Smart thinking in the face of adversity has resulted in the Eastern Bay retaining an amazing resource that’s being transformed into a general events centre of massive scale.

Out of the ashes of the former Te Teko racecourse, Racecourse Park is emerging as an event centre of note.

It has already hosted various equestrian events and was recently the venue for a wedding, even though Eastern Bay of Plenty District Trust chairman Bernie Joyes admits it is still “a bit rough at the moment”.

A lot of work, and money, has been poured into the development – much of it provided through community grants.

“Trust Horizon were absolutely gobsmacked at the potential they could see here,” Mr Joyes said. “They agreed with us that it was huge.”

Trust Horizon and the New Zealand Community Trust have both given a “significant amount of money” to help get the centre running.

Eventing Bay of Plenty has established a new cross-country course there after being moved out of its former site at Ngongotaha, and believe the park has the potential to be one of the most popular cross-country tracks.

The good view from the grandstand, great water pressure, relaxed vibe, good sized yards and great dressage arenas are among the compliments received.

Mr Joyes said they had now built a large building on the site and a “huge” event was planned for February 14 to 16 with showjumping, dressage and cross-country.

But he said the venue could not run on equestrian events alone and the aim was to make it multi-purpose.

It was being kitted out to accommodate more weddings, music shows and other get-togethers.

“We may have a New Zealand swap meet for hot rods and classic cars,” he said.

“One great thing about this place is we have virtually unlimited parking.”

He said there were all sorts of people coming out of the woodwork, wanting to come to the venue.

“We've got a large budget and it's going to take a number of years to achieve what we want to achieve, but we think it's a worthwhile project – and we're pushing ahead.”

Mr Joyes said the old administration building had been neglected in the racing days and was now being refurbished.

The massive shed on the property has been fitted with acoustic panels and a new electricity system and is undergoing a transformation into a large exhibition and events centre.

“They will be able to drive their expensive exhibition cars into here,”

The racing tower would be retained for the great view if offered for commentators, he said.

“You can sit in the grandstand and you can see the whole course – this is the only course in the country where you can do that.”

When the racecourse was in operation, it featured an 1830-metre racetrack, that not only was wide but also drained quickly because of the sandy soil.

“It was a very popular track in winter,” Mr Joyes said.

“I still get calls from race organisers wanting to come and race here – but the track no longer exists.”

Even though it is already in use, the vision for Racecourse Park is far from complete.

“We're trying to run the place and build it up at the same time – you’ve got to be a little bit crafty,” Mr Joyes said.

“We've done a lot of work out here getting this ready for horses, but we have to do the work in the late autumn and early spring because any grass we plant has got to have a chance to grow in a little bit.”

He said trustees Donna Smit, Linda Virbickas, Brian Takarua and Bev Hay were doing some great work while Kevin Allan had made important contributions to legal and planning work.

THE ASSAULT ON TE TEKO HORSE RACING COURSE

Eastern Bay of Plenty District Trust chairman Bernie Joyes tells the story how Te Teko and the Whakatāne Racing Club almost lost all their equestrian assets and land ….

Back in the late 90s, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing thought it would be a good idea to sell us up and use our assets, and put the money into other venues, but we fought the good fight and stopped that from happening and continued racing.

But in 2000, we decided we better protect ourselves from another assault.

So, we formed the Eastern Bay of Plenty District Trust, and all of the racecourse property was put into the trust, and we leased the racecourse back to the Whakatāne Racing Club at a peppercorn rental.

They took over and ran all day-to-day operations while the trust sat in the background.

The trustees were appointed from members of the Whakatāne Racing Club.

So, when it came up that the Messara report came out, and two Australians took over New Zealand racing virtually, they decided, in their wisdom, to get rid of a lot of old clubs.

We were one of them and ll our assets and take the money. Well, they then discovered that they couldn’t.

But they still wanted to close us down, and during Covid, they took the opportunity to just close us down without any consultation.

They took our trials licences off us and without being able to run trials, which was where we made our money, not from our big race meetings, we couldn’t continue.

They wanted us to move to Rotorua or Tauranga, and have our race meetings there.

But at $15,000 a day course hire, we would have lost money, and we would have gone backwards – we weren't economically viable.

So, we had a special general meeting, and the members voted to dissolve the Whakatāne Racing Club.

Three of the trustees didn't wish to carry on, although they did support us in our attempts to establish this venue, for what it is now, and we rewrote the trust deed.

In that trust deed, we've specified that this event centre, Racecourse Park – Eastern Bay of Plenty District Event Centre – is for the benefit of the people of the Eastern Bay, namely the Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne and Kawerau districts.

We've specified all three.

I managed to find three good trustees, and the old trustees resigned, and we took over.

I'm chairman of the group, and we're turning this into an event centre and we're at the stage now where we need people to know that we're no longer the old Racecourse.

That we’re Racecourse Park, and that we’re here for, hopefully in the future, events, weddings, awards ceremonies and different things.

Farming Like Grandad will be here in April for the third year in a row.

We have a bunch of South Africans that come and camp here, 400 of them. They put a water slide off the top of the grandstand; we’re here for them.

They have a special kind of summer camp kind of their own.