£250,000 Spent On Harold Park

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30951, 6 January 1966, Page 3

£250,000 Spent On Harold Park

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY. The New South Wales Trotting Club has spent nearly £250,000 on stand extensions and amenities at Harold Park, which will be open in time for the Inter-Dominion Trotting and Pacing Championships next month.

Part of the new facilities will be tested for the first time at the Raceway on Friday night, but the remainder will not come into full operation until the inter-Dominion series starts on February 5. The new stand, 310 ft long, has been built of steel and concrete on elevated columns to give racegoers an over-all view of the track, with an extensive amenities concourse.

Racegoers will be able to lay their bets in a new totalisator hall, which has seven selling windows and four paying windows, without leaving the covered stand.

They will also have use of a 50ft long public bar, a club

bar lounge, a first-class restaurant, a cafeteria and a snack bar, all thickly carpeted and air-conditioned. Plans are in hand to install closed circuit television sets in the bars and restaurant so that patrons can watch the races while eating or drinking.

The television circuit is unlikely to be installed in time foi the inter-Dominion Championships, but the New South Wales Trotting fclub president. Mr J. R. Reeves, said yesterday that the entire series would be telecast live and sets would be installed in the bars for the duration of the programme. '

Among improvements, is an emergency power system that will enable the horses to keep racing in the event of a city blackout. Public interest in the interDominion Championships is mounting in Sydney, and a near record crowd of about 50,000 is expected to watch the Grand Final on the night of February 19.