Voting Strength May Be Reduced

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31167, 17 September 1966, Page 7

Voting Strength May Be Reduced

A special meeting of the Racing Conference will be held in Wellington on October 14 to consider recommendations con* tained in the recent report of the Committee of Inquiry.

Amendments to the Rules of Racing will be required if the meeting of the conference adopts any of the committee’s six recommendations dealing with the constitution of the conference and the executive committee.

One recommendation is for a change in the future voting strength of the conference. The committee recommends that the number of representatives be reduced from 45 to 37 with a reduction of 12 in the number of votes. It is recommended that the South Island lose three representatives and six votes. At present the South Island sends forward 16 representatives, who have 19 votes — more than one-third of the total number of representatives (45) and the total number of votes (52).

The recommended position is that the South Island will have 13 of the 37 representatives with 13 of the 40 votes. 50 Per Cent Cut Instead of having four votes, as at present, the Canterbury Jockey Club’s two representatives would have two votes. It is also recommended that Canterbury district clubs, the Dunedin Jockey Club, Grey mouth district clubs and the Southland Racing Club would each lose one vote. Canterbury district clubs, Greymouth district clubs and the Southland Racing Club would each lose a representative as well.

The Wellington Racing Club would lose one of its four votes and Hawke’s Bay district clubs would lose two, but the Auckland Racing Club’s position would be unchanged with four votes. The conference meeting will

consider a recommendation for alterations to the constitution dealing with district committees. This would entitle each totalisator racing club and each hunt club holding a totalisator permit to one representative on the district committee. The metropolitan club would appoint not less than three or more than five delegates to the district committee, and in no case more than the number of district clubs and hunt representation.

The conference meeting will next month consider several proposals considered by the Committee of Inquiry to merit further and detailed examination by the executive committee. No Trots? Any conference action on the proposal that no trotting events should be included in any racing club programme will affect the Amberley Racing Club and the Waimate Hunt meeting in Canterbury and most galloping clubs in Westland. The Committee of Inquiry has asked the executive committee to establish an independent committee to deal with regionalisation of racing clubs and has also recommended that no half per cent levy money should be approved for expenditure on any course until the regionalisation issue has been received and implemented. The levy fund, it is suggested, could provide the money Involved in making race filming available at all race meetings. T.A.B. Profits The conference is urged to make representations that the basis of distribution in the allocation of the T.A.B. profits into the racing and trotting pools be made, in the first instance, solely on offcourse totalisator invest-

ments without any prior deductions. The Committee of Inquiry felt that the present method of distribution of the racing share of the profits was equitable except for the basic allocation of 15 per cent. Altogether there are 24 of the Committee of Inquiry’s proposals recommended for examination by the conference’s executive committee on the order paper for the meeting next month. They include recommendations for increased winning and riding losing fees; the allocation of dates by district committees; the appointment of a director or general manager as the chief executive officer of the conference: the option of concession doubles for on-course doubles only: an increase in the minimum weight to 7.5: a scheme for the introduction of qualifying races on a national basis and more improvers’ and intermediate races on programmes: an investigation into the possibility of increased compensation payments and a superannuation scheme for jockeys.