C.J.C. INCREASES STAKES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 137, 6 December 1935, Page 6

C.J.C. INCREASES STAKES

An increase in stakes from £1325 to £1550 was decided on this week by the committee of the Canterbury Jockey Club for the Summer Meeting, which will be1 held on February B.next. The stakes -for the Midsummer Handicap and the Craven Plate have been raised £50 each, and.for all other events, except .the Middle Park Plate, £25 each. .The Hornby Handicap, formerly a highweight event, has been changed tqabrush hurdle race, of one mile and three-quarters'. This should'", -be' ■ welcomed by owners -of jumpers. The Halswell and Post Handicaps, which were run last year under the club's special hack conditions, will this year be: decided- under the ordinary hack conditions, as amended by the Racing Conference in July.; The distance of the Post Handicap has been increased from a mile to nine furlongs.

There will be wide satisfaction over the programme, comments a southern writer. The Canterbury Jockey Club has had two good meetings this season and is now continuing a. set policy of steadily raising stakes. With heavy obligations for the new totalisator, the committee has more than prize-money to consider at present, and the summer increase, amounting to about 16 per cent ■on last year's figures, is practical evidence that Biccarton is getting: back rapidly to its old position, with stakes as a magnet to attract the Dominion's best horses. The committee can be congratulated on its progressive policy.