“Fishmonger” won the first race when racing began at the Avondale track in 1890 and “Verdi’s Opera” tailed the field in the final event on the last day of racing in July 2026: a mere 136 years between them! When horses cleared the track after the last race on Wednesday 15 July it was the end of scheduled racing for the Avondale Jockey Club on its racecourse – a venue which has meant much more than just horseracing to the community over 136 years… sports, military manoeuvres, markets… and a slice of aviation history.
The newly formed Avondale Jockey Club, AJC, held its first meeting on April 26th 1890 in fine weather with a large crowd and competitive fields. The feature was the Avondale Cup but the honours for winning the first race run on the brand-new course went to the maiden “Fishmonger” who beat 14 others home.
H. H. Hayr’s Fishmonger – Sporting & Dramatic Review; John Slack, Auckland Libraries
136 years later “Verdi’s Opera” in sky-blue colours was the last horse in the last race on the card: hers were the finishing hoofbeats at a race meeting on the course.
“Verdi’s Opera” and Sienna Brown clear the finish line last, and made history
A small, but loyal, crowd attended the final meeting which was held in fine weather and with a track that retained the course’s enviable reputation for good footing. The meeting of 7 races was named Foley Memorial Race Day in honour of Michael Foley, one of the founders of the Club.
For the record, “Final Reason” (appropriately named) won the last race at Avondale.
Back to the Beginning
Announcing a new race meeting in Auckland – Auckland Star 2nd April 1890
Michael Foley, Robert Garrett, Harry Hayr and M. Murphy were the leading lights of the founding of the Club and its first race meeting. For opening day the Club gave out 350 complimentary tickets, while the public paid two shillings for a combined ticket: admission to the course and rail travel. Train travel to and from the course became very popular with, often, 2 special trains every race day, the terminal was “Avondale Crossing” just 300m from the racecourse gates.
Henry (Harry) Hayr -John Robert Hanna, Auckland Libraries
Harry Hayr remained Secretary of the AJC until his death in 1923. He was also secretary of numerous other sports clubs and,1890-1894, publisher of the local weekly “N. Z. Illustrated Sporting Review and Dramatic Review”. In 1913 he had to make a choice. He was both agent for a totalisator and AJC’s secretary. When the law was sharpened to outlaw anyone closely connected with racing from tote activities, Harry chose the Club and went on to be Secretary for another 10 years.
Racing
Over the decades the Club staged meetings several times a year, the annual Avondale Cup being the feature.
But there have been interruptions. Meetings were transferred to Ellerslie in 1901 when the grandstand was being enlarged and for three years during track renovation in the mid-1920s. There was a similar disruption during the 1940s when the military took over the course. AJC missed a meeting due to financial difficulties and the Club was forced to stage its November meeting in 2024 at Pukekohe because of a power failure.
On the other hand, Avondale has hosted meetings for many other clubs over the years, including Henderson’s Mill Turf Club (1891)*, Pakuranga Hunt (1907), Whangarei (1920), Bay of Plenty (1923), Franklin (1925), Dargaville (1928),) and the Helensville District Racing Club (1990). In a “combination” arrangement, the AJC paired with Kumeu Trotting Club in the 1990s to stage both galloping and trotting races at the same meeting on the Avondale circuit.
*These are the first dates that Clubs raced at Avondale: some continued over the years.
The Course
Hack meetings had been held on Bollard’s paddock, Avondale, since 1887 and it appears that the fledgling AJC leased adjacent land, about 80 acres (32 hectares), from Charles Burke for the new racecourse.
(There are some suggestions that the land was gifted by, or part-purchased from, local farmer Moss Davies. Historian Lisa Truttman has found that the Club first leased the land from Burke, then purchased it in several steps until 1914 when the Club had acquired all Burke’s land and owned it, freehold). To which had been added, in 1913, a small lot purchased from John Bollard to allow better public access to the course.
A rudimentary racetrack was first created, slightly egg-shaped, a circuit of about a mile (1.6 km) with the back and finishing straights each a generous 2 furlongs (400 m). It was originally a left-hand track but altered to clockwise in the 1901 reconstruction, perhaps to fall in with other local tracks, mostly right-handed. A starting shoot was later added near the present Elm Street gates.
Fencing the track could not be afforded at first, so posts indicated the track-proper. Some jockeys were occasionally accused of cutting corners, guiding their mounts on the inside of the posts.
Over the decades the track was fenced, drained, enlarged, lengthened and widened with improved camber, turn and surface. For instance, in 1921 additional land was purchased so that the old track could be done away with and a new circuit formed, about the same length (1.8 km), but with a uniform width of 100 ft (30m) and the radius of the turns improved – described by the Club as “…perfect as engineering skill can devise”. The AJC estate stood at 127 acres (51 hectares) after the additional land purchase.
Grandstand facilities always seemed inadequate for the crowds on race day.
The original grandstand, pictured in 1899, soon proved too small – J. A. Slack, Auckland Weekly News, Auckland Libraries
That original grandstand had seating for 300-400 spectators, while underneath there were rooms for the ladies, jockeys, weighing, stewards and two refreshment bars. The grandstands were enlarged many times over the life of the Club, added-to in 1898, upgraded in 1901, and doubled in capacity in 1913.
The Grandstand in 1906 – Illustrated and Dramatic Review, Auckland Libraries
1913 was a big year for the Club: it enlarged the grandstand and installed the latest in totalisators and introduced the first electrically-powered starting barrier.
The scene on the course, Spring Meeting, 1919 –
“Highlights From One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale”, AJC
In 1936 opportunity was taken during expansion works to move the stand closer to the track, a major undertaking which afforded better views of the finishing straight.
The last additions were opened in the 1960s and 1970s hosting cafes, bars, lounges, a restaurant, betting facilities, conveniences, members-only privileges and function rooms.
The new grandstands photographed in the 1980s – AJC
They had all that a serious punter or casual visitor could wish for, including a good view of the expansive course enabling a close eye on the racing.
The only grandstand open on the final day of racing
In the early days there were always liquor outlets on course where one could celebrate a win… or commiserate a loss. The Club tendered the rights for publicans etc to establish “booths” (bars and drinking places) on race days. But in 1909 the racecourse was part of Eden Electorate when residents voted it “dry” which meant no sales of alcohol within the Electorate boundaries. Avondale Jockey Club applied for a liquor licence for their Autumn Meeting in 1909 but was refused: the law applied universally, even to racecourses.
The Club’s licence was restored in the early 1960s
Sly-grogging and Other Misdemeanours
But the law did not stop those who liked “a drop of the doings”. There are newspaper reports of court cases involving charges of smuggling liquor on to the course and selling it. Racecourses in earlier times seemed to attract opportunists. Plain-clothes detectives were often on the course. For instance, in 1927 Chief Detective Cumming was on duty at Alexandra Park races when he picked up a man wanted in connection with blowing the safe at Avondale racecourse. There are reported cases at Avondale of race-day gambling, bookmaking, theft and trespass.
Secretary Harry Hayr, and his successors, felt obliged to add a footnote to advertisements for each meeting “…that no bookmakers, disqualified or undesirable persons will be admitted to the course, and any such person found on the course will be removed and charged with trespass. The promotion of sweeps is prohibited, and any person infringing will be removed and prosecuted”. Troublemakers were not welcome!
Other Sports
The AJC’s property has hosted a surprising number, and range, of sports, etc, over the decades… other than horseracing. It’s noteworthy that the wider community has shared the land since the very beginning.
One of the first groups to use AJC land was the Coursing Club, staging meetings from 1893 when the hounds took after the hares over the country out towards Whau River. Big money changed hands: at the1896 meeting, 5 dogs had been selected to win the £600 bet.
Coursing at Avondale became popular – Auckland Libraries
A later write-up in newspapers say the hares were hardly ever killed and they were plentiful in land adjoining the racecourse.
Coursing dogs and their handlers en route to the racecourse – Sporting Review, June 1897, Auckland Libraries
Oddly enough, 90 years later in 1983, it was proposed hounds return to the grounds once again – this time greyhound racing, with totalisator and all modern facilities, after the local Club lost its track at Mt Smart.
The idea did not take on … the Greyhound Club built new facilities at Manukau.
There’s a long list of other sports that have taken place on land owned by AJC, mostly on the playing fields created in-field. Polo (from 1892), hockey (from 1914), rugby for many years, (the All Blacks’ training sessions in 1950), soccer (international and national tournaments as well as local clubs), rugby league, cricket (from 1892) and motorcycle races (1923).
The Otahuhu Motorcycle Club at Avondale in the 1920s – Weekly News, Auckland Libraries
Harriers, chiefly the Lynndale Club, had Avondale as their base (from 1930s), there were athletics (preparation for international events: Olympians Snell, Quax and Roe), Commonwealth Games’ Road Cycle event in 1990, Samoan Cricket, Auckland Rifle Association’s shooting championships (from early 1900s), equestrian – dressage (nationwide competition 1979) and jumping events. The course was given over to the sixth Polynesian Festival on Waitangi Day, 1981, attended by an estimated 4,000 spectators with more than 400 performers.
At the time of the final race meeting (July 2026) there were 7 rugby fields and 3 soccer pitches on the in-field, the AJC grounds have, thus, welcomed sporting bodies for just about as long as the racecourse has existed.
Military Occupation
Several times over, AJC’s property became a military training ground, the wide, open space, plus the course’s facilities, ideal for training a large number of men in preparation for duties at the front.
The first recorded camp was probably a much smaller affair than those that followed, when volunteer soldiers from West Auckland’s Oratia Troop trained under canvas on the course in 1898.
Volunteer soldiers from Oratia in camp at Avondale Racecourse – J. T. Diamond, Auckland Libraries
In November 1910 the week-long annual camp of A Squadron of the Auckland Mounted Rifles was held at Avondale, “an ideal location…” according to the Auckland Star “…water is being laid on from the main supply, and there will be plenty of room for the horses”.
Followed in 1912 when some 500 men were under canvas for the week-long camp of volunteers including those from the North, many arriving by train, living under canvas with exercises held each day, typically mounted rifle drills.
Troops with their horses at Avondale, 1912 – Auckland Libraries
After the outbreak of World War One many hundreds of troops trained on the course, notably the pioneering volunteer Native Contingent. 500 recruits trained at Avondale before they departed for service at the front in Malta, Gallipoli, Egypt, and Europe. It was the forerunner to the famous Maori Battalion.
Hundreds more troops followed and then, in October 1915, the first group of older men arrived, deliberately chosen by the military not for youthfulness, but for their mining, engineering and workshop skills as members of the Tunnelling Company of Engineers.
One of their tasks was to test locally made grenades powered by the explosive Sabulite. About the size of a cricket ball, their internal construction was designed to shatter, the bomb exploding in many pieces and thus causing maximum damage. Senior Officers who observed the tests at Avondale concluded that one or two Sabulite bombs, properly exploded, would leave nothing in a trench.
These recruits were in camp for several months learning the ways of military life and getting physically fit.
The Tunnelling Company of Engineers parade at Avondale Racecourse Camp – Auckland Weekly News
In December 1915, training over, more than 400 set off on active duties overseas, tunnelling and bridge-building, notably their celebrated work underground at the front in Arras, France.
Then, early-on in World War Two the military returned to Avondale as a training camp, facilities bolstered to meet wartime footing. At first the racecourse was shared: troops of the First Field, Auckland Regiment, were conveniently deployed elsewhere on race days, allowing the AJC to continue its meetings.
As the Auckland Star observed “…in place of the bugle call and marching feet, there will resound the tinkle of the totalizator and the hoof beats of striving horses”.
Soldiers drill at Avondale Railway Station 1940 – N. Z. Herald, Auckland Libraries
Avondale, and the military, chalked up another first during wartime, in December 1940, when a camp was established for the first women to train for war service. 150 members of the Women’s National Service Corps, all volunteers, were under canvas and on Christmas Eve, they paraded in downtown Auckland.
Big crowds watched the Women’s National Service Corps on parade – Weekly News, Auckland Libraries
Wartime recruitment gathered pace: more and more territorials were taken on. And racing had to give way. Avondale, like some other racecourses, was taken over by the Military and converted to a full-time training ground. After the AJC’s Spring Meeting in September 1941 the entire racecourse was thus occupied by the military and there was no racing until September 1946: meetings were transferred to Ellerslie.
Trouble on Course
The New Zealand Jockey Association supported one of their members, Tod Hewitt, who in 1920 was in trouble with the AJC. Hewitt wanted the remainder of the Autumn Meeting called off because of unsafe conditions and withdrew his services. And then at the subsequent inquiry into his actions he was said to be uncooperative and impertinent. Officials threatened to have his riding licence cancelled and other jockeys, refusing to see him victimised, went on strike in sympathy. Industrial action escalated to involve cargo handlers on the wharves and, in Auckland, the tram drivers. It was only nimble work by the Labour Department that the dispute was nipped in the bud.
In 1958 jockeys took exception to a new method of anchoring hurdles to the turf, “footed hurdles”, saying they were unsafe and as a protest the riders threatened not to take part in the hurdle event on April 26. The Club was adamant the new way would be introduced… after all, it was used on other courses. As a result, just 4 horses contested the race… but jockeys, advised the practice was not going to be widespread, later accepted the situation and returned to their saddles.
In 1962 there was widespread, and vocal, displeasure from the crowd when the starting barriers did not open simultaneously during the running of the Mt Eden Handicap. Some jockeys, unaware of the problem, continued for the length of the race. It was decided, in fairness, to run the race again and another horse took the honours.
Fashions in the Field
For many decades going to the races for the ladies meant a new outfit, a fetching hat, latest accessories… and it was no different at Avondale. Newspapers, typically, nearly always commented on the fashion seen on course. Here’s how the Auckland Star reporter saw it at the April meeting in 1933, held during passing showers:
“HIGH NECK LINES. Frocks at Avondale. Spring and summer chiffons have been safely tucked away in their boxes, to give place to the warm, cosy woollen suits and tweed ensembles worn by those brave enough to face the showers to-day at the Avondale racecourse. Strikingly noticeable were the new light macintoshes, showing a touch of colour at the neck and cuffs, and sensible shoes in shades of brown were conspicuous for their comfortable and watertight appearance. Some smart cardigan jackets were carried by a few of the feminine racing enthusiasts, and the casual little hat, with well-fitting crowns, were made to match many of the jumper suits. A few coloured umbrellas faced the sea of black ones”.
On-Course Religion
Several times over its lifetime the Avondale Course has been used as a retreat or training camp by religious groups. In December 1928 the North New Zealand Seventh Day Adventists held their 15th annual session under canvas. 500 delegates attended the two-week camp at which Church business was discussed and instruction given in Biblical matters.
7,000 members of the Jehovah Witnesses organisation descended on the racecourse In December 1983 for their 4-day international convention
And not to forget that Church services were held regularly by padres and other clergy during each of the military training camps. Sunday Services were usually open to friends and family of the recruits, for some a last chance to meet before the soldiers departed on overseas service.
Other Uses
In 1918 the AJC, at the request of the Government Health Department, placed the whole of its buildings at the disposal of the authorities during the influenza epidemic. Public events and gatherings had been postponed so the racecourse was temporarily transformed into a hospital facility to help treat and care hundreds of victims. It was also used as a base for nurses who were doing the rounds visiting local residents suffering mild effects of the ‘flu.
The one constant since the 1980s has been the Avondale Sunday Market, New Zealand’s largest one-day market, held every Sunday in the grounds.
Avondale Sunday markets – AJC
It continues to be very popular, thronged by customers who travel from far and wide to purchase fresh fruit, vegetables and seafood. Other stalls sell a wide variety of goods with a strong Asian and Polynesian influence and, in addition, there are car boot sales. The market has attracted as many as 20,000 on a Sunday: traffic jams often occur along Ash Street on Sunday mornings.
Wings Above the Course: Among the First Flights in NZ
In 1913 when the AJC agreed to allow the racecourse to be used for pioneering aeroplane flights, it wrote Avondale into the history of New Zealand aviation. Two men, Frederick Sandford and William Miller, were experimenting with a bi-plane, “Manurewa”, the first two-seater plane in New Zealand. At first, on 20th April, 1913, altitudes of about 30 feet (10m) were reached for the length of the racecourse. These were among the first flights in New Zealand.
The only earlier attempt had been a much-publicised event just a few days before, 18th April, by visiting American aviator, Arthur “Wizard” Stone. He was attempting the first controlled flight in New Zealand at an exhibition before a huge paying crowd at the Auckland Domain. He got the plane off the ground just above the heads of the spectators, only just airborne, when he crashed. The crowd dispersed disappointed. Some wanted their money back!
The Avondale-based duo made a series of modifications to their plane and in September Sandford took it to a height of around 230 feet (70m), flying to New Lynn where he landed in a paddock.
Sandford and Miller with their biplane, Avondale 1913 – Weekly News, Auckland Libraries
A few days later the plane returned to Avondale from New Lynn, watched by a big crowd for a flight which the Auckland Star described “…as neat a display of airmanship as one could wish to see”, the plane easily clearing fences during take-off and then soaring over the pine trees in the direction of the racecourse.
This was pioneering aviation. However, on a later flight returning from New Lynn in December, the plane crashed on take-off, failing to clear a fence post. Frederick Sandford received serious injuries and the plane was wrecked.
Once recovered, Sandford joined the Army Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in England and was decorated for his pioneering contributions in the air. William Miller pursued his mechanical and automotive interests as a garage proprietor in Auckland.
In 1922 there was a suggestion that the racecourse might again be involved in aviation, but nothing came of it. AJC entered negotiations with an airline, New Zealand Aero-Transport Company, to create an aerodrome on racecourse land. The airline planned to fly an Avro aeroplane and a larger D.H.9 in and out of Auckland and figured Avondale would be an ideal terminal.
In February 1922 there was to be a direct flight from Wellington to Avondale by the D.H.9. But weather delayed the venture, and when the plane eventually made the flight it arrived in Auckland to face more weather problems and was forced to land in Cornwall Park. There was no more talk of Avondale as an aerodrome… and, similarly, discussions came to nothing in the 1930s when Auckland Gliding Club was looking for a suitable airfield and considered Avondale as a likely home.
Fires on Course
Avondale has had its fair share of fires and the like…
On September 22 1924, mid-evening, there was an explosion in the old Avondale racecourse totalisator building, resulting in heavy damage to the building and destruction of the valuable machinery.
The wrecked totalisator equipment – Auckland Weekly News, Auckland Libraries
The blast threw debris 60 feet (20m). The single-storey wooden building had been 60 feet (20m) long: the resulting fire was soon dealt with, but damage was estimated at £6,000.
In January 1985 a blaze took out about a third of the old “Derby” stand.
Fire rips through the end of the Derby Stand
Club Secretary, John Wild, said thousands of dollars of damage was done… the new Browne-type hurdles, stored in the building, were destroyed. What was left of the building was demolished.
The course’s totalisator building was damaged by fire on the afternoon of September 4 1996. It was race day, the fire started ninety minutes before the first race, but officials managed to keep proceedings on time.
In December 2023 there was a major night-time fire under a grandstand with 19 fire crews deployed.
Fire badly damaged the grandstand’s interior – Facebook
Promotions
In the 1970s and 80s AJC was involved in major promotions, some of them “borrowed” from other clubs, but many original innovations that pushed the name of the Club and its activities: most coupled with valuable sponsorship which benefitted the AJC. Among these were the introduction of computerised betting and an electronic indicator board, allowing television to show races live, an electronic draw for barrier placings, increased stakes and attracting better fields by subsidising the costs of out-of-town owners to transport horses to Auckland. The Club obtained sponsorship for all races and trophies.
In November 1980 one of the biggest promotions in connection with a race meeting in New Zealand was the “1ZB All Rounder” organised by the radio station (DJs Paddy O’Donnell and Jim Smith) and the Club. They were determined to make the most of the AJC’s meeting on the same day the Melbourne Cup was run. The stake for the big race at Avondale was up there with the richest in New Zealand, $65,000, and British TV star Jill Gascoine was enticed to visit New Zealand and share the night at Avondale, meeting her fans. Every 10th entrant at the gates was given a betting voucher, there was a special arrangement on-course to bet on the Melbourne Cup (before the days of inter-track betting), and the racing was followed by a fireworks display and a pop concert. Secretary/Manager John Wild was behind this massive promotion, and he’s quoted as saying that had it not rained on the night it would have been the biggest crowd ever seen on the course.
Pioneering Night Gallops
The AJC proposed further innovation when in 1987 it took the bold decision to spend millions of dollars lighting the course for night racing, a first for gallops in New Zealand and Australia.
Work underway for the lighting -AJC
Apart from the novelty, the Club believed many more punters would attend in the evenings and, as well, off-course betting would increase. And, at first, the AJC was correct. Although the first “night at the races”, 1st April 1987, happened to be a wet evening it did not dissuade punters – on course betting, $1.2m, was double that on the corresponding (day) meeting the year before.
But within a few years the novelty wore off, it was said horse trainers and grooms, traditionally early-risers for early morning workouts at training tracks, didn’t like the late-nights and there was a general shift to other interests by the public. One night, the power failed just as the horses were in full flight approaching the finish line. The track and surrounds were plunged into darkness and it was sheer luck that horses and riders came to no harm. Night racing was abandoned in June 1991.
Financial Difficulties
Some commentators say costs of the lighting and associated equipment in 1987 was the beginning of AJC’s financial downturn. This, coupled with a reduction in racegoers and those interested in the sport, on top of changes in social pursuits, weighed heavily on the Club’s finances. In 1988 AJC leased an in-field area for 10 playing fields to the Auckland City Council and further revenue resulted when the Club sold off parcels of land in Wingate Street to the Housing Corporation.
But this did not stem the haemorrhage. In 1990 the Bank of New Zealand said it was foreclosing on the AJC’s debts. It was reported that the sale of land, the Club’s saviour, could not go ahead because AJC was unable to afford the costs of development and rezoning. At that stage it owed $8.4 million. But an arrangement was arrived at, enabling the Club to continue.
Since that time the Club has been in financial turbulence and under the threat to end racing. The bank again sought to wind up the Club, there was a brief public appeal trying to save Avondale, the Club was taken over for a time by a Board of Control to oversee the business and the Racing Authority took on part of the debt as a loan.
The last meeting at night under lights was held on June 20th 1991 and AJC officials noted, afterwards, that course attendances picked up, as did off-course turnover… and a better class of horse was being entered in day-side events. Racing continued.
But financial troubles continued and the AJC was forced to assert itself, fighting off renewed industry attempts to close the racetrack. The Club, unwavering, produced a “2030 Vision Statement” with elaborate development plans. But there were other reports into the industry, principally the “Messara Report” in 2018, which found thoroughbred racing “…was at a tipping point” and the Government agreed with restorative measures that John Messara had recommended. Avondale was not part of the plan.
Following up on this, the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, and other authorities, noted in 2019 that there would be no more racing dates allocated to Avondale beyond 2025: officials said that gallops in Auckland would, in future, be held at Ellerslie and Pukekohe.
Locals have been advocating the land be vested in “green, open space”, a reserve, while Auckland Council has been considering subdivision and housing possibilities.
And so, without any public farewell, racing came to a close at Avondale on 15th July 2026 and, while the Club says it’s still hopeful of a reprieve, visitors to the course on that final day had only to look around to see that the run-down facilities are no longer fit for purpose and that a small fortune would be required to restore or replace them to anywhere near a standard to, again, attract crowds to Avondale.
Racing over, the asset remains: some 30+ hectares of open, level, land in Auckland’s suburbia
We await the next chapter for the land that for 136 years has not only been Avondale Racecourse… but home for the myriads of community activities it has hosted over the decades.
Footnote: On 28th July, 2026, the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) and TAB NZ released “Project Stamina”, a long-term roadmap to create what they set out as a “modern, sustainable racing and training venue network that will support the future of New Zealand racing”.
Of Avondale, the report says “Racing finished at Avondale at the end of the 25/26 season” with a red sticker alongside indicating “EXIT” the industry with immediate effect.
RCC July 2026
Sources
Papers Past National Library of New Zealand, website accessed June ans July 2026
“Highlights From One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale”, Avondale Jockey Club, 1990
Time Spanner, Liza Truttman website accessed June and July 2026
“Heart of the Whau : the story of the centre of Avondale”, Lisa Jane Truttman, 2003
