Welcome to Avondale Jockey Club
Situated in inner-city Auckland, the Avondale Jockey Club (AJC) has been part of New Zealand thoroughbred racing for over 130 years. The Avondale racecourse is a right-handed turf track, 1800 metres, suitable for racing in all conditions and loved by jockeys and horse owners for its high quality and consistency.
AJC is located inside the Auckland inner-city fringe and west of the CBD (15 minutes by car and 25 minutes by train from Britomart). Visitors, locals and racing fans from everywhere are welcome at our venue, always. Where does the AJC turf track rate in terms of the best NZ can offer? If you rate as the most important factor in selecting ‘the best racetrack’, the turf course itself, then you are on a winner – the Avondale racetrack is one of only two or three great turf surfaces in the country. On the other hand if your criterion is the ‘quality of the racing’, there’s little to be had and naturally your favourites are elsewhere.
Going back to 1889, AJC and its predecessor clubs have a long distinguished history. Traditionally the Avondale course would attract some of the country’s best horses, with famous owners’ and horses’ names among past winners of the Avondale Guineas and the Avondale Cup (2200m). Over the last few years racing at Avondale has been scaled back by the regulators of the industry to about 4 – 8 race meetings per year. Currently racing is a series of “Industry” (weekday) meetings, typically between November and April each season.
Next race day: Dates cancelled
AJC News & Blog
President’s Message to Members – 13th October 2023
Dear Members No doubt some of you will have seen recent publicity put out by NZTR – including this morning’s Racing Desk article (an NZTR publication) – about the aftermath of the partial abandonment at the Avondale track last month (7 of 9 races run). NZTR contends that the club is not
New GM appointed to Avondale Jockey Club
Manny Boyack has been appointed General Manager of Avondale Jockey Club. Mr Boyack, an accomplished senior manager with over 20 years’ experience, brings a wealth of skills to the position, including operations management, strategic planning and deal making. He was previously Managing Director for one of New Zealand’s largest importers and distributors
New rail commissioned on Dead 4/5 track
Racegoers were few and far between at Avondale on Saturday 2 April 2022 but those who attended saw the first use of the club’s new rail and witnessed some good racing. The track came up a Dead 5 (close to the club’s plan) and was upgraded halfway through to a Dead 4.
