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CHATHAM ISLAND JOCKEY CLUB NATA S H A BA R R ET T
It is the late 1860s in a blustery group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, miles from anywhere. What do the horse-riding locals do for fun? They organise races, of course. Horse racing was, and still is, an important sporting pastime and social focus for the Rēkohu Wharekauri Chatham Islands communities living on the geographically remote archipelago, even appearing on their $3 banknote in 2001. Early photographs donated to the Turnbull show how the annual horse races gave locals an opportunity to gather, wear their best clothes, be photographed, admire the horses and compete with their own steeds. In 1869, the Hawke’s Bay Herald described how ‘Waitangi presented a scene of great festivity … when nearly the whole of our fellow settlers were assembled to celebrate our annual races’, followed by a social gathering and meal at Beamish’s Hotel. The Chatham Island Jockey Club was established in 1873 by Thomas Ritchie (1843/44–1934), also the club’s first president (in the photograph on page 116,
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Ritchie is seated centre and wearing a bowler hat), with the first races taking place the following year. The club’s annual race meeting featured in the New Zealand sporting calendar, and races were held at both Kaingaroa and Waitangi, the latter boasting a grandstand, described in the 1900s as one of the world’s smallest. The islands’ horses were shipped over from the mainland and Australia, and were considered to be of good quality. In 1872, the New Zealand Herald described them as plucky and having great endurance, adding ‘[t]here is perhaps scarcely an island so small as this that possesses so good a breed of horses’. Or as many: horse numbers were close to a thousand. These days the club’s annual meeting is now run as a three-day carnival over the Christmas and New Year period, with training held in the three months prior. Some island families, such as the Tuuta whānau, have been involved continuously from the earliest days, as jockeys, trainers and club presidents. The event remains one of New Zealand’s oldest racing fixtures and a great occasion for an annual catch-up with the neighbours.
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