RECORD CALCUTTA SWEEP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20249, 8 May 1929, Page 15

RECORD CALCUTTA SWEEP.

THIS YEAR'S EXPECTATIONS.

It is expected that the Calcutta Sweep this year will break nil records, especially on account of the earl.v closing of the Stock Exchange Sweep. Applications are being received from all parts of the world. The lists will remain open for about a month longer, at the end of which period it is expected that, the total amount received will be £057,000, As the numbers leaked out last year, the drawing this year will take place in a room in the enclosure of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, under conditions of extraordinary secrecy. Only privileged members of the club will be present. The drawing will be carried out behind locked doors, guarded by police and detectives, and will bo supervised by the senior steward of the club. Usually in the room there two large barrels, one containing numbers and the other the names of the horses. Both names and numbers are rolled around rings, and the barrels are kept turning. At a given signal, the senior steward presses a button. A contrivance inside the barrels forces a ring into a slot, from which / il falls into a box. This process is continued until no more names of horses are left in the barrel. Chartered accountants take a note of the numbers, and the horses that correspond to them.

This year, which is the first in which more than one prizo has been offered, a similar procedure will, it is believed, be followed, except that for each name of a horse there will bo three drawings of numbers.