Thoroughbreds under priced

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 2 (Supplement)

Thoroughbreds under priced

Special correspondent Sydney

No wonder prominent overseas owners who race horses say that in this part of the world thoroughbreds are under-priced in the markets.

Robert Sangster, for one, says that considering the stake money to be won and the comparatively reasonable training costs there should be wider world interest in Australian and New Zealand horse sales.

Figures bear out the contention, and point to further growth in the balance which Sangster says favours so much the man who wants, to race a horse.

The autumn racing in Syd: ney concluded with the meeting at Randwick on Saturday- and in , :the eight weeks of its currency, the prize money .’ totalled $2,502,000. From; January 28 up to last Saturday race clubs.in Sydney and in Melbourne had distributed $4,791,950 and horses trained by T. J. Smith had won $1,001,700 of it Horses ridden by Smith’s principal ' rider, jMalcolm Johnston had accounted for $731,690 and the mounts of Brent Thomson- earned $421,010; indicating pretty clearly- that there is money in the game for. the riders. In fact , there were five jockeys who gained their percentages, from stake winnings exceeding $lOO,OOO. The point of it all is that despite outstanding promotion bv the Sydney Turf Club and the Australian

Jockey Club crowds again fell away. Golden Slipper day at Rosehill attracted 31,081 people, which was not teally great reward for the club’s activities.

Doncaster day at Randwick attracted 35,600 which was 10,000 below the previous year. The Sydney Cup day crowd was 20,979 or 2000 fewer than the previous year, but those who stayed at home bet well at the T.A.B. agencies and it is the revenue from this source that keeps up the stakes. Betting cm the Golden Slipper, according to figures supplied by the T.A.B. totalled $1,209,545 and on the Doncaster Handicap, $1,104,045, but it was conceded that the Doncaster was one of the most open major events for years, while the Slipper had several outstanding and popular entrants.

The men who. supply the horses for racing reaped richly both at the New Zealand and Australian sales. Who would have imagined even a year or two ago that a stud would send five yearlings — colts and fillies — to the sales and get $594,500 for them or an average of $118,000? Yet that was the experience of Jim Fleming, a director of the Sydney Turf Club who began breeding about 12 years ago when he bought the rich river flat section of the famous Kia Ora Stud at Scone and put eight mares there.