Winners and losers in dates for the new season - your month by month harness guide

Seven fewer meetings will be held at Alexandra Park next season with the number of dates granted by Harness Racing New Zealand falling from 46 to 39.

As part of its drive to better align race opportunities, horse supply and wagering performance, HRNZ has made a number of changes, almost solely in the North Island.

Auckland gets 37 Friday nights, along with its New Year’s Eve date plus one grass track day at Ruakaka on March 29 after its meeting played out well this season.

Cambridge drops one meeting to 38, the majority, 24, on Thursday nights, with nine on Friday nights and one on a Wednesday.

The Waikato club will also host four grass track meetings at Taupo after the success of its January meeting there this year, the dates set down for January 4, January 31, March 4 and April 29.

The biggest loser in the North Island is Manawatu which drops nine of its 17 meetings, leaving only four Tuesday-Thursday meets on December 8 and 10, February 23 and 25, March 9 and 11 and March 30 and April 1.

Matt Peden … industry funded through the betting dollar.HRNZ’s head of racing and wagering Matt Peden said the number of meetings previously granted to Manawatu delivered a mismatch of the amount of meetings/races run relative to horses trained within the region.

And with petrol and travelling costs now much higher, there was a reduced appetite from trainers to travel to Manawatu, especially for single day meetings with fewer races.

That was also behind the switch of the Tauherenikau and Otaki grass track dates to Hawera, which will now host four meetings on January 22 and 24 and February 9 and 11.

“From a wagering point of view it is better to consolidate the meetings and have two days of 16 solid races.”

Ideally, Peden said it would have been nice to retain the Tauherenikau dual code date, which traditionally attracted huge crowds, but the industry was funded through the betting dollar and the return on four races there could not match full meetings at Hawera.

And with pressure on thoroughbred tracks in the CD, and Otaki having to absorb more thoroughbred meetings, it was likely this season’s late cancellation of the meeting there because of track damage could be repeated.

Few changes have been made in the South Island with an independent review commissioned by the HRNZ Board confirming that Canterbury is performing well and remains the strongest region across horse population, field size and wagering performance.

Addington will host 72 meetings in the new season, the same as Auckland and Cambridge combined.

As many as 43 of those will be on Friday nights, 34 of them shared with Auckland, with 18 on Wednesdays and eight on Sundays.

Southland will lose two meetings during periods where horse numbers are traditionally lower.