RACING AT ELLERSLIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 207, 2 September 1938, Page 6

RACING AT ELLERSLIE.

Your correspondent Mr. Major doe* not. to my idea, look at punting from the punter"? point of view. Assuming that punters pay a higher percentage for betting at a win and place meeting than at a single pool meeting, the slight difference in percentage would not interest the punter as muclr as other matters and would not worry him. Assuming that the average punter paid as much as ,>/ per day more at a win and place meeting, this sum. taking all the betters into consideration, ■would amount to a large amount. But it affects the individual punter only to the. extent of .">/. and for that 5/ he is not tied to one form of betting hut has the choice of two different forms, three dividends in the win and place and a straight-out win. There are thousands of people who prefer to take one chance of winning in order to get a bigger dividend, and don't growl if they lose. Why should they not have this right? Would Mr. 'Major arbitrarily deny them? And as for the place betting, hundreds of punters will tell you that on dozens of occasions if there had been a third dividend they would have come home winners instead of losers, and, in my opinion, the place dividends compare favourably with the single pool, and at times have been almost sensational. There is. then, the position that for possibly a fraction more expense a punter has the choice of three dividends instead of two. with prices that do not suffer through this, and the straight-out punter can have his way. to which lie has a right. The betters have a right to say what they want; the racing clubs should not tell them." I W. BROWNE.