More Info →Crowds in front of Totalisator Building, Awapuni Racecourse

This photograph shows a large crowd at the winter meeting in front of the main totalisator building (TAB) at the Awapuni Racecourse. The decision to begin race meetings in Palmerston North was made at a meeting of sportsmen in October 1880. D H McArthur was President. The first race couse was situated at the end of Park Road and met there from July 1883 until 1903 when the Awapuni Race course was brought into commission (due to erosion at the previous site). A branch railway was laid in 1905 to carry patrons into the race course.