Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
By Garrick Knight, published in The Harness Xpress, 8 May 2025 It’s crunch time for the Auckland Trotting Club (ATC) as it looks to lock in a deal to sell the Franklin Park Training Centre in Pukekohe in an effort to reduce debt. Appointed sales agents, Colliers International, called for expressions of interest by April 17 […]
The offers are in for the Pukekohe training center that the Auckland Trotting Club needs to pay the banks the $80 million they owe for the failed Alexandra Park property development. $67 million is the highest offer, payable over two years. $80m – $67m = a shortfall of $13 million, and no training track or […]
The Auckland Trotting Club is more than $80 million in debt that it doesn’t have the money to pay. Its only way out is to sell the farm before the bank sells it for them. Club members were promised a holy grail, an unsolicited $100 million from a Chinese developer if the club sold the […]
The word is that there are four potential buyers in the running to purchase the Pukekohe training center at Franklin Park, after the original $100 million contract of sale by a mysterious Chinese developer predictably fell through. Two of the potential buyers are rumored to be Brendan Lindsay, the owner of the famous Cambridge Stud, […]
Five new buyers are already in the mix, led by an Iwi development company By Garrick Knight, Harness Express Auckland Trotting Club officials have pulled the pin on its $100 million sale deal for the Franklin Park Trotting Centre in Pukekohe. After the buyers, Mount Hope Limited, failed to settle the deal by the agreed […]
The word is that I am wrong about the Auckland Trotting Club collapsing into a heap. Something has happened that it is not only going to save Alexandra Park, but Pukekohe too. A household name in Australian harness racing will relocate to the City of Sails. Watches MacKinnon is going to come out of it […]
The Auckland Trotting Club lost $14.7 million in the last year. Is anyone surprised? Revenue was down by $8.7 million, mainly because the club couldn’t claim $10.5 in profit from the sale of its fast diminishing stock of investment properties as income. At the same time as the club’s income plunged by $8.7 million, its […]
This is an excerpt from the 2023/24 Auckland Trotting Club annual report. I have some questions about what we see. Why was ATC Chairman Jamie MacKinnon paid $10 000 in consulting fees? What special skills did the wrist watch salesman bring to the club as a consultant? Couldn’t someone else who is at arms length […]
BY Garrick Knight, Harness Express The Auckland Trotting Club’s (ATC) Annual General Meeting has been set for December 3. The ATC had hoped to have the settlement money from the Pukekohe land sale in time for the AGM, but the Chinese-based buyers missed the November 8 deadline. An ATC spokesperson confirmed today that the money […]
They say that Ben Hope was higher than Swayzee at the Racecourse Hotel on Saturday night. You have to wonder if he was in the same state of mind when he decided to park Just Believe outside him on Muscle Mountain in the NZ FFA Trot instead of taking the sit on the Aussie’s back. […]
