RACING DATES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 196, 15 May 1940, Page 14

RACING DATES

Question Of Separate Saturdays MARTON CRITICISM The practice of certain North Island clubs, as well as some in the South Island, in securing permits to hold race meetings on four separate Saturdays during the season, has led to much adverse comment, and the question was further probed at the annual meeting of the Marton Jockey Club by Mr. J. R. L. Stanford, one of the vice-presidents of the club, and also a member of the executive committee of the New Zealand Racing Conference. “A matter of interest to racing clubs throughout New Zealand is the difficulty in obtaining suitable dates on which to race,” said Mr. Stanford. “If a club has no holiday date on which to race, it invariably applies to the executive committee to be allowed to race on a Saturday. which is now practically a universal holiday, and there are insufficient Saturdays to go round. “Till a few years ago clubs were granted permits by the Government to hold meetings extending over one, two, three, or four days.’’ continued Mr. Stanford. “A permit granted for a two-day meeting entitled the club to race on two days in accordance with the Rules of Racing, which stipulate that the meeting shall not extend over longer than four days. Nowadays clubs apply for separate permits for separate days. Thus, a club entitled to four days’ racing, instead of applying for two two-day meetings, would apply for four one-day meetings, then making application for four separate Saturdays, thus reducing materially the number of available Saturdays. “I can see no objection,” maintained Mr. Stanford, “to a club entitled to two days’ racing desiring that the two days be'widely separated, because I think that the needs of the district might be best supplied by having the two days reasonably far apart. . However, I cannot see any justification for permitting a small club to have four, or even six, separate race meetings of one day each, to the detriment of other clubs. jjb “Every year the position gets worse, Mr. Stanford said, “and it is time the Racing Conference expressed the view that the splitting of permits will not be permitted. A fair method would be for each club to be granted the nearest Saturday to its usual date, with the granting of further Saturdays held over to be considered after those former applications have been dealt with. In certain months of the year it is impossible for a club to get a Saturday date, and the position is caused mainly by clubs with permits for four days’ racing so arranging their meetings as to have four separate Saturdays, whereas they should not be entitled to more than two Saturdays.

“The question of dates invariably leads to heart-burnings, as July annroaches.” concluded Mr. Stanford. “With the splitting of permits it is getting more and more difficult, and an appeal to the Racing Conference nt this stage is certainly justifiable.”