He felt the industry needed to upgrade its facilities to reduce the impact of abandoned meetings which cost clubs more than $2million in lost profits each year.
The Otago Racing Club was quick to promote Wingatui Racecourse as a possible site for such a facility, arguing Wingatui is halfway between Christchurch and Invercargill, the club owns a large block of land and there is a good horse population in the area.
It can add good local support to strengthen its case, and the Beaumont Racing Club is prepared to "kick in" some funds if it will help.
"We think it is a really good idea to have it at Wingatui," Beaumont Racing Club president Phil Williams said.
"It would be a great idea for Dunedin to have the three clubs [thoroughbred, harness and greyhounds] racing on one site. It nearly happened about 10 years ago but the old school at Forbury did not want it to go ahead.
"I’ve seen racecourses in Australia where they have a course either side of the grandstand for dogs and harness. You could perhaps do something like that and it could be a real coup for Dunedin and the Otago Racing Club to get.
"We want to support it as much as we can. We are a one-day club but we do pretty well for ourselves and we would like to kick in some money."
When pressed, Williams suggested the club might contribute $10,000 or $20,000. Williams was not overly confident the campaign would be successful, suggesting "Canterbury would probably steal it". But he was keen to "get the ball rolling" and hopefully gather further support from the racing community.
