About Us
The heart of Alexandra Park has always been the Auckland Trotting Club. Established more than 100 years ago, it is one of the city’s oldest and most enduring institutions. Its business vision is “to be recognised as the number one venue in the Australasian harness racing industry”.
The club was formed in 1890, in the thick of horse racing action around Newmarket and Epsom. The earliest racecourse competition was held on the Epsom property of the Potter family, who were later managers of the adjacent tram barns, hence early names ‘Potters Paddock’ and ‘Tramways Corner’. In the early 1900s the New Zealand Trotting Cup was established at Addington, making Christchurch the headquarters of trotting in New Zealand. However, the Auckland Trotting Club continued to grow in stature, and rivals the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club.
Night trotting began at Alexandra Park in 1958, becoming an instant success, introducing a format that continues to get audiences excited. Alexandra Park is also home to the Thames, Manukau, Kumeu and Franklin Trotting clubs – as this is predominantly where they race in Auckland – and these clubs currently organise half of the race meetings held at Alexandra Park. Northland Harness Racing and Wairarapa Harness Racing clubs also participate in meetings here, emphasising the contribution of Alexandra Park to its industry.
Since the mid 1980s the racing industry has faced intense competition from other forms of gaming. In the 1990s the Auckland Trotting Club set out to confront this challenge head on, establishing a commercial board of directors, including two external independent directors. The club now adopts a proactive commercial attitude to meet our key objective of ensuring the future of harness racing at Alexandra Park. Race nights at Alexandra Park are now focused on providing a unique experience that combines fine food, entertainment and a social atmosphere.
Supporting our local community
As stated in our rules, Alexandra Park has committed to:
Subscribe to or otherwise aid sporting, benevolent, charitable, national or other institutions or objects of a public character or which have any moral or other claim to support by the Club by reason of the locality of its operations or otherwise.
The facilities at Alexandra Park are some of best in Auckland. So we are in a unique position to benefit our community by supporting a number of good causes. For example, our large car parking capacity helps to provide additional staff and public visitor parking for Greenlane Hospital. It is also used for defensive driving courses and as a venue for local police physical fitness tests.
Carnivals, charity and culture.
‘Funfest’ has become an annual event each January. Organised by the ATC, with support from Lion Foundation and Trillian Trust, Funfest is four days of free entertainment for Auckland kids that attracts more than 30,000 people. Carnival rides, food vendors, giant slides, face painting, competitions and prizes. Proceeds from food vendors and one pay-to-play game contribute up to $20,000 each year to a beneficiary charity.
We regularly host the Howick Lions Club fireworks display, which supports a nominated Lion’s project. We have also played host to ‘Cirque de Soleil’ in July 2009 and the inaugural ‘Auckland Flower Show’ in November 2008. Our grounds were even transformed into a campervan park for overseas visitors during the Lions rugby tour.
