The Central Otago Trotting Club are moving ahead with their annual Omakau Trots race day on January 2 next year, but you'll need your passport with preparations underway for life with the new Covid-19 "traffic light" Protection Framework. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country would move to the new Red, Orange and Green alert level system from Friday December 3.

Central Otago Trotting Club president Graham Sinnamon says the club is gearing up for running the event under the Orange alert status. 

Under Orange, the Omakau Trots will require all attendees to be fully vaccinated and present a Covid-19 “My Vaccine Pass” - dubbed the "Vaccine Passport".

“We are taking a glass half full approach to it,” Graham says. "Pack your passport for an overseas trip to the Omakau Races on January 2.

“Under orange we can have an unlimited crowd in terms of numbers, but there’s the catch the government has put on everything in NZ, not just us, is that it requires everyone attending to have a Covid-19 vaccine pass.”

Central Otago Trotting Club president Graham Sinnamon says the Omakau Trots on January 2 will go ahead and aims for a fun, entertaining event.

That’s going to be a fact of life for now, he says.

“We will now need to come up with a way to get people processed and onto the course in as effortless a fashion as we can. 

“It’s new to what we are used to, and we don’t want people standing around in queues for too long. 

“We might open the gates earlier or something like that. We have proven in the past that we’re pretty good entertaining people. 

“Our focus is on coming up with a way to open for north of 7,000 people come raceday.

“That’s just going to take a wee bit of management.”

Graham says the organising committee will be working diligently over the coming weeks to create solutions to problems so those attending the event can do so with as little hassle and worry as possible. 

“We want to run a day where the community can come together but equally not feel like it’s hard work. 

“We will have the fun parts of the raceday, and that will come out in the next month. 

“The entertainment package is about the same size as previous years. We have a great big list of prizes and we want to make a day people can come and have fun at. 

“We want people to have fun.”

Graham says the racing community are ready and raring to go, and wants racing to be back on the right track after a difficult period. 

Last year’s event was a go-ahead before heavy rain put an end to the trots at the last minute. 

“Trainers have indicated they want to race in front of crowds,” Graham says. “We are pretty confident we are a large event that we can run it in a way to be successful.

“Fingers crossed the person in charge of the weather this year is kinder to us than last year." 

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