RACING WEATHER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22398, 20 April 1936, Page 10

RACING WEATHER

TRADITION AND FACT COMPARISON OF RECORDS ELLERSLIE AND AVONDALE The traditional pleasantness of "Ellerslio weather" and the correspondingly unkind treatment the Weather Clerk metes out to rare meetings at Avondale are so well known in Auckland that racegoers greeted a break in the weather for the first day of the Auckland Tracing Club's meeting at Easter after more than a week of fine days, with shocked surprise. Perfect weather for the second day of the Kllerslie meeting was regarded as no more than due, while the threatening conditions that prevailed on Saturday for the opening of the Avondale Jockey Club's Autumn Meeting were treated philosophically, and it occasioned no surprise when a shower fell during the racing. When this apparently unjust behaviour of the weather is considered in the cold light of statistics, it appears that Avondale has not been quite so unfavourably treated as tradition would lead one to believe, although it is at a definite disadvantage when compared with Ellerslio. In the past 12 seasons, 131 days' racing have been conducted at Kllerslie by the Auckland Racing Club, and of these 101 were fine and 30 wet, •or a little less than one wet day in every four. During the same period the Avondale Jockey Club has had 30 fine days and 17 wet, or slightly more than one wet day in everv three days.

In the last two racing seasons, both clubs have had a disproportionate share of "Avondale weather." To date during these two seasons, the Auckland club has had 10 fine days and eight wet, while one day was so wet as to cause a postponement, the racing being held under good conditions the following day. At Avondale there have been four wet days against three fine. The experience of the Takapuna Jockey Club at Ellerslie during the past two seasons has been all in favour of tradition, fine weather having been experienced on every one of eight days' racing, while the last two meetings of the Pakuranga Hunt Club at Ellerslie have also been conducted in fine weather. For purposes of calculation a day has been treated as "wet" when rain fell before the conclusion of the day's events.