Andre Klein said goodbye to Wingatui and the Otago Racing Club this week after 12 years at the helm. He talked to Matt Smith about the good, times, the bad times, the state of the industry and his lasting memories of the deep south.
One thing becomes evident during a chat with Andre Klein: he can talk for hours about horse racing if you let him.
And that passion is one reason why he has lasted 12 years in the Otago Racing Club chief executive role, a job he leaves to take up the chief executive job at Warwick Racecourse in his home county of Warwickshire.
He admits it hasn't always been easy to keep grinding over the last 12 years, particularly when times got tough.
''You've got to be incredibly thick-skinned,'' Klein said last month in an extended interview with the Otago Daily Times.
''There are times during the last year you wonder to yourself why you are doing this.
''But, ultimately, I absolutely love it. I honestly feel that after 13 years, three-quarters of my body is buried under Wingatui.''
The English-born Klein compares the job to working as a property manager for the National Trust in the United Kingdom - a job he was perhaps eyeing up during his time with the National Trust before he began working in horse racing.
''Property managers got assigned to a property. You applied to be the manager of a castle or a house and it was virtually a job for life,'' he said.
''You stayed there and you lived and died by that property and it's a bit like race clubs. It's your club and that's what you're doing. You want to see the place improve and as I walk away from this place, there's so many things I haven't achieved that I really wished I could have done with better resources or still would have liked to do.''
It is worth, however, reflecting on what Klein has achieved. Aside from his well-documented creation and promotion of the Melbourne Cup day at Wingatui, he has been at the forefront of building on the non-raceday income through increased use of the club's function centre.
The club has also made land available for property subdivisions, driven by immediate past president Dean Lawrence.
All this would have seemed a world away for Klein when he first heard about the job when living in Adelaide in 2003.
''I had been over to Dunedin quite a few times, because my brother Rene had lived here, so I was familiar with the environment I was coming to.''
Klein was just the seventh secretary of the Otago Racing Club since the club was established in the 1850s, although when he walked in the door, he wondered if he had turned back time.
''Coming from Adelaide, with 65 race meetings a year, it was very vibrant and a modern office, it felt like walking into the dark ages,'' he said.
''It was under pressure financially. I remember looking at the books, thinking `what are we going to do here?'''
The Melbourne Cup day meetings - starting in 2004 - began the changes, but the Cromwell meeting at the end of November was also given a boost, while the clubs around Otago began working together as Racing Otago.
That soon led to the establishment of Gallop South in 2005 and Klein took the helm of the consortium of Otago and Southland racing clubs.
The Gallop South body gave the southern clubs and Klein more flexibility in working meeting dates around to suit the particular clubs, and led to the creation of the southern Triple Crown - the Gore, Dunedin and Southland Guineas.
''NZTR [New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing] were prepared to trust our judgement,'' he said.
''They were looking at the successes we created and they were happy to support us. In recent times, it's become much more difficult to negotiate with NZTR.''
Klein felt the Gallop South model worked well for several years after its creation, but the advent of bulk guaranteed funding started to compromise the larger clubs, leading to the Otago Racing Club opting out of Gallop South in 2011.
''The Gallop South structure initially helped the smaller clubs run the bigger clubs and it worked really well,'' he said.
''Why I think Gallop South fails now is that the funding model is much more bulk-funded. We don't even look at what the off-course turnover is anymore. We now begin to look less at the on-course turnover - everything is bulk and everything is assured.''
He supports the idea of a regional structure involving the Otago Racing Club, but it needs to be ''miles away from the current structure'' and Otago and Southland regional bodies need to meet two or three times a year.
''It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.''
He bemoaned the structure of race times which are placed to best suit Australia, a situation which Klein feels sums up New Zealand's position as a feeder industry.
''That's the sad thing about NZ racing. The biggest race in New Zealand by a mile is an Australian race,'' he said.
''I know it's because it's got a lot of NZ history and everyone's proud of that. But we've become a feeder industry from a breeding perspective and from a racing perspective. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it keeps the industry alive here - but it's still a little bit sad.
''There's nowhere near enough evening meetings in thoroughbred racing in this country. In the UK, they've figured out it's a nice thing to do. That, for me, is one way how we can grow racing in this country.''
All these ideas are hard to implement without the support of the national body, and the frustration is evident in Klein's voice.
''I do wish that NZTR would appreciate the scale of the industry down here. I don't think it gets the attention it needs from Wellington,'' he said.
''We're an afterthought down here, we really are, and that's sad. When we've been given the opportunities to shine, we do. You only have to look at the likes of attendance on Melbourne Cup day, the number of horses we get at Champions Day ...''
Some in the industry have questioned the value of three New Zealand thoroughbred meetings on a Saturday - particularly with the jockey resources available - but Klein thinks it would be the best way to promote South Island racing.
''The north and central districts look down on South Island racing but I think if they saw it every weekend, they would get more familiar with it,'' he said.
''Every Saturday, it should be Riccarton, Ashburton as an offshoot, Wingatui or Invercargill. If there's Cromwell on a Sunday, that's fine, you don't race on a Saturday.
''But again, it's NZTR just ignoring the racing industry down here. Myself, [Canterbury Racing's] Tim Mills and Gallop South ad nauseam have tried to increase the number of feature meetings down here.
''You're not given a fair suck of the sav.''
Little brother syndrome aside, Klein leaves Wingatui wondering what might have been with a project he believes could have changed racing in Otago.
''Forbury Park should have sold and moved here [to Wingatui],'' he said.
'' I don't doubt they've got a great history at Forbury Park and the location is fantastic - but had they sold that place, we could have built something here at Wingatui or on a greenfield site that would have been state of the art, an absolute asset to Otago, like [Forsyth Barr] stadium.''
''That really gripes me. It was never really given enough consideration by the council, by Forbury Park and dare I say it by my own committee at the time.''
Klein hopes his efforts with the jumps racing scene in New Zealand will be rewarded in future years by a Kiwi jumper heading to the Cheltenham festival.
Such a trip would be in no small part to the increase in horse numbers which have come under Klein's watch as national jumps co-ordinator.
''I'm absolutely passionate about jumps racing and that's something I really proud of, as well,'' he said.
''The way it is now with squeezing it into the May to September window is a nice structure.
''The biggest dream in jumps racing for me is to get a NZ horse to compete in the Cheltenham festival. Cheltenham have offered to contribute as well. I would put my own money in to see that happen.''
The reins of the thoroughbred that is the Otago Racing Club will be in the hands of incoming chief executive Hannah Catchpole from Wednesday, and Klein is confident she will be supported by the ''best committee we've had'' and ''a great bunch of staff''.
''They make the job so much fun,'' he said.
Klein made special note of track manager Wayne Stevens, one of the first people he employed.
''We come from completely different planets and have completely different visions on how things should be done, but ultimately we have a high level of respect for each other. It was hard this year seeing him struggle under the weight of the abandonments.''
Those abandoned meetings were on Champions Day (January 31) and March 7, while a meeting in April was called off with two races to go.
The abandonments left the Otago Racing Club, Klein and Stevens in the firing line from commenters on social media and pundits across various press platforms.
Klein is not a big reader of internet forums and social media relating to racing, but felt some of the comments crossed the line.
''That is one of the saddest things - I've been accused of so many things recently. Some of it is so personal and it really annoys me,'' Klein said.
''You waste a lot of time defending yourself or proving your innocence and it's stupid. People live off hearsay and they love rumours.
''All I have ever wanted is the best for racing in this region, or best for this club, or best for the stakeholders and best for our owners. I've spent 13 years dedicating myself to that, actually to the detriment of my personal mental health at least.''
Klein described the ''bagging'' from a handful of people to be ''incredibly annoying and frustrating''.
''Ultimately, the small group of us who are involved in horse racing want one thing: we all want a superstar to come out of this region,'' he said.
''We all want our apprentice jockeys to succeed and become superstars. We want to see our racecourses packed with people and the sport of racing held under a shining light. People in this industry spend way too much time bagging each other and bringing each other down when we should be much more unified.
''I don't go on social media to defend myself or the club because you're battling morons. You can't win. And you can quote that.''
