darkest Southland. Waimate was the first to go, merging with the Waimate RC, although the merged club ended up racing on the old Hunt Club date.

The problem with the Hunt Clubs was that they tried to use the race-meetings as a profit making venture to fund their hunting activities. That led to people questioning why money should be taken out of racing and wouldn't the industry be better off if the racing clubs that owned the tracks held the jumps meetings themselves.

Several rules were introduced largely to counter the Hunt's approach to racing, namely a minimum stakes requirement as they tried to run races for very low stakes, and also a rule about the percentage of total stakes that went into one race at a meeting as they used to run the feature "Hunt Cup" for a decent stake with low stakes for all the other races.

I know Waimate used to hold a steeplechase for amateur riders, I'm not sure about the other Hunts.

[Pam Robson 1,894]

18 hours ago, We're Doomed said:

That Rotorua meeting may be the only actual Hunt Club that still holds a meeting of its own. I'm not sure of the status of the Pakuranga meeting. I don't think it is an actual Pakuranga meeting. I think Waikato just names a couple of races after them. I may be wrong.

I think the SI historically had 6 Hunt meetings: Christchurch,  South Canterbury, Waimate, Otago, Eastern Southland and Birchwood. There may have been more in deepest darkest Southland. Waimate was the first to go, merging with the Waimate RC, although the merged club ended up racing on the old Hunt Club date.

The problem with the Hunt Clubs was that they tried to use the race-meetings as a profit making venture to fund their hunting activities. That led to people questioning why money should be taken out of racing and wouldn't the industry be better off if the racing clubs that owned the tracks held the jumps meetings themselves.

Several rules were introduced largely to counter the Hunt's approach to racing, namely a minimum stakes requirement as they tried to run races for very low stakes, and also a rule about the percentage of total stakes that went into one race at a meeting as they used to run the feature "Hunt Cup" for a decent stake with low stakes for all the other races.

I know Waimate used to hold a steeplechase for amateur riders, I'm not sure about the other Hunts.

 

 

Ah,  thanks, D.  That explains why the ChCh Hunt lady was so tee'd off at having to pay a fee she considered exorbitant for racing at Riccarton.  First-four shippers....two bob millionaires.

[Phar Lap Fan 107]

On 8/19/2024 at 10:28 AM, MrBigStuff said:

Yes they were scruffy looking fences. Rotorua use to have live fences but for whatever reason maiden steeplechases use to have a lot of fallers and lost riders. Was like mad movies, horses escaping the course out onto Fenton Street etc. for whatever reason it just was not a good track for maiden chasers. 

Were the fences used for hurdles and steeplechase races? I wasn't paying close attention but looked the same. The standard of jumping, cross-country and ring, at the Olympic Games was much higher. Are tracks too muddy for achieving much height? (t.i.c.)