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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Autumn thoroughbred racing is synonymous with Tauranga’s Gate Pā track, where big race days stretch back more than a century.
Last Saturday, the Group 2 Japan Trophy was fought out in another terrific turf battle before Omega Boy, who had travelled north from Palmerston North, prevailed by half a length in the 1600m feature.
The origins of Western Bay of Plenty autumn racing began around 1912, after the then Racing Commission granted the Bay of Plenty Jockey Club a totalisator permit the previous year.
It is recorded that the March meeting held in 1912 saw the feature Tauranga Cup run for a stake of 60 sovereigns.
The Tauranga Cup, run over one and a quarter miles, was held almost continuously at the Gate Pā racecourse until 1967, before it became the Bay of Plenty Gold Cup in 1968. From 1980 until 1997, it ran under various sponsorship names before reverting to the Bay of Plenty Cup in 1998.
An Easter Trial, which led into the prestigious Easter Handicap at Auckland’s Ellerslie racecourse, took centre stage from 1961 before coming to an end in 1973.
The 1963 edition of the Easter Trial was won by arguably the best horse to be trained at the Gate Pā course. Final Command dominated headlines with six straight victories, culminating in the Easter Handicap, before being sold to America.
The involvement of (Sir) Bob Owens in the racing game transformed the then Bay of Plenty Racing Club into a major power in Australasian racing in the 1970s.
Owens, through his Stars Travel business, was among the first in the country to recognise the benefits of mixing business with thoroughbred racing through commercial sponsorship of feature races.
The Stars Travel Invitation Stakes was initiated in 1968 and grew to offer the second‑highest WFA stake money in Australasia, behind only the Cox Plate in Melbourne.
Horse racing legends of the 1960s and 1970s who came and won the race included Game, Sailing Home, Kirrama and champion mare Fairfleet.
In the middle of Stars Travel’s reign as the country’s biggest WFA race (1968–1978), another local innovative thinker set up a reciprocal race with Japan.
The Japan Bay of Plenty International Trophy originated from a number of visits to Japan by Bay of Plenty Racing Club President Bob Silson, who wanted to establish a reciprocal race between the two countries.
The first race was held at Nakayama Racecourse outside Tokyo in 1971, followed by the first New Zealand edition at the Gate Pā course in Tauranga in the autumn of 1971.
Fifty‑five years later, the now‑named Japan Trophy has been run continuously, except for 1985, when the meeting was cancelled after race four because of adverse track conditions, and 2020 (Covid).
Over the years, the Japan–New Zealand reciprocal race has read like a who’s who of the best milers in the country.
People’s champion Sir Slick went back‑to‑back in 2006 and 2007.
Gate Pā trainer Jim Pender has fashioned an exemplary record in the race with four winners.
Power Chief, who would give Final Command a nod as the best horse to be trained on the Tauranga track, took out the 1992 edition.
A golden period followed for J.C. Pender with victories recorded by Ginga Dude (2008), Casabella Lane (2010) and Our Star Pupil (2011).
Only time will tell whether Omega Boy will take a high standing alongside the other winners of the longest‑running reciprocal thoroughbred race in the world.