CORRESPONDENT'S DOUBTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1934, Page 23

CORRESPONDENT'S DOUBTS

A correspondent ("Interested") submits a series o£ questions,- which he states arose in a discussion prior to tho departure of the Wanganella on Thursday, and they are answered catechetically as follows: — '

Q.: How many Now Zealand racehorses arc at present in Australia? —A.: It would be difficult without much research to discover how many New- Zealand-bred horses are at present in Australia,'but, roughly, the number o£ New Zealand-owned horses at present there would be between 70 and 80.

Q,: How many horses has Mr, Kemball over there, and for what reason does he prefer to race in Australia?—A.; A few weeks ago Mr. Kemball had 25 horses in work at Cau.lfi.eid., Mr. Kemball is an Australian and he has business interests in Victoria. : . .

Q.: Is it not a fact that our horses are taken over because the stakes here are so small, and because an owner cannot get a sufficiently large dividend from the totalisator? —A.: Undoubtedly owners are tempted by the big prizes offered by the principal Australian clubs, but they have been sending horses across the Tasman since the late Mr. Henry Redwood blazed the. trail seventy-six years ago in 18d8 with Chevalier, Zingara, and Zoe. Many fallacious ideas are held about the betting side of racing, but it may be stated briefly that the better the fields the better a horse has to be to win, and only owners whose horses succeed with reasonable regularity can hope to show a profitable return, whether the country be Australia, New Zealand, Japan, or Greenland.

Q.: If the defunct Te Kuiti Racing Club has sold its ground and appurtenances to what purpose will the pi'oceeds bo applied, that is if there is anything left

after meeting all liabilities?—A.: The Te Kuiti Racing Club's finances are in such a way that the club is unlikely to be treed from its liabilities till it has held several successful meetings under the aus-. pices of tho Waikato Racing Club. The terms of Te Kuiti's amalgamation with Waikato state that the Te Kuiti Club shall retain' its udentity and race at Te Rapa till it has paid oK its liabilities, and then.the two clubs shall merge.

Q:: In what States does the totalisator alone operate in Australia?r-A.: Since the relicensmg of bookmakers in. South Australia and Tasmania no Australian State conducts its betting solely by agency of the totalisator.