GOING TO THE RACES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19154, 10 November 1927, Page 18

GOING TO THE RACES.

BULLOCK-DRAY DAYS. SCENES ON ROAD AND COURSE. (By Mere Mere.) Many have been the changes in the seventy years since race Meetings were first held at Riccarton. The Province of Canterbury was not long founded before levers of the thoroughbred laid the foundation of the Turf as it exists here to-day. The Meetings were then annual affairs, but there were occasional matches between various owners for side wagers, and many of these were held on the broad highway or across country. Hagley Park was also one time the scene of the gatherings of the early sportsmen, and races were held there for many years, Queen Victoria's birthday being a favourite date. .Records of the pioneer meetings are difficult to discover, but in 1853 a very commendable report of the racing at Ricearton is available. The racecourse, which was regarded as having been very judiciously chosen, was in use that year for the third time- It lay a nice riding or driving distance from Christchurch, says the recorder, and scarcely a better piece of land of the size, even on Canterbury's wide plains, could have been found for the purpose of racing. The road to the course for some distance passed among comfortable farm houses and fields, and as the date of the meeting was late in January the grain all but ripe waved in the breeze and glittered in the sunshine.

There was a novelty in the spectacle of a dwarfed race of excited mortals bustling on the broad, opeu plain, flanked by the range of hills; a sense of unlimited freedom that was a luxury even to the inhabitant of wide spreading Christchurch, "and how much more to the 'cabined, cribbed, confined' townsman of Lyttelton!"

Progress Reported! In the following year we are told the road to the races, and the gathering on the course gave perceptible indications of advance in more directions than the breeding of horses; an increasing number of spectators, with ai» equalisation of ranks so far as outward appearances go; "a larger number of traps, and a smaller number, comparatively, of those who go on foot are symptoms of the changes which are at work in the country." The pedestrian element was one which it was expected "would perish altogether "not many years hence."

Although there were only about seven or eight hundred people present at these meetings, the appearance of the crowd was marked by the* singular abundance of horses and vehicles in proportion to human beings. The Canterbury folk were proud of their racing track —Nelson could boast of her breeding of horses, climate, and scenery; Wellington "decry us as well-behaved, slow, dreary back-country sort of people; Otago think Canterbury ugly and bare but let them admit that Canterbury has a racecourse at least to boast of!"

. . Not in Any Hurry. And the way of getting to the course would amaze the people who to-day travel by road. Here is a description of the various modes:— The bullock drays—those essential Blow coaches—herald the way, the drivers.evidently determined to get to the place some time or other; then come the horse teams, a little quicker in their movemeuts, interspersed with numerous dusty pedestrians, with here and there a timid rider, anxious to get on quietly; then the horsemen thicken; and anon a motley collection of traps, some looking as though they had slept, many years in backyards in distant lands, and been exported, on the principle evinced in those offensive advertisements headed: "Left-off clothes wanted for the Colonies"; some, again, showing signs of the right sort of thing—evident improvements on last year, enough to make one hopeful of seeing a real drag tooled on to the course by a workman before long. But here we are at last —the Grandstand and the booths, and the ropes, and the t judge's chair, and the Peelers with their funny-look-ing caps, which must have been bought from some unsuccessful contractor for Chelsea Hospital—all looking (the latter included) quite cheerful and bright under the influence of a sunshiny day. Elvals from Overseas. Cobb and Co.'s coaches appeared on the road in the early 'sixties, and in making a first acquaintance with them one record runs:; — Wo noticed one of Cobb's coaches packed with a dense crowd of happy-looking fellows —it was lumbering along pitching and rolling on its great leathern suspenders, like a ship in a small storm; a team of six horses, skilfully tooled by an adept, drew this machine —a sight altogether new in this province, and well worth looking at anywhere. Then there -was another Yankee notion drawn by five horses, some of them, as well as some of those in the "stage," making their first appearance in harness.

Big Race Re-Named. ' At the fixture in 1865 the first C.J.C. Handicap was run, and the big event was so-called \intil it was re-named the New Zealand Cmp in 1883. For many years the date*of the Meeting alternated between late in January and early in March, but an harvesting operations were found to affect, the attendances materially a change was made in 1871 to the springtime.

The Great Southern Railway. The Meeting of 1867 wa3 memorable in that it was the first occasion on which the Great Southern Railway was available for the conveyance of passengers to the course, and it is remarked that "the rail is by far the quickest, safest, and pleasantest way of getting from Christchurch to the races. A man could walk with the greatest ease from the station to the course in seven or eight minutes." A nuisance complained of in those days was the number of stray dogs on the course, and to stop people "bringing curs of all sorts" up to the races it was suggested that poison should be laid. "All the Fun of the Fair." •Probably to-day we are a more mat-ter-of-fact people, or take a keener—or more commercial—interest in. the races themselves which provides us with plenty to do, but in the olden times there was all the fun of the fair at the C.J.C. Metropolitan Meeting. There were games of "over and under seven" to attract the speculative; doodlam bucks: wheels of fortune; shooting galleries' galvanic batteries; menageries; and exhibitions of "works of,art." That venerable and universal relative, Aunt Sally, was well to the fore, and roundabouts were set up in likely places. Here is an extract concerning the sideshows (which received 'almost as much descriptive space sometimes as the races themselves): —

There was no Aunt Sally, but a more magnificent and liberal scheme obtained immense patronage. In front of a large canvas screen a number of sticks were planted in holes and on top of these the prizes—boxes of hairpins razors, spoons, and miniature American cooking stoves—were placed. The public paid a Ehillmg for three throws, .but whether the thrower had to knock the cooking stove into the hole, or the stick, or both, or outside of the hole to win, was to us a mystery. Adjoining this place was an imposing and mysterious tent, from which issued continuallv cheers and laughter, and men with bruised faces. An individual perched on an empty gin-case vociferously invited the public to "Be in time, gents; be'in time. Billy the Liverpool pug. is just going to set with the well-known Toung Slasher, as licked Jsek Horrible, the Battersea Pet, in fifty rounds and two hours and a half, for fifty pounds aside. Be in time, gents! Be 'in time I" We decline to be in time, and pass on, to