The committee of the New Zealand Trotting Hall of Fame seeks your support in stopping the Auckland Trotting Club from bulldozing the Noel Taylor New Zealand Trotting Hall Of Fame museum at Alexandra Park.
Every club in the country, and people around New Zealand and Australia, contributed to setting up the museum and for the ATC to think it can obliterate such an iconic collection of harness racing history beggars belief.
There is no other harness racing museum in the southern hemisphere and just because it stands on land owned by the Auckland Trotting Club doesn’t mean it can unilaterally decide to turn it into a car park.
Some of you may have seen the deplorable and arrogant display by ATC president Jamie MacKinnon when interviewed on TV One last Friday when he stated: “I think they should go and join another club and take up another activity because they’re never going to be happy.”
MacKinnon said in the interview the club planned to repurpose the land on which the museum sat for “some sort of commercial activity that will make money for the club rather than lose money.” 
The fact is the Hall Of Fame costs very little to run and the ATC Board has already told members it needs the area for car parking. The reason for that is the club used to park cars on land bordering Green Lane Rd which it was forced to sell to keep the banks at bay.
For MacKinnon to claim the move has nothing to do with being more than $73 million in debt is despicable.
The museum has been built up and run over the last 53 years thanks to thousands of unpaid hours by a succession of volunteers. When it was relocated to its present building in 1997 major benefactors like Sir Roy McKenzie and Max Harvey contributed to the $50,000 moving fund as did clubs and individuals from all over Australasia.
The ATC, whose directors cream $150,000 a year off the club, needs to be told it cannot destroy such a rare record of the country’s harness history.
The Hall Of Fame committee has also written to every club in the country asking them to register their opposition to this with Harness Racing New Zealand because as the code’s governing body, it has a responsibility to be a trustee of our harness history and protect it.
The ATC cannot be allowed to get away with destroying history and demolishing such a secure purpose-built facility. Its offer to display select memorabilia around the grandstand is not feasible given the value of the trophies and the room it wants to squeeze some of the collection into was described by its own former CEO as "not a particularly inviting area.” 
Noel Taylor, who gave $650,000 to build the Hall Of Fame, would turn in his grave if he knew his legacy was to be turned into rubble.
I hope you agree it is worth fighting for this national treasure.

Thank you in anticipation,
The New Zealand Trotting Hall Of Fame committee
Patrons: Peter Wolfenden (North Island)
Jenny Butt (South Island)