MILLIONS IN STAKES

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 299, 17 December 1937, Page 14

MILLIONS IN STAKES

V.R.C. PRIZE MONEY. OVER SEVENTY-SIX YEARS. POITREL'S CUP WINNINGS. Victoria is tlie premier racing State of the Commonwealth, and the growth of the sport in this State is indeed a romantic story. Seventy-six years ago 500 enthusiasts i foregathered at Flemington upon the occasion of the first V.R.C. Cup meetin o- The sum of £2782 was distributed to successful owners, and this included sweepstakes which were in vogue at the time. Time marches on and the V.R.C. has marched with it (says an Australian exchange). Stake money has increased year after year until it reached the peak Cup period in 1928, when £43,493 was given away in stakes. And that did not sweepstakes. When the depression hit the country, stakes dropped considerably, but they have recovered remarkably during the last three or four years. At the last Cup meeting £30,000 was distributed, and this is likely to be surpassed in the very near future. Since its inception the V.R.C. has paid out in stake money over £4,000,000. Sheet Anchor's Cup. Over 50 years ago Sheet Anchor won the Melbourne Cup from Grace Darling, and the prize money totalled £2912. Of that amount £510 was allotted to the now world-famous event. Racing increased in popularity to such an extent that when Carbine won in 1890, his owner, Mr. D. S. Wallace, collected a cheque for £10,230. Poitrel, who won in 1920, earned £10,450. but from then the stakes dwindled, and it was not until the Centenary year that the stakes assumed its former magnitude. Ihis year The Trump, for his victory in the Melbourne Cup, earned for his owner £7200, and it is certain that next year the lucky owner of the winner of the world's greatest handicap race will receive in the vicinitv of £10,000.

It is a remarkable feature that, at the first Cup meeting, only 500 people attended, and the report in the paper of that year occupied seven lines. Nowadays, 120,000 people attend on Cup day alone, and a daily paper devotes columns to the event. Second Greatest Club. The second greatest club in Victoria is the Victoria Amateur Turf Club, which was formed at Ballarat in 1874, and subsequently transferred to Caulfield. Since the first Caulfield Cup was run in 1875. the V.A.T.C. has given away in stake money £2.780,525, and it is inrreaKinpf everv vear. In 1885. when Grace Darling won the Caulfield Cup from British and Cariolanus, the stake was worth £1500, of

which the winner took £1000, second £.100 and third .€'2oo. There wa« no trophy attached.

This year the conditions read. £0.100 and gold cup value £I.~>o. £5000 of the said .sum and cup to go to the first hoivo, £1000 to the second, and £.">OO to the third.

The V.A.T.C. possesses one of the finest racecourses in the world from every point of view. Its public appointments are excellent; its track perfect, and its training facilities the envy of every club secretary in the world.