The Otaki-Maori Racing Club is managed by a committee, supported by a small number of executive positions.
Patron: Jim Winiata
President: Doug Logan
T: 06 362 6636
Vice Presidents: Tom Jamison, Steve Moffat, Merv Tunoho, Norman Taratoa
Committee: Andre Baker, Ricki Baker, Richard Taratoa, Jim Johnson, Josie Donaldson, Chris Hirini, Richard Orzecki, Rangi Ransfield, Micky Carkeek
General Manager Racing & Operations:
Darin Balcombe
T: 04 528 9611
M:021 449 167
E: darin.balcombe@trentham.co.nz
Otaki Course Manager
Chris Allen
027 2413 455
Otaki Course Supervisor
Terese Fulford
027 487-3136
Otaki-Maori Racing Club Patron – Jim Winiata
Jim regards the Otaki-Maori Racing Club as one big family – not simply because so many of his own family members have belonged to it, but because the club has had so much input by a number of local families over a very long period. His father, Nepia Winiata was Secretary for 21 years and then club President until his death. Currently there are several other Winiata’s serving as stewards or participating as club members.
Jim was born in Ohau in 1926, and then raised where he continues to live today - in the same Te Horo property. There’s something of a genuine pedigree about the Winiata’s Otaki-Maori Racing Club history. Waiting until he ‘was old enough’ to become a member at 21 was frustrating, but also a club rule back in 1947 – he’s now been a club steward for some 50 years, patron for 25 years, and reckons he’s seen ‘all the changes’ at the course over the years. He even helped to demolish the old public stand in the late eighties to make way for the present one.
Jim Winiata believes strongly that the club’s Maori ownership and history must be preserved and not let go the way of other such clubs – “we are unique and this is our strength”. Jim is the ‘real thing’, has an incredibly long history with the Otaki-Maori Racing Club, and a fascinating gentleman to engage in a chat. When you’re next at an Otaki-Maori Racing Club meeting look him up – enjoy learning some genuine Otaki history!