Dunedin National list MP Michael Woodhouse was that "horse" on Wednesday when his colleague, Rangitikei MP Ian McKelvie, was unavailable for the first speech in the second-reading debate of his Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for Race Meetings) Amendment Bill.
If you could not back the horse you wanted to Mr Woodhouse was not a bad alternative as he actually had plenty of experience as to what the Bill was trying to achieve.
For decades Central Otago has hosted a circuit of gallops and trotting meetings, popular events which are targeted by horse trainers and holiday makers alike as a highlight of the summer season.
For small clubs like Roxburgh and Omakau the meetings are an annual occasion and an important community event; for many the racing is almost an added extra to the social gathering aspect of the day.
While alcohol is sold on site, more than a few punters turn up with a six-pack or a Gibbston rose nestled in their chilly bin alongside their picnic lunch.
This tradition went along undisturbed until a 2016 court case, Police v MacDonald upset the cider cart.
The previous year Mr MacDonald had thrown a party at his home and charged $5 per attendee to cover the cost of a DJ.
As he was not selling or supplying alcohol Mr MacDonald did not think that he needed a liquor licence ... but after 2800 people posted on Facebook that they planned to attend the party the police got involved.
They got even more involved at 9pm on the night in question, when the security hired by Mr MacDonald — who had gone to strenuous lengths to try to stage an orderly event — lost control of the revelry and police had to attend and help shut the event down.
When the matter made it to court one aspect the judge considered was the liquor licensing question and whether the address where the party was held was what the law would consider "a place of resort" — somewhere unlicensed that people had gathered to drink.
Based on case law from 1962, the court held that consumption of alcohol was a substantial purpose of people attending Mr MacDonald’s party and in the process dropped a substantial cat into a large flock of pigeons.
Some of the more nervous worried that dinner parties might be scuppered due to the precedent, but thus far police have resisted the temptation to bust people somewhere between the entree and main.
It has, however, been used to shut down things like school ball afterparties.
Country racing clubs then considered the decision and wondered whether they too could fall foul of it, a worry then racing minister Winston Peters backed them up on.
National’s Chris Bishop quickly drafted a member’s Bill intended to preserve the social side of the summer racing circuit, a Bill transferred to Mr McKelvie, but which Mr Woodhouse then had to pick up early on Wednesday evening.
Quite apart from having sat on the select committee which considered the Bill, Mr Woodhouse had other background to draw on.
"Ever since I was a child, certainly for most of the last 20 years, I've been a regular attender at the Central Otago Trotting Club's annual race meeting in the beautiful town of Omakau in the Matakanui Valley," he said.
"Now, Omakau only has about 250 people but the population swells to about 7000 on the day of the trotting meeting. I go every year with my family, we sit under a tree with a picnic blanket, chairs, and a chilly bin, a couple of beers, you know, a wine or two, and we catch up with friends and family.
"The racing is almost incidental. Certainly having a glass of wine with our lunch is incidental."
Omakau and the other small club race meetings in Otago certainly did not meet the "place of resort" test as Mr Woodhouse understood it, and he came further armed with details of medical call outs, St John cases and police checkpoint numbers, each of which suggested that the Omakau races were not a place where people deliberately turned up to get as out-of-it as possible.
He also noted that the select committee had tightened the proposed law change so that it only captured meetings staged by small racing clubs — pretty much all the southern summer carnival race days — and that all concerned regarded the Omakau trots to be an event which posed a low risk of alcohol-related harm.
Being essentially a booze Bill this has been a conscience matter throughout, and on the votes of individual MPs it was passed 61-49.
Mr Woodhouse and his party colleagues Jacqui Dean, Penny Simmonds and Joseph Mooney voted for it, as did Taieri Labour MP Ingrid Leary and her Te Tai Tonga colleague Rino Tirikatene.
Dunedin Labour MP David Clark and his Invercargill list MP colleague Liz Craig voted no while Rachel Brooking, with no strong feelings on the question, abstained.
As there are no members days left before the end of the year the licensing question will still hang over the southern racing summer for this year, but the cold packs and the chardonnay should receive the royal assent next year.
To the point
On Tuesday, assistant speaker and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean could have done with a recording of herself saying "stick to the point".
As MPs unravelled the embarrassing and unnecessary mess which was the short-lived attempt to add an entrenchment clause to the Water Services Entities Bill, everyone gleefully took the chance to take pot shots at each other.
Mrs Dean had to ask six times for MPs to actually debate the clause before turning the chair over to MP Jenny Salesa, who had similar issues to manage.
Back for more
This week, with little fanfare, Labour confirmed that sitting MP Ingrid Leary would be its candidate for Taieri in next year’s election.
Although she won in a landslide in 2020, Ms Leary had taken nothing for granted and been a busy electorate MP during the past two years.