The Rotorua Racing Club has their biggest raceday on the calendar still to come in 2024 - the super popular Holiday Raceday on 28 December - but their next scheduled raceday in 2025 doesn’t take place until May with the time-honoured Campbell Infrastructure Rotorua Cup Day on Saturday, 10 May – the Club’s most significant event.
This calendar might lead you to ask what the Club does in January, February and March? Whilst an extended holiday would be nice, it’s in fact quite the opposite as the Club embarks on its annual renovation during this time.
With track maintenance and preparation under greater scrutiny than ever before, this crucial work on the track is designed to present the best possible surface for Rotorua’s racing season including some winter events.
So what work can we expect?
Damien Radesic, General Manager of Rotorua Racing Club, outlines the process explaining that the maintenance approach has several phases.
“The work includes mowing the grass that is there down to a height of 20mm and this is then picked up and then scarifying takes place, as to remove any thatch,” Damien says.
“The Club will then ground break the track, vertidrain it and sub-soil and core the track.
“This is all done to open up the profile of the track.”
Once this surface preparation work is complete the track will be re-seeded with sports oval grass seed and irrigated on a strict schedule to support grass propagation.
The propagation process typically takes 8 to 10 days to see shoots and when the seed has taken hold of the track, the entire surface will be mowed to a height of 60mm with a rake on it so the grass stands up and no matting occurs.
This process is an annual one for the Club and they expect to have a renewed racing surface ready for racing in May.
Damien comments, “This process is one that the Club commits to each season to ensure we’re investing in our most important tool, the track itself.”
“We make a commitment to our stakeholders to present a surface that’s fair and safe and our track renovation each year allows us to do so.”