Reefton JC
Contact the club
- Secretary
- Colin Stevenson
- Postal
- Box 340, Greymouth
- Phone
- 03 768-4274
- Fax
- 03 768-4278
- bwcracing@xtra.co.nz
Reefton Jockey Club is based in Reefton and races once a year. The raceday is the first day of the popular three day January West Coast circuit.
The track has a circumference of 1140 metres and a straight of 140 metres which makes it the smallest course in New Zealand for galloping meetings.
The Reefton Club was formed in July 1877 and the first race meeting held in December 1877. The Club held its first meetings at Fern Flat, Waitaha, and shifted to its present course in 1879. The original grandstand was built in 1913.
During the 1955-56 season the Reefton Trotting Club purchased a half-share in the property and in 1967 the Club purchased the former Monteith's Brewery property which became the main stabling yards and car park.
In 1982 a sports complex was built at the course, one-third owned by the Reefton Jockey Club, Trotting Club and Rugby Club respectively.
Reefton is a township on the banks of the Inangahua River on the west coast of the South Island. Its principal industries are farming, sawmilling, forestry and coal mining.
In 1888 Reefton became the first town in New Zealand to be lit by hydro electric power - six years after electricity was first commercially available in the USA.
Gold was first discovered in the locality in 1866 and the Reefton School of Mines holds a collection of minerals and equipment for crushing rocks.
