Rowing on the river starts at 9 am with corporate crews battling for work place bragging rights. This is followed by the secondary school races, which has the top NZ school crews and girls) racing over a 3 km upstream course. The boys' race is traditionally between Hamilton Boys' High School and various other schools from around the Waikato and Auckland. The day culminates in the two international races – the Bryan Gould Cup (woman) and the Harry Mahon Trophy (men) – raced over the 4.2 km Great Race course.