Riverton racecourse is situated an easy 25 minute drive south west of Invercargill. The club race four times a year, with a meeting on New Year’s Day added to their dates in 2021. The  Riverton Cup was won in 2017 by Patrick Erin, winner of the group one Metropolitan in Sydney the following year.  Great Sensation, the 1958 winner, won three Wellington Cups; Eiffel Tower, the 1965 winner won a Wellington Cup, two Grand National Hurdles and Great Northern Steeplechase; St Bruno won the Riverton Cup as a 3yr-old in 1949 after success in the New Zealand Derby at Riccarton five months earlier and Royal Lancer, the 1941 winner, won the NZ Cup the following year.

The success of the Riverton Easter meeting is a tribute to the work of successive committees. The Great Western Steeplechase, established in 1907, was a feature race staged by the club but had to be abandoned in 2021 due to insufficient jumpers available in the South Island. The Riverton track is 1700m with a 400m straight.

Bill Hillis, twice leading New Zealand trainer in the 1960s, trained at Riverton where prominent trainers Kelvin and Aimee Tyler and others are now located.

There has been racing in the Riverton district since the 1850s and The Wallace County Jockey Club who raced for several years was renamed the Riverton RC in 1886. The area has fine cafes and bars, access to sea fishing through charter boats and fishermen, trout fishing on the Aparima River that flows through the town, picturesque scenery, native bush walks and is the oldest European settlement in New Zealand, dating to 1837 as a whaling and sealing station. Accommodation is available through hotels, bed and breakfasts, motels and a camping ground.

To hear the different hospitality options available for New Years Day or for Easter Saturday and Easter Monday, please contact Jo on cell 021 246 5889 or email [email protected]