RACE NOT SEEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22399, 21 April 1936, Page 10

RACE NOT SEEN

AVONDALE INCIDENT BLANKET OF THICK RAIN VIEW OF HORSES OBLITERATED An extraordinary case of horses being obliterated from view throughout a race by torrential rain occurred nt the Avondale Jockey Club's meeting yesterday afternoon. The spectators were unable to see the horses at the starting post or during the 'parly part of tho six furlongs race, so thick was the rain. It was not until misty figures appeared in the straight "hat tho public realised the race had started, and it was very difficult to distinguish tho horses as they passed the finishing post. To the majority of tins spectators the first four horses wore merely a blurred mass. During the early races the weather was fine, but overcast. Heavy clouds rolled up shortly after the fifth race, and about ten minutes before tho Mount Eden Handicap was timed to start rain set in, accompanied bv thunder and lightning. Within a few minutes lingo pools inches deep formed on the course and the saddling paddock was coi: verted into a lake. So thick was tho rain that the greater portion of tho course was obliterated from view. The rain continued for some minutes after tho roco was over. It beat into the front of the grandstand and the members' stand with great force and formed a sma'l stream by the totalisator. Torrents broke through a hole in the roof of the press quarters 011 the second storey of the members' stand and for a. tiir.o the floor was covered with an inch of water. The storm ceased as suddenly as it had started, find the sun then burst through. As the crowds moved about again they wore cheered by the strains of the band playing "It Ain't Goin' To Rain No More."