The Hāwea Picnic Racing Club committee is “devastated” to announce that this year’s race event has been cancelled.

The event, which has been held since 1946, is one of the oldest race meetings in the country. 

Club president Paul Cunnngham told the Wānaka App the race day has only been cancelled a couple of times in its history: once for wild weather and once for the Covid-19 pandemic.

“To be doing it for so long, to be faced with this decision was terrible,” he said. “It’s the last of its kind.”

Although the race day historically was held in Luggate, the Hāwea Domain has been its home for many years. 

The race day meeting is a fun combination of pony gymkhana events (jumping, pole bending), family fun sports races (sack races, lolly scramble, tug-of-war), and equalisator horse racing (harness racing, a locals’ hack race, human runner vs horse).

In its heyday it attracted classic cars, side-shows, food stalls - and thousands of people.

“In the glory days - maybe late 90s, early 2000s, the horses had to pay to get in,” Paul said. 

“That’s what people love, seeing those horses thunder down to the finish.”

The event was “a bit of a hybrid”, he said, with kids on the track for some events and trots and gallops, offering “a more fun and family-friendly day”.

This year the committee sent invitations to a large number of jockeys and horse owners, but didn’t receive a single reply, Paul said.

It follows dwindling interest from the racing industry in recent years, which Paul said may be the result of changes in the industry (such as fewer race days in this region), as well as the economic downturn.

The event, a combination of horse racing and family fun faces, is “a bit of a hybrid” and the last of its kind.

In 2023 the committee reduced the number of horse races to four; and some jockeys which had been registered didn’t turn up. Two of last year’s races took place with only two horses, which Paul said was “embarassing”. The committee also introduced two human running races to help fill out the programme.

“We drew a line in the sand this year,” he said.

The committee will reassess whether next year’s event goes ahead in August.

“We will want some commitment,” he said, adding that without enough horses the event will not take place. 

It needs at least 30 horses to go ahead, he said.

The Hāwea Picnic Races have been held on December 28 almost every year since 1946.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App