Growing Interest In Night Trotting

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30179, 10 July 1963, Page 5

Growing Interest In Night Trotting

The spectacular increase in the popularity of night trotting in the last year or two has been emphasised in the applications for dates for the 1963-64 season. These will be approved at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Trotting Conference in Wellington tomorrow.

If present plans are followed, it seems likely that 56 of the 121 permits available to trotting clubs will be used at night. This is a marked increase over the 1962- season, when 44 night meetings were run. The latter figure includes an extra permit granted the Wellington Trotting Club for its Royal meeting last February. Also, it includes two meetings run by the Otaki Trotting Club. Its second meeting used the permit which is used in alternate seasons by Northland and Otaki. The increase this season is a result solely of the proposed change from day to night trotting by several South Island clubs. So far the only South Island club to have raced at night has been Forbury Park, which has shown spectacular improvements since it made the change in January, 1961. The Greymouth club will be the second South Island club to make the change W’ork was due to start last week on the lighting of the club’s track at Victoria Park. This work, it is hoped, will be completed in time to enable the club to hold its first meeting of the season at Labour week-end under lights. Then, in November, for the third of its four-day cup meeting, the New Zealand Metropolitan club will race at night. The Metropolitan dub has applied for night racing for two of its cup permits and for the first two of its Easter permits. At present it is intended to run the other five of its meetings in the day. The New Brighton club will on October 1 hand over its course to the Christchurch City Council, and it will from then race at Addington. Its first meeting will be run at night in December, and its autumn meeting in February will be another night meeting. The Canterbury Park club intends to run three of its four meetings in the new season at night, but it has not yet decided whether it will race at night for its winter meeting in May. However, it is thought likely that this will be a day meeting. The change to racing at Addington by the New Brighton club will mean that there will be nine night meetings on the course in the 1963- season, and six day meetings. The following season the New Brighton club will use its four permits at Addington and there will then be 17 meetings a year on the course. The Auckland club once again intends to use its 11 permits at night, and the Franklin club will again run two night meetings and the Thames dub three night meetings at Alexandra Park. The Auckland club has many improvements planned and under way, and when these are completed it will have one of the best-appointed courses in the Southern Hemisphere. Next season will be the sixth during which night meetings have been run by the Auckland club, the first having been on December 31. 1958. The Wanganui club, with two nights, and the Manawatu club, with three nighU.

will race at the Manawatu Raceway, and there will be 10 meetings at night at the Hutt Park Raceway. Eight of these will be run by the Wellington club, and one each by the Masterton and Otaki clubs.

The change from day to night trotting in the South Island appears unlikely to shorten the racing season, as has occurred in the North Island. The experiment at Addington, where there will be partial day and night trotting, will be followed with great interest.

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