Record Turn-over, Stakes In Trotting

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30803, 15 July 1965, Page 5

Record Turn-over, Stakes In Trotting

Record on and off-course totalisator turn-over and record stakes at trotting meetings were reported by the retiring president (Mr W. H. Roche), of Westport, in his address to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Trotting Conference in Christchurch yesterday.

Another record of more than £35 million would be handled by the Totalisator Agency Board for the year ended July 31, 1965, said Mr Roche.

A turn-over of £35 million represented an increase of about £3,164,000, or 9.4 per cent on the investments handled by the board in 1963-64. Any amount of off-course betting in excess of £35 million would similarly increase the estimated figure of £3,164,000, said Mr Roche.

In the main the increase in turn-over was due to the allocation of 24 additional totalisator permits, 12 to racing and 12 to trotting, during the year.

Investments off-course on trotting meetings had shown a marked increase during the year, said Mr Roche. They had reached the record figure of £9,657,859, an increase of £1,876,554, or 24.12 per cent, said Mr Roche.

The operating costs of the board had risen again this year, partly because of the extra days and nights of racing and trotting. In spite of the increase in costs, the board expected that a record amount would be available for distribution to clubs. On-course turn-over this season also reached record figures of £7,833,722 15s, compared with £7,218,474 ss. Stakes, too, reached a new level, said Mr Roche. They had amounted to £628,285. compared with £556,647. Other points from Mr Roche’s address were: Public Relations The necessity of creating a new position of conference publicity officer was mentioned by Mr Roche. The executive provided a certain amount of material for publicity purposes, but he felt they were only playing with the real issue. Taxation The relief granted in the Budget would amount to about £150,00 for both racing and trotting, said Mr Roche. That was only a frac-

tion of the amount requested and it fell short of what was required to maintain the economic position of the industry. The Budget had contained a very few concessions and the fact that some relief had been received, indicated that the Government realised that assistance was required to support the sport which contributed so much to the national income.

Stud Book

Much of the criticism regarding the accuracy of past Stud Books had been correct, said Mr Roche. Much of the blame for that could be attributed to incorrect returns by breeders and clubs. Over

the years the subject had not been treated with the importance it deserved. The response from breeders regarding Volume 17, which was in the course of compilation, had been gratifying and the number of copies ordered and paid for already exceeded twice the numbef of sales of the previous edition. It was the intention of the executive to further develop the stud record department.

Broadcasting

Race commentaries had been broadcast from practically all racing and trotting meetings. In addition, commentaries from night trotting meetings had been granted direct broadcasting facilities. The Broadcasting Corporation proposed to include all meetings, the commentaries from which would be broadcast through the commercial network. When this is brought into effect it was also proposed to carry simultaneous broadcasts of certain doubles races in-which there was wide interest on a network of stations in order to give Dominion coverage, said Mr Roche.