Strong H.B. Team For Gisborne Races

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22951, 20 May 1949, Page 4

Strong H.B. Team For Gisborne Races

(S.R.) '• •- - HASTINGS, May 20. Hawke's Bay will be represented this and next Saturday at the races at Makaraka by a numerically strong team, which looks like collecting their average share of the prize-money. This team would be larger but for one thing—the transport arrangements, a factor the P.B. Turf Club has little to do with so can hardly shoulder the blame. • Horses travelling between Gisborne and Hastings have to be on the train practicalv 20 hours, and only those who have travelled by this train know the tedious journey it entails. When the Railway Department provides better facilities then will the P.B. club attract better and perhaps more horses. As it is, it is mostly the old “die hards” who stick to the ship.

The Railways Department provide* alternative services for owners of racehorses travelling from Hastings to Gisborne. One train leaves Hastings at 7 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive at Matawhero at 7 p.m. on the same day. Another leaves Hastings at 1 p.m. and is due at Matawhero station at 7 a.m. on the following day. Owners of horses booked for Gis-

borne from Hastings were offered the alternative dispatches, and those who ' travelled by the 1 p.m. train from Hastings indicated their preference > for that train.