SUCCESSFUL CLIMAXES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 14, 17 July 1934, Page 4

SUCCESSFUL CLIMAXES

TRENTHAM AND ELLERSLIE

FUTURE OF WIN-AND-PLACE

On two occasions this season the Wellington Racing Club has had wonderfully successful days, aud each time they were the third day of the meeting concerned, -it the Summer Sleeting in January the club was struggling to hold ground on the two first days, but then along came the astounding third day with an increase of £12,210 10s on the corresponding day the previous year. The recovery was even more pronounced at the Winter Meeting ■ last week, for Saturday's fine response from the public yielded a day's increase of £11,566 10s and converted a leeway of nearly £9000 on the earlier days to an improvement of £2910 10s for the meeting. In the manner of such retrieval the Wellington^ Club has not stood alone i among the major clubs this season, for there was a similar happenipg at the recent Auckland Winter Meeting. In showery weather on the first day at Ellerslie the investments were down £10,441, • but on the middle day (the King's Birthday), which was fine, the totalisator bumpeS up £16,650. The final day was again showery, with heavy rain before the programme was half concluded, and a small decline of £621 was recorded in the investments. The meeting thus came out £5-SSB in fr.ont of last year's figures. ' SYSTEMS OF BETTING. One of the feature points of last week's meeting at Trenthain was an unniistak- j able improvement in the reception the ivin-and-place system of betting had from I the public. There is, of course, no argu- i ment that win and place caught the public when it was first introduced, but later | on there was a fairly general definite swingaway in opinion from the new system. There are probably many'who will still cross swords on this assertion, but they are not those who are most keenly ob- | sen-ant. Perhaps in another twelve months j or so it will be recorded that'the 1934 Winter Meeting at Trentham.was- the point _at which the true co-ordination of the rival systems was ultimately made patent. •. - • The Wellington stewards are deserving of the highest praise for the way in which they have persevered in educating the public, to the principles of win and place. They have spared no. pains in improving the iflethod of indicating the dividends being paid at every moment during the currency of the betting, and it is to this that must be attributed the renewing popularity of the mode as shown last week. If win and place survives, as it now certainly promises to do at the main centres, the Wellington Club will be entitled to claim the lion's share of the credit. TRENTHAM'S EXAMPLE. The method of working the system at , Trentham is far in advance of that operating at, any other coursejn the Dominion. The latest improvement's that the barometer now shows both the win and the place dividends at every stage of the betting, in the same column, the win dividend above ( the place dividend, so that betters have very complete information about the progress of the" betting. The only further improvement that could now ,be incorporated is the electrically-operated barometer^ which, is ysed in Australia and England, and which records the changes in the betting automatically immediately they are registered on the selling machines. It is quite a possibility that such a machine will be set up at Trentham in not-far-distant days. . .. {. The experience at Trentham may not, of course, be taken to show that win and . place is a totally superior system to the single pool. It is necessary'to consider the aspect more widely than this. The experience at other centres, and particularly at small meetings, is that the win-and-place mode has a restricted applicability. It seems suited only to meetings where there are large attendances; big fields, and' a dash of form among the best-class horses. Where pools are small and dividends thus easily affected by bets of any size,' and where form 'isr*6o well exposed among moderate fields that one -or two horses stand out from the others, the single pool may always'be the best. AN OBVIOUS FALLACY. It must'also again be pointed put, because there are so many critics who de-clare-that the one system will yield much better dividends vto' a greater number 'of betters than the other, that neither modecan have any real effect in this direistion. The idea of bigger dividends to more people is a figment of the imagination that collapses as soon as it goes under ttte light of reason. The public receives Beck in toto the same diminished portion of its invested pool by way of dividends'whatever the system of distribution. It should therefore be clear enough even to the least perspicacious that 'if there are more dividends they must average less,' and, of course, the opposite holds as well. It is obviously better not to have too' many dividends at the smaller meetings, so that the average may remain reasonably high. The centres in the. Dominion which nould continue profitably to operate the double pool are the four main cities;, and possibly one or two others that have holiday dates and therefore a good attendance and turnover. It was unfortunate"in a way that the small clubs should ; have iushed_ia as they did^to make the changeover; for win and place was not suitable to their conditions. Before long it may be that win and place will operate only at Trentham, Riccarton, and Wingatui, and perhaps at Ellerslie again and a few of the larger provincial courses, and at these centres it should be found to work rather more satisfactorily than the single pool when it is properly supplemented with up-to-date methods of recording the progress betting, v. - . •' •■ In demonstrating these possibilities in win and place the president and stewards of the Wellington Racing Club have earned the gratitude of the sport in the Dominion, for it is owing to their increasing and unwavering efforts that the system has had its real opportunity of proving itself under the right, conditions.' The recent Wellington Meeting, has shown the.sporting public that the mode has some advantages under such conditions as regularly prevail at Trentham. The line of demarcation has been drawn between the systems, and the public may now be con--vinced_ that win and place is the mode for the big meetings and the single pool for all others.