New Brighton club records profit

Press, 6 July 1988, Page 47

New Brighton club records profit

The New Brighton Trotting Club have recorded a profit of $80,907 on its operations for the year ended May 31, 1988. The report and balance sheet will be considered at the club’s annual general meeting tomorrow evening.

“Considering the economic situation and the introduction of Lotto, which has attracted a large amount of the leisure dollar, the result of the year’s activities is most satisfactory,” said the club president, Keith Lochhead, in his report.

Mr Lochhead said the decision to change the distance of the club’s feature sprint from a mile

to 2000 m for its inaugural Motorcorp Honda 2000 had appealed to a wider section of the public owners and trainers. “Your committee was most conscious of the need to change from the often criticised mile start. It was very interesting to see the first, second and third placings in the Honda 2000 started from the outside barrier positions,” he said. “The response received from Motorcorp Honda to a race with futuristic appeal justified the committee’s decision.”

Loss on racing alone

While the honorary treasurer, Jack Hartley,

said in his report that the club’s profit was very satisfactory, taking into account the economic climate and the increasing options for the leisure dollar, he pointed out the club would be showing a loss on racing alone.'

“Interest produced $95,108 which is $14,201 more than our profit figure and is a most worrying aspect of this set of accounts,” he said.

On-course turnover on the eight meetings for the season increased by $129,218, however offcourse turnover was down markedly by $536,481.

Mr Hartley attributes the increase in on-course

turnover to the club racing on Anzac Day this year, as opposed to a Wednesday evening the previous season.

The decrease in offcourse betting was directly attributable to the Honda 2000 meeting compared with the TVNZ Mile meeting the previous year, said Mr Hartley.

Besides covering the TVNZ Mile live, two further races were given delayed coverage. T.A.B. betting on those three races this year, without television coverage, was down $176,733.

T.A.B. payout increased by $7067 (1.8 per cent), however this was below the average due to on-

course turnover for the seven full totalisator meetings being down on the previous year. Totalisator revenue increased by $28,881, while membership income was down from $51,140 to $48,791.

An over-all increase of 3261 was achieved in attendances.

Stakes paid amounted to $598,545, an increase of $31,650, while stakes subsidies from the NZ Racing Authority increased by $45,150. Totalisator expenses were up $12,982, while race meeting expenses increased by $38,495, with administration expenses up $19,307.