West Coast to remain a separate district

Press, 15 July 1978, Page 18

West Coast to remain a separate district

From

J. J. BOYLE

Wellington West Coast racing administrators had one of their finest hours in Wellington yesterday when delegates to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Racing Conference threw out a proposal aiming to amalgamate Canterbury and the West Coast into one racing district.

The proposal was made by < a special constitution com-p mittee, comprising Sirl* Thaddeus McCarthy and , Messrs H. H. Elworthy, H. I Smith and P. G. Vercoe, set up at the request of the con- . ference to consider, hear and , report on any constitutional changes that might be 1 thought necessary'. 1 The committee made 15 I proposals and the one that' 1 came in for most attention' concerned nine proposed 11 racing districts. In addition 1 to rhe suggested ioinin? of s f Canterbury and West Coast ' in one district, covering all' clubs at present in the t Canterbury and Greymouth'( districts, the report sug- « gested the establishment of a a separate Manawatu district s and the merging of Wanea- s nui and Taranaki. The r present position is that q Manawatu, the most success- p ful club in the central dis-lg tricts. is in the Wanganui jtl district with the Wanganui Club holding the metropoli- s tan status. r The report also envisages h that the use of the term d metropolitan club in district committees should be aban- s doned. v The proposals before the s

conference yesterday re quired a bare majority t< allow them to go on to i special meeting of the con ference in a few month: time. The proposals for the es tablishment of Manawati as a separate district ant the merger of Wanganui ant Taranaki was taken as issui for one vote yesterday. Con ference delegates defeatet these recommendations bj 149 to 144 votes. After such close voting no-one could have predictec the outcome of the proposal for a combined CanterburyWest Coast district. Ob viouslv the coasters had been diligent. Mr J. J O’Donnell (Greymouth Jockey Club) disclosed that delegates had been armed with a special report outlining whysuch a proposal should be resisted. And with some eloquence he backed up the report with an appeal to delegates to resist any change in the status quo. “Tf any district took some stock from the committee’s report it was Greymouth,” Mr O’Donnell told yesterday's meeting. it had been inferred, he said that racing in his area was substandard and it was suggested that there was a

lack of expertise by West i Coast racing administrators, i [ But it had been proved from a survey of 19 clubs, in- : eluding the five in his district, that in nine years West Coast clubs had ini creased stakes and improved I their turnovers at a more I rapid rate than the clubs > from outside the district that came under the survey. I With the smoothness of delivery he would have been proud to own to in one of I his racing commentaries, Mr O’Donnell convinced deleI gates that if expertise meant I having the goodwill of the public, of owners and train|ers, West Coast administrators had expertise in, abundance. , If expertise could be equaled with enthusiasm he I could tel) of those enthusias- , tic administrators on the I West Coast who had formed working bees to carry out valuable improvements to amenities on the courses at Omoto and Hokitika. Recently Mr O’Donnell spoke of the total harmony between the Canterbury and West Coast racing districts but' he failed to see any common sense in 17 representatives of clubs sitting around the same table in Christchurch trying to

igrapple with problems not' [common to all. It was simply not practicable for a representative of the Westport club to travel 200 miles, at times in tough winter conditions, to attend monthly meetings as would be required of him if there was a merger. “We are not ashamed to see our stewardship in racing put to the test,” Mr O’Donnell said before he sat down to a burst of clapping from delegates. The likely trend of the voting to come later was clear to all when Mr John | Fulton, chairman of the Canterbury Jockey Club, said he could not in any way support the proposal to bring the Canterbury and West Coast clubs together. Mr Fulton described the progress made in recent years by West Coast racing as “an astonishing performance.” Mr W. A. H. Thompson (Southland) said he failed to see any wisdom in the proposal for West Coast clubs to form one body with Canterbury clubs. He said that West Coast clubs had wisely decided some years ago to surrender some race dates and had not looked back since.