Gore Racecourse, on Main South Road at Gore, is the home of the Gore Racing Club and a long-standing fixture of Southland thoroughbred racing. The club was formed in 1889 and the course sits on 53 hectares of freehold land, functioning as both a racing venue and a training centre. The track is 1600m with a 350m home straight.
NZ Thoroughbred Racing notes that the Gore club opens the Southland season in September and holds three race meetings a year, with the Listed Gore Guineas in January as the feature event — run as the Liquorland Gore Guineas, a $60,000 race and one of the feature days of the Gallop South Festival. The Tapanui and Wyndham Racing Clubs and the Gore Harness Racing Club also race on the track, so the course carries meetings well beyond the host club's own dates. In spring the grounds put on a substantial floral display of flowering cherries, rhododendrons and azaleas.
### Functions and catering
Catering and function business at the course is handled by Food Affair, a Gore caterer with a long association with the racecourse. Food Affair advertises a large function room at Gore Racecourse available for hire for corporate events, comfortably seating up to 120, plus a corporate function space that seats 80 for a sit-down buffet. Menus are tailored to budget and requirement, ranging from finger food and canapés for a cocktail-style function through to two- or three-course buffets. There is plenty of on-site parking.
Race-day hospitality is arranged separately through the club, which offers a range of options across its race dates from September through to March, including packages for Gore Guineas Day. Club membership (currently listed at $25 per season) includes free entry to Gore RC race days, access to the members' bar and parking rights on restricted days.
### Practical notes
Gore sits in eastern Southland on State Highway 1, roughly an hour from Invercargill. The town is well known for trout fishing on the nearby Mataura River and as the home of the Gold Guitar Awards, both of which make useful add-ons for an incentive or delegate partner programme.
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