The New Course of Thames Club

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 10

The New Course of Thames Club

NOW SPLENDID TRACK ANNUAL MEETING NEXT MONTH Having spent £4,000 in improvements to its racecourse, the Thames Jockey Club is well to the fore in the arrangements for its annual race meeting next month.

The club now possesses a splendid course, with its back and home straights of two furlongs, the bends having a radius of S| and 6i chains respectively. In addition, there is a natural grandstand for the public. On Saturday and Monday, January 12 and 14, the Thames Jockey Club will hold its annual race meeting, and present indications point to the fixture being successful in every way. Through gaining permission frorp the Auckland Racing Club, the abovementioned progressive organisation held last year’s meeting at Ellerslie, and the profits accrued as the result of racing in the city were not put aside for a rainy day, the committee deeming it much wiser to lay out the money in extensive improvements to all parts of the course, not forgetting conveniences for the investing public. So ably has the work been carried out that very few country clubs, if any, can boast of such a line course as that now obtaining at lvaueranga. This year’s programme, too, will meet with ready approval of both owners and trainers, and in respect to the fields the result should be quantity plus quality. The Bill of Fare The Goldfields Cup, a handicap of a mile and a-quarter, ranks as first in importance, and the £350 stake money attached will no doubt draw a fine field. .Other events on the first day’s programme include the Tapu Handicap, of £IOO, six furlongs; Borough High-Wfcjght Handicap, of £l5O, one mile; Puriri Handicap, of £125, six lurlougs; Parawai Hack Handicap, of £125, seven furlongs; Flying Handicap, of £2OO, six furlongs; \\*aitakaruru Hack Handicap, of £l5O, one mile; and Hauraki Plains Handicap, of £l5O, seven furlongs. Items on the second day’s programme are: Kopu Handicap, of £IOO, six furlongs; County High-weight Handicap, of £l5O, one mile and a-quarter; Turua Handicap, of £l2O, six furlongs; Thames Plate Handicap, of £275. one mile; Hikutaia Hack Handicap, of £l3O, seven furlongs; President’s Handicap, of £175, six furlongs; Ngatea Hack Handicap, of £l4O, one mile; and Farewell Handicap, of £l5O, seven furlongs. Owners and trainers desiring to race at Thames should remember that nominations will |je accepted up to 5 P.m. on Friday week, December 21. Entries can be lodged with either the secretary, Mr. A. C. Rae, Pollen Street. Thames; or with Mr. F. D. McVay, secretary of the Takapuna Jockev Club Shortland Street. Auckland. Weights are. due to appear on Tuesday, January 3, and acceptances for same will close as above at 5 p.m. on Monday, January 7.