Air N.Z. stakes up by $40,000

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 34

Air N.Z. stakes up by $40,000

Prize money for the Air New Zealand Stakes, to be run at Ellerslie on February 22, has been increased by $40,000 to $140,000. The president of the Auckland Racing Club, Dr Calvin Ring, who announced the increase yesterday, said that the stakes for the Eclipse Stakes on the same

day would be doubled to $40,000. Prize money for the three ’ days of the autumn carnival would total at least $616,250. Three races at the meeting will each be worth a minimum of $lOO,OOO. Dr Ring, commenting on calls for the introduction of lotto, said that, regrettably, racing could be the subject of a campaign designed to tarnish its image. “I refer to recent remarks suggesting that funding for sport and lotto are one and the same thing,” he said. “The fact is that racing agrees with funding for other sport but argues that lotto is not the way to do this. “The introduction of lotto will almost certainly result in a decline in revenue for the Government from racing which could be greater than any new income generated for sport from lotto.

“I believe the Minister of Sport and Recreation has sufficient political acumen to realise the danger of accepting recommendations based to some extent on evidence from an interested party and on Australian statistics which, I am assured, contain a number of quite serious mistakes.”