Bad weather in Southland last month affected the supply of the Club’s new all-weather racing equipment and Roxburgh’s order had to be suspended.
“We ordered the grit and Invercargill got that hit so they got a bit and I think Gore did too,” said club chairman Neville Beckley.
The original surface came from Black Hill Quarry and was sand.
“It’s the same as Addington and it just kept blowing away. With this last blow we probably lost 80% of the track.”
It was therefore decided to change the track surface and use the same grit as Invercargill, Gore, Wyndham and Winton, sourced from McGregor’s in Winton.
Beckley says demand for the material was so high that McGregor had to send trucks to Te Anau to replenish supplies.
“We have raised 240 tonnes so far and it is going quite well.”
HRNZ’s John Denton is due in Roxburgh on the 16th for a track inspectione December and the new surface is expected to be signed off then.
The club has also been busy completing a new sponsorship area.
“We already had that last year, but it wasn’t ready yet. We finished everything and extended it another two meters at the front and installed a nice railing.”
An additional covered area for sponsors is planned, but the strong winds of the past month have also caused this.
“We had the money, the pricing, and luckily we didn’t start with it. We lost part of the stables and had to lift the roof and put new wood under it. The surplus we had got gobbled up back on the track and into the stables. It’s a bit annoying really because we wanted to put it back into the sponsors.”
Beckley added that a horse pasture will be available this year if trainers want to stay over.
The main race of the day is the $25,000 Peters Genetics Roxburgh Cup. This will be the twelfth year that Peters Genetics has sponsored the Cup.
Through Bruce Stewartfor Harnesslink
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