Racing and trotting Most successful Moonee Valley series predicted

Press, 15 March 1978, Page 20

Racing and trotting Most successful Moonee Valley series predicted

From G. K. YULE in Melbourne

The 1978 Inter-Dominion Championship series at Moonee Valley looks likely to be the most successful trotting carnival financially in Australia and New Zealand.

Attendances of 22,370, 18,300 and 25,020 on the first three nights have not quite come up to expectations but are considered quite satisfactory by Victoria Trotting Control Board officials and gate takings for the series should exceed $lOO,OOO, one-third of the total stakes for the four nights of slightly more than $300,000. On-course totalisator receipts have been small by New Zealand standards. On the first night they were only $347,556 while last Saturday, when there was the third biggest crowd ever at a trotting meeting on the course, turnover was only $340,837. Off-course betting on the first night was some $914,000 while it was $660,000 on the second night and 5893.762 last Saturday, i The club receives about 31 per cent of off-course turn-| over and this should exceed; $lOO,OOO for the threei nights. Another six-figure sum is! expected to come from thei sale of reserved seats. The! club has made available 2600 ; of these seats and prices fori the four nights range from $2B to $6O. Most have been sold although a few are still available for Saturday night. The crowd on Saturday night is expected .o be 30,000, well below the 38,000 who packed the Show Grounds for Bold David’s final in Melbourne in 1970. The record for a trotting meeting at Moonee Valley is 29,720 on opening night October, 1976. The club is also receiving $55,000 by way of sponsorship by Benson and Hedges a >se New Zealand counterpart is subsidising next year’s series at Addington Raceway. However, the amount of the subsidy for

>i their third starts in seven i days,” said Purdon. tj The pacers raced over s' 3300 metres at a scorching i: pace in a tempeature of i about 35 degrees and many !| of them crossed the line in :i an exhausted condition. i I Even after being washed i down many of them were ■lstill almost too tired to walk ■ back to their stalls where i they stood with their heads '■ held low. Even though they might ■ pick up a little in the next : few days they have to face ! another exhausting test on Saturday night. The two Australian final- ' ists most affected by heat and exhaustion in the last i set of heats were Don’t Re- ! treat and Royal Gaze. Don’t Retreat, under treat- '■ ment throughout the series for an injured offside front • fetlock joint, is to be given : a special trial at Moonee ’ Valley this morning. His t r a i n e r-driver, Lawrie i Moulds, said on Saturday night he felt there was only • one change in three that his horse would be able to start : in the final. j “He’s got to have work before the final as he’s done nothing since Saturday. A ■ fairly solid run at Moonee 1 Valley will show whether he will make the grade,” he ! I said yesterday. “I’m not ' confident but there is a ! chance that he’ll be all right," he said. Royal Gaze is to be worked at Bendigo in comI pany with Transpec. He 1 looked to have broken down badly at the end of his heat on Saturday but it was just exhaustion and he has freshened up well said Ken Poicock whose daughter, Roma, :! races him on lease. She took over the lease : against perservering with : I against perserving with him ■[him at the end of January.

i,|the New Zealand series has; e not been disclosed, although t it is believed the amount! -’was $20,000 when the series' -' was run in Auckland in ,1975. 1 No matter what size the) -1 crowd on Saturday the 1 course at Moonee Valley I f will not be congested. The r great majority can be coni! tained in the new grandi stand, which is without j r doubt the finest in this part / of the world, built at a cost 1 of some S6M. It caters for ; I all of the comforts that ■ 'could be imagined by racing i and trotting patrons. t Totalisator facilities, ex»l tensive throughout the four 'I floors of the complex, and i air-conditioned restaurants ; and bars never seem to be j: crowded. s The noise level throughout t the stand is cushioned by i thousands of metres of carI pet which seems to be ■ treated with more respect by i | patrons than that in the carjipeted bar areas at Addington Raceway. ; Sole Command, New Zealand's only runner in SaturJdav's Grand Final, will have lihis only fast work of the! •i week tomorrow morning at Moonee Valley. His parti owner and trainer, Roy Purdon. decided to make the 50 kilometre trip in to Mel- ■ bourne as he considers it is . better to work the horse i where he will race rather ■ than trial him on Alf ; Simons’ tight track where he is stabled. ; Purdon has not decided whether Sole Command will : work on his own but it is unlikely he will be set a ; searching test after last • week-ends’s heat which sapi ped the reserves of all I ■ horses competing in the! I series. i “The heat couldn’t have! > come at a worse time as the! r horses had to race in it fori