Galloping only in Hawke’s Bay?

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33803, 27 March 1975, Page 8

Galloping only in Hawke’s Bay?

(N.Z. Press Association) NAPIER. Officialdom was trying to keep trotting out of Hawke’s Bay, Mr Harry Davies, the president of the Hawke’s Bay Trotting Club, said yesterday. Mr Davies is angry because two trotting meetings planned by the club to be held at the Waipukurau Racecourse, In April and May, will have to be held outside Hawke’s Bay. “The recommendation that the meetings should not be held at Waipukurau had come from the Hawke’s Bay District Racing Committee,” Mr Davies said.

Its recommendation had been passed to the New Zealand Racing Conference. “The real reason for the Hawke’s Bay District Committee’s action is abundantly clear to me,” said Mr Davies: “It does not want trotting to even start in Hawke’s Bayl.” The trotting club had arranged with the Waipukurau Jockey Club to hold races, and the Waipukurau club was “extremely willing” to allow trotting on its race track. However, the district commit-

tee had told the Waipukurau club that the trotting club’s application to hold an equallsator meeting on the course on April 12 had been declined. “Because the district committee had not given the Waipukurau Jockey Club a written reason for the refusal, the Waipukurau Club was in an unenviable position,” Mr Davies said. One reason given for the refusal was that the Poverty Bay Racing Club was holding a meeting on April 12, and that club, which is 176 miles away, had objected. Mr Davies said the meeting at Waipukurau could not possibly have affected the Poverty Bay meeting. “The trotting club had received no written word from the New Zealand Racing Conference confirming that the club was not allowed to hold races at Waipukurau,” Mr Davies said. His executive had written to Sir Keith Holyoake, the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr May) and the New Zealand Trotting Conference. explaining their situation and asking for support.