Forbury Park was the first club in the South Island to hold a night trotting fixture with the inaugural meeting on Thursday, January 26, 1961.
At that time betting, and drinking in bars, was illegal under the age of 21 - the voting age and minimum age for owning a horse.
There were only three types of betting - win, place and double.
An estimated crowd of 12,000 people attended; at the time average crowd sizes at Forbury Park were about 7000, and on-course betting was 77,123, which was up 14,000 on the same date a year earlier but still less than expected.
The club had, the previous year, spent 2000 replacing the five-furlong (1000m) track's clay surface with crusher dust and then spent 20,000 on installing the new lighting system.
In 1961, the Forbury Park club held seven meetings a year.
This season the club has 23 meetings programmed.
Hindu, trained and driven by Invercargill horseman Gil Shirley, won the opening event, a race for trotters, on an eight-race card.
The main event, the Flying Sportsmen Handicap, was won by the Stewart Sutherland-trained Frown after a smash badly affected the chances of Sun Chief and Lookaway.
The club held the second night of the meeting on Saturday, January 28 and the third night a week later.
Arania, trained and driven by George Noble for Roy McKenzie, won the featured Dunedin Cup for a stake of 1250 on the third night.
Arania subsequently won five races in the United States.
She became the fastest mare bred outside the US with a 1.57. mile in a time trial at Lexington.
Harness racing at night began in the US in 1888 with natural gas providing the light.
Night racing with electricity was established on a permanent basis at Roosevelt Raceway in 1940.
The earliest recorded night meeting in Australia was in 1890 and it became established in Perth in 1914, states Greg Brown in "One Hundred Years Of Trotting".
The first meeting under lights in New Zealand was the Auckland Trotting Club's fixture on December 31, 1958.
Maurice Holmes drove Coming Down to win the opening event and Battle Cry, driven by Wes Butt, won the Rowe Cup from a 72yd (66m) handicap.
The Wellington Trotting Club, now defunct, switched to night racing on February 28,1960 at Hutt Park.
The first night meeting at New Zealand's major track, Addington, was the third session of the New Zealand Cup meeting in November 1963.
Cardigan Bay won the Allan Matson Handicap from a 54yd (49m) handicap, repeating his New Zealand Cup win of eight days earlier.
Bellajilly won the New Zealand Derby and Mighty Hanover won the New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All.
The first Interdominion under lights in New Zealand was staged at Forbury Park in 1965 when Robin Dundee and Jay Ar provided the only dead-heat for first in the 74-year history of the pacing series.
• The feature race on the Forbury Park Trotting Club calendar has had a change of conditions and date.
The $30,000 group three race, previously confined to 4yr-olds, has been opened to 5yr-olds and switched from February to April 21.
Six horses started in the race last year and seven the previous two years.
• David Earnshaw takes the drive on Hostile Grins in the Invercargill Cup on Saturday with Anthony Butt in Melbourne.
Butt has been engaged to drive the Cran Dalgety-trained pair Empyrean and Matt Maguire in the heats of the Victoria Derby at Melton on Friday night.
Braeden and Caroline Whitelock, the Palmerston North owners, had their second win with a 2yr-old filly in the past week when O Baby was successful at Addington yesterday.
They share in the ownership of Dancing Diamonds, who won there on Friday night.
Both horses are trained by Mark Purdon and Grant Payne.
The Whitelocks bred O Baby, who is by Christian Cullen and the first foal of Braeside Lady, who went to stud as a 3yr-old unraced.
She is a sister to Ohoka's Artsplace (12 wins in Australia) and half-sister to Johnny Bravo.
• No Courage Russell has joined the Westwood Beach stable of Graeme Anderson and Amber Hoffman.
The Courage Under Fire 5yr-old was a winner at Rangiora in January last year when trained by Richard and Julia Aubrey.
