N.Z. support for Macau’s bid

Press, 13 August 1983, Page 25

N.Z. support for Macau’s bid

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong

New Zealand was among several countries to vote in support of Macau’s bid to hold this year’s World Driving Championships, at a meeting held in New York this week.

The race secretary of the Macau Trotting Club, Tom Charters, who was attending the World Trotting Congress annual meeting, said in Hong Kong that only the European delegation was holding out against the former Portuguese territorJ-

Senior Macau officials first put out feelers to host the championships in May. Delegates from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand had all voted in support of the move, he said. “I believe the reason why Europe did not agree was something to do with money terms,” the M.T.C. chief stipendiary steward, Mr Fred Greenly, said from Macau.

Officials and horsemen would now await the outcome of a meeting in Scandinavia on August 26 where delegates from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway will meet to reach their final decision.

“I will know one way or the other by the first week of September,” Mr Greenly said. Even if these countries decided to vote against Macau, it would still be possible to stage the championship with the other consenting parties. However, Mr Greenly said, this would not be the way the club would want it. “The European countries form a major segment of world trotting and if we were to hold the championships we would want the real thing, and by that I mean the best from all the countries,” he said. If given final approval, a tentative date for the championships would be early December.