We have welcomed back the Te Awamutu/Cambridge Trotting Club who held their first Meeting in December 2006 after more than 30 years. Racing in the district began, with bookmakers providing the betting avenues, in the 1870’s on a property known as White’s paddock, subsequently the site of the Power Board building. In 1876 the racing enthusiasts moved operations to Greenhill which was to become its
permanent headquarters. Greenhill owner William Taylor had allowed the use of his property for many years at no charge, but when the racing club sought to buy the land, to enable the transition from a non-totalisator club to a fully fledged club, the price was a seemingly excessive seventy pounds per acre. The 1914 Racing Commission visited the district and indicated that an application for a totalisator permit would be favourably considered. So, undaunted by the price and the additional expense of eight hundred pounds for a bridge across the Mangapiko Stream to give access to the course, the then Te Awamutu Racing Club pressed ahead by the time honoured method of “joint and several guarantees”. Those who subscribed their names to the guarantee which permitted the raising of nine thousand pounds were EB Walker, A H Storey, A S Wallace, J H Elliot, A Young, F Quin, E Potts, H Weal, M H Tims, F Potts, S C Macky, G M Ahier, M C Lawson, J T Young, L Bayly, W G Park, N M Lethbridge, G W Richards, A Walter, T G Martin, G L Stead, and W G Abbott. Names like Walter, Storey, Wallace, Elliott, Young, Weal, Tims, Macky, Young and Park and others from the list of office-bearers like Kay and Pollard, were to play a continuing role in Waipa racing history. The Greenhill course was not ready for the club’s first totalisator meeting in 1915 and it was held at the Waikato Racing Club’s course [then at Claudelands]. Total stake money of five hundred pounds was allotted and the tote turnover was nine thousand nine hundred pounds. For the first meeting at Greenhill in 1916, stakes were increased to seven hundred pounds and the totalisator turnover increased to thirteen thousand pounds. The track enjoyed its greatest success as a training centre when the late Bill Sanders, on his own and then in partnership with his on Graeme, was training on a scale previously unheard of in New Zealand racing and turning out huge numbers of winners. The late Alec Cook had been a respected trainer there for decades before the Sanders phenomenon and the late Jack McDonald prepared the champion Mainbrace [and a host of other good winners] at the Te Awamutu in the 1950s. The Club celebrated their 50th Anniversary with the Watties Jubilee Gold Cup race meeting on 15th December 1965, and their 75th Anniversary with a race meeting and dinner on 22nd February 1990. A highlight of the dinner was the cutting of the 75th Hubilee Cup by 92 year old Mr. Another memorable Centennial Race Meeting on Friday September 28 1984. Recent development at the racecourse include two state of the art stable complexes of 34 boxes each operated by Chris and Richard Otto, and Keith and Brendon Hawtin respectively. Committee
President: Stephen Herbert
Vice-President: Mark Irwin
Vice-President: Kevin Marshall
Committee members:
Keith Hawtin
Doug Hurrell
Harold McLiesh
Pat Peck
Graeme Sanders
Mark Sweeney
Ramsey Walker
Michael Wallace
