GISBORNE RACING CLUB.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1493, 5 December 1918, Page 9

GISBORNE RACING CLUB.

SUMMER MEETING. The Gisborne Racing Club have arranged a most attractive programme for their summer meeting, which is to be held at Te Hapara on Thursday, February 6. Special significance is attached to the fixture as the Gisborne Cup, of 400sovs, one mile and a-quarter, is to come up for decision, and will assuredly as in previous years be the means of bringing together a representative field as contenders for this much-cov-eted distinction. In connection with the Cup it may be mentioned that the 400sovs stake includes a cup valued at 25sovs, presented by the Wi Pere Memorial Committee, a trophy that will be much prized by the owner of the winner. The chief sprint is the Wi Pere Memorial Handicap, of 200sovs, six furlongs, an event which should fill particularly well. The First Handicap Hurdles, of 120sovs, one mile and a-half, offers special opportunities to the lepping division, while owners of hacks are well catered for, having the choice of the Te Hapara Hack Handicap, of lOOsovs, seven furlongs; Maiden Scurry, of lOOsovs, four furlongs; Railway Hack Handicap, of lOOsovs, five furlongs; First Welter Handicap, of 120sovs, one mile; and the Park Handicap, of 135sovs, six furlongs. It will thus be seen that the Gisborne Racing Club have endeavoured to make their summer programme a strong inducement to owners to be represented at the gathering, and now that there is every prospect of racing quickly resuming its pre-war position, the granting of travelling facilities, which is promised at an early date, being one of the most vital factors towards achieving this end, the Gisborne summer meeting on the club’s course at Te Hapara

should merit a fair share of patronage from visiting owners and trainers. In the absence of railway facilities during the greater portion of the war the club undoubtedly suffered a severe handicap in the loss of many entries from adjacent districts, but now that the war is over and the question of transit is to receive the early attention of the Railway Department there is every reason to expect that meetings held in Gisborne will be much more liberally patronised in the future by outside owners, who, through no fault of their own, were unable to be represented at the last few meetings in that progressive racing province.