Gore racecourse, the home of the Gore Racing Club is a key location in Southland and has played an important part in the history of thoroughbred racing in New Zealand as a training and racing venue.

The Gore RC, formed in 1889 has three race meetings a year with the listed Gore Guineas the feature event in January. The Tapanui and Wyndham Racing Clubs and Gore Harness Racing Club also hold race meetings on the 1600m track with a 350m straight. The Gore club opens the Southland season in September. Ted Winsloe and Rex Cochrane, the leading trainers for New Zealand in the 1960s and 70s were based at Gore. Cochrane was three times the leading NZ trainer and Winsloe twice. Winsloe trained the winners of seven of the eight flat races at a Gore RC meeting in October 1964.

The racecourse is situated on 50 hectares of freehold land and provides a magnificent floral display in the spring with flowering  cherries, rhododendrons and azaleas.  The Gore RC made the property available as an emergency hospital during the influenza epidemic in 1918 which killed 9000 people in NZ.

To hear the different hospitality options available for any of the racedates held at Gore  from September through to March, please contact Jo on cell 021 246 5889 or email [email protected]