Nelson club’s fruture in feamds of tocal public

Press, 13 October 1983, Page 26

Nelson club’s fruture in feamds of tocal public

Nelson reporter The future of the Nelson Jockey Club, which has just emerged from a financially disastrous season, was in the hands of the Nelson racing public, said Mr Henry Houston, retiring president of the club, yesterday.

The club, which ended the season with a $21,162 loss and a bank overdraft of some $60,000, held its annual meeting at Richmond Park, the home of Nelson racing and trotting, last evening.

The club’s future has been deemed “uncertain” because of its financial position, but Mr Houston emphasised that steps were being taken . to rectify this.

“We have started fundraising and if we’re successful there we will be able to carry on,” he said.

The major fund-raising activity involved club members giving the club free-of-interest loans which would be repaid over the years on a ballot system. “We have to get rid of that overdraft and interest charges,” he said. In his annual report presented to last evening’s meeting, Mr Houston said the year’s loss of $21,162, mainly resulted from a lack of nominations which then resulted in small fields and consequently a waning public interest.

The successful application of the Avondale Jockey Club for a date transfer permitted the club to race in competition with Nelson on the last day and this had had a disastrous effect on off-course investments for Nelson, he said.

The off-course turnover

was consequently down $856,247 on the previous season, and the over-all turnover decrease was just over $1 million.

Mr Houston said yesterday that other ways in which the club hoped to rally its finances was by withdrawing its financial support toward the running of Richmond Park which in future would be run by the trotting club in conjunction with the Nelson A. and P. Association.

Another suggestion was that Nelson should combine with its Marlborough counterpart to run a four-day circuit instead of each club running its own three-day meeting. This could well influence cost-conscious horse owners into greater support for the two meetings, and the larger fields

resulting would draw a greater public response. Mr Houston stressed that the club was not without assets. It owned, with the trotting club, a third of an area of land west of the park and it also expected something like $25,000 next month from the T.A.B. No elections were required for the officers and committee of the club. The ingoing president, Mr Bert Skillicorn, was unable to be present. He is overseas. Other officers are: senior vice-president, Mr Brian Mercer; treasurer, Mr Jock Sutherland; committee: Messrs Jim Cooper, Mervyn Hall, Murray Hutchings, Cecil Woodford, Allan De Goldi, Bill Healey, Keith Hughes, Peter King-Turner, Dennis Ryall, Dr Ken Galloway.