4 NT NEWS. Saturday, January 18, 2014. www.ntnews.com.au

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Your Say:WOULD you support night races at Fannie Bay?

NO I play touch footythere, but at the endofthe day itwouldn’taffectme.

KHIADESILVA,CoconutGrove

YES I suppose, but I’mnot a punter. Imight goto a night event for thenovelty.

ANTONIOALVAREX,TipperaryWaters

YES I enjoy a punt,but I haven’t been to arace uphere since I gothere. They’re goodelsewhere though, liketheAlbionPark trots.

MICKEY JOHNSTON,StuartPark

NO I’mnot into racing,I’mnotmuchof ananimal person.

JACKPARADISIS,Nightcliff

YESSure, Iwould go.I’mnot really a punter,but I thinkweneedmore stuff like this. Imight go if itwas anevent.

ANDREWRACE,Parap

An idea well worth a punt

Night racing — a feature at interstate tracks such as Moonee Valley — could soon be on show in Darwin

THE prospect of watchingthoroughbred horses runaround a racetrack after darkis nothing new in Australia.

More well-known coursessuch as Melbourne’s MooneeValley and Sydney’s Canter-bury have been racing underlights for a few years now,with some success.

What would be excitingabout introducing floodlit gal-lops at Fannie Bay would bethe countless opportunitiessuch a venture would bring.

Young people would havean alternative to just ‘‘head-ing to the pub’’ on a Friday orSaturday night.

The sprawling DarwinTurf Club headquarters hasproven it can handle largecrowds with its annual CupCarnival every dry season.

But add another ingredient— racing as the sun sets on abalmy dry season evening —and you have a recipe for suc-cess. Throw in exposure toAsian racing through SkyChannel coverage and the em-

bryonic idea could add hugevalue to the Darwin product.Imagine leading trainers andhorses from Hong Kong andSingapore at Fannie Bay.

It all sounds wonderful onpaper but there is a signifi-cant downside — cost. Thosein the know say it would costclose to $7 million to installlighting around the course.

Any proposal certainly re-quires NT Government back-ing but Chief Minister AdamGiles is known to support it.

Night racing at The Valleyand Canterbury only hap-pens in the summer.

That means there could bea lucrative loophole for an or-ganisation with an entre-preneurial vision and will-ingness to ‘‘give it a go’’.

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