THE TAKAPUNA COURSE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12622, 6 December 1926, Page 10

THE TAKAPUNA COURSE

IS IT TOO DANGEROUS? Takapuna racecourse is in trouble again. The following from the Auckland “Sporting Times” indicates that the club is not finding the task ot mending its track easy:— “An astonishing sight met the gaze of racegoers as they surveyed the course at Takapuna on Wednesday when the concluding day’s racing in connection with the club’s spring meeting was held—the whole of the top sweep from the back to the straight along the Lake road being gay with bunting of a ruddy hue. It was not a trial display in connection with the forthcoming visit of Royalty, nor was it in honour of any special celebration, such as the fact that a sum of spent to make the course “safe” and had proved a glorious success! “The roal reason for the red flags fluttering in the breeze at more or less regular intervals round this lengthy bend —the course is practically a circle now, exoept for two little stretches (from the seven to tho six starting points and the Bhort run up the straight)—was to warn the riders of the competing horses that real danger existed in the area on which so much money had been spent and which received so much eulogistic publicity prior to th© opening of the meeting. The red flags, which denoted clanger, were unfurled from stakes stuck in the ground probably twelve feet or so out from the rails, and though erected to denote danger, were probably more dangerous than the ground marked off. To demonstrate that this is no exaggeration iv was given out to the Press that four of these danger signals were bowled over during one race, that at least one of the stakes knocked over was galloped on by a horse following behind. “The broken stake was thus sent

hurtling through tho air, cutting clean out the eye of another competitor further behind the field. Poor old Boomerday—a good stakeearner and hero of many a hard-fought battle—was the equine that suffered the injury. The Quin Abbey gelding went out to race with both optics and returned to the enclosure minus one—an object of pity and commiseration by all those who beheld the gallant old battler’s return. The injury sustained by Boomerday might easily have befallen his rider or an3 r other who had a mounts during the day. There is no gainsaying the danger these signals presented throughout the eight races to riders and horses, and those responsible for holding a race meeting under such circumstances undertook a tremendous responsibility. “It would appear that there‘is a flaw in the ooutrol of racing that permits racing to be held under such adverse and dangerous conditions. Who is the authority that is to issue the edict to prohibit racing if a club is prepared to take a risk—knowing that it is a risk—but trusting to Providence that there will be no minor accident or fatality ? If real danger exists, can the stipendiary stewards over-rule the club, or are the officials of the club a law unto themselves in such cases P

“The meeting just concluded should never have been held on the Takapuna course, for although the alterations had been carried out in accordance with instructions, a portion of the track at any rate was not safe to race on. Application should have been made to hold tlie fixture at El* lerslie, and why this was not done can easily be guessed. The thousands upon thousands of pounds that have been sunk in an endeavour to make a deeont racecourse by the Takapuna Jockey (flub leaves the track more odious than ever. The time must surely be near at hand when Horse-racing will be banned there forever. The sooner the better!”