TROTTING IN N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25178, 8 May 1947, Page 8

TROTTING IN N.Z.

EVIDENCE GIVEN BY TRAINER The whole atmosphere of the sport of trotting in New Zealand was different from that in England and Scotland, said James Young, a trotting trainer, when he gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Gaming and Racing. Mr Young, who was called as a witness by Mr C. S Thomas, counsel for the New Zealand Trotting Conference, said he had trained and driven horses in Scotland and England. where the sport was not large. The stakes were so small that it was impossible to race trotting horses without betting, all of which had to be

done with bookmakers, he said. There was no machine operating, and to make racing pay owners and drivers had to resort to devious ways. “At Home I was all the time being pestered by bookmakers to stop my horses,” he added. “This is not the position in New Zealand, where I have found the stakes large enough to enable men to race trotting horses without having to resort to betting. “In New Zealand all legal betting goes through the totalisator, and no one makes a profit. When the bookmaker is operating he takes the profit.” Mr Thomas said that the witness was the last to be called by the Trotting Conference.