Lighting Experiment At Forbury Park Track

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27403, 16 July 1954, Page 5

Lighting Experiment At Forbury Park Track

trotting

Highly successful results were obtained in spite of a low ground haze when the Forbury Park Trotting Club carried out its first lighting experiment for night trotting on a section of its track on Wednesday evening, savs the Dunedin trotting correspondent of “The Press.” Forty yards of the track at the bend from the back straight was adequately lighted. Eleven lights were used. Eight of the 11 lights were on five poles on the inside of the track, and three on the outside. Each bulb was of 1000 watts, but these will be increased to 1500 watts if additional trials are held. This will be decided a t a meeting of the committee of the dub next week. Three horses —Sprink Creek (A J Osmond), Tyrone Queen (C. Hamilton), and Johnny Derby (S. Shirley) —took part in the trial. The most important feature of the trial, and the principal factor in the success of night trotting, was the fact that the horses showed no indication that they were troubled by the change from daylight to artificial light. This was confirmed by the well-known Dunedin trainer, Osmond, who said the horses are furthest away from lights as they were under normal conditions on a race day. On Wednesday evening there seemed to be no reason why spectators should not have an excellent view The stretch of track lighted was where the horses are furthest away from spectators in a race, and visibility was good in spite of the .ground haze. More than 200 poles will be required to complete the lighting of the'track -107 on the inside and several more than this number on the outside. It is understood that the club will have bo difficulty in obtaining suitable poles. If it is decided to persevere with night trotting, the work will be continued immediately. It will take several months to secure some of the necessary equipment, but it is hoped by the committee that the first night meeting will be held early next pear. Shadows on Track The club had not decided to put up poles round the entire track immediately, said the secretary (Mr C. EL Caffin) yesterday in reply to “The Press.” which had asked what would be done to prevent any shadows falling across the track for the club’s spring meeting on October 9 and 16. The club also wanted to see whether there was any possibility of obtaining extra permits for night trotting from the Government, said Mr Caffin. One of the greatest problems facing the club, he said, was transport for the public after a meeting had concluded. It would be impossible to run eight races in an evening, even if 35 minutes were allowed between races. Night meetings would have to finish in time to allow patrons to return to Dunedin in time to catch the last buses for each suburb before 11 pm. If the club started its first race at 7.30 pm., the sixth race would be run at 10.25, with 35-minute intervals between races. In Australia, where public transport runs much later than in Dunedin, six or seven races are run at 25 or 30-minute intervals, and the meeting finishes about 10.30 p.m. Very little time is allowed for horses to do preliminaries, and in most cases they have only sufficient time to go twice round a half-mile track before the start. T n Perth, shadows on the track from poles supporting overhead lights make i: necessary for horses to be worked about an hour of daybreak. Though it is possible that many horses would take no notice of shadows, or a track, it is certain that a number of horses would shy and attempt to jump shadows at Forbury Park. This could result in very serious accidents, similar to others

hav 1 e h attemntAH C t CUrred when horses by Pho?ffi :°ppS s shadows cast to til matte .r Was referred yesterdav medhtlly ,vould be lm. Mirando Injured Because of an injury to a foot thp unaWe to colt Miran do was record for e ,® ta t V llsh a mile an< i a halt, ins at f Fo=o tters at , a matin ee meetar ispsom on Wednesday Hi<? W^s e stin M a r N h° el SimPS ° n rAin S t U t,-™ Ch ?. n ? e Of the horse g°“g month before the end of this sidenrl , the ln]ui 'y was not consiaered very serious. Elected Life Member re . tirin B President (Mr R. T. McMilian) was elected a life member ?ho th n cl ? b . at the annual meeting of yeste?d?y erbUry Park Trottin g Club Moving the motion, Mr H. H Wauch?b in^qa l / M s> M i U 2 ri ? ad 3oined the 1936 and had been elected a : d ? n A 942 - In 1943 ’ he had elected to the committee, and he had peen appointed president in 1952. Mr Mrs UC M°cMma°n referred tO the work ° f fir? ( an I er ?.“ ry P , ar ? had hot been the first trotting club of which he had P resi ?ent, said Mr McMillan. 1° ears ago ’ he had been rS? u d ent . .°J tbe Ellesmere Trotting Leeston W^ be^d its meetings at

NEW STAND AT ADDINGTON APPEAL TO CLUBS FOR FINANCIAL AID It would not be an easy task for Addington Trotting Course, Ltd., to finance tne building of a new stand to replace the one burned down last November, said tne chairman of the company (Mr H H wauchop) at the annual meeting of the §Jy terbury Park Trotting Club yesterThe Canterbury Park club and the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club would have to support the company and n . P Provide some of the finance, he said. Sketch plans for the new stand were to hand, and a start would be m ?P e . on 1116 building in the near future. It had been mentioned by the president of the Metropolitan club (Mr C. E. Hoy) that the present levy of 1.75 per cent, on on-course totalisator turnover was proving insufficient, because of rising costs, said Mr Wauchop. He thought it likely that the levy might have to be increased to 2 per cent. During the last year the company had spent about £BOOO on wages, £6OOO on maintenance, £lBOO on insurance, and £l6OO on rates, said Mr Wauchop. A tremendous amount of maintenance had been carried out, and much of this would not be recurring for some years. The course was a credit to the company.

LONGER TERM OF OFFICE URGED FOR STEWARDS The new committee should investigate the subject of the election of stewards, said Mr A. H. Spratt at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Park Trotting Club yesterday. It seemed ridiculous that all 15 steward - should have to offer themselves for reelection each year, he said. Two of the six members of the committee retired each year, and he thought that a similar proportion of stewards should also retire each year. Stewards played a very important part in ensuring the success of meetings, said Mr Spratt. They attended only on four actual race days in a season. He thought the dub would be better served if men were guaranteed three-year terms as stewards. The matter would be looked into, said the president (Mr C. S. Peate).