Record Year By Metropolitan

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31412, 4 July 1967, Page 5

Record Year By Metropolitan

Records were established during the season, the president (Mr R. W. Saunders) reported to members of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club at its annual meeting yesterday.

The highest on-course turn-over-just under £249,000—at a trotting meeting was recorded at the New Zealand Cup meeting. Other records on cup day were £238,000 invested off-course and the combined total of more than £487,000, said Mr Saunders. Off-course turn-over for the season, £1,371,000, and the combined turn-over, £2,704,000 were the highest in the history of the club. The committee had continued to increase stakes and the amount given last year was £100,400, exclusive of trophies, the highest in the history of the club.

The committee was fully aware of rising costs for owners and trainers, realised that their main source of income was through stakes, and would endeavour not only to maintain the present high level but to make increases, said Mr Saunders.

It bad to be remembered that to provide improved amenities reserves had to be created from tax-paid income. The club, in looking to the future, tried to keep a balance between income and expenditure. The margin on which

the club worked was such that one unfavourable day could change the year’s profit to a loss. Attendances during the season increased 10,698 over the previous year, said Mr Saunders. On the second night of the national meeting the attendance had exceeded 11,000 after the Rugby test between the All Blacks and the British Isles. If the weather bad been favourable the crowd would have been greater. In spite of improvements in the members’ amenities block, the increase in the attendance of members had

been disappointing. The club hoped that members would attend in greater numbers in the coming season, said Mr Saunders. Members’ facilities at Addington Raceway were among the finest in the world.

A concession double was in-

troduced at the Easter meeting, and investments on the first night exceeded those on the off-course double. Oncourse doubles turn-over at the other two Easter meetings had proved the popularity of this type of betting.