CANTERBURY'S MOVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1936, Page 13

CANTERBURY'S MOVE

IMPROVED STAKES

FAR-REACHING RESULTS

••■■ The large increase in- stakes an* "nounced by the committee of the Canterbury Jockey Club for the Metropolitan (New Zealand Cup) Meeting in November may be mainly a reflection of the club's own happy emergence from the doldrums of the depression, but it must also be viewed as an of the" marked general improvement that may be expected now :t6 continue in the prosperity of the sports of racing and trotting in the . Dominion during the present and immediately future years. The G.J.C. was one of the first metropolitan clubs to retrench when the lean years came, but it is now setting a most commendable example towards bringing back to owners" the opportunity they formerly had of winning'big money in the "Dominion;" ■••'•"■■'-. .'■ .' .. Prizes sucli as are offered by the ■.A.J.C. and.VJR.Ci at their leading meetings .of the season can, of course,-never be provided by New Zealand clubs, .for the "racing is'much'more widely distributed in the Dominion than it is in New South Wales or Victoria; but stake-money such as the C.J.C. is now offering, ■ and it is presumed Auckland and Wellington will also offer during the, present season, must quickly act as a deterrent against the big risks •that have to be incurred in sending horses across to Australia. The C.J.C.'s policy in increasing its stakes so greatly is stated expressly to aim at checking the • departure of so many of the Dominion's good horses to Australia. It is almost certain to jio this, particularly as this year's increase is only the start of a definite progressive policy leading to a much higher standard as conditions improve. Many owners who have transferred their horses to Australia this year must already be regretting their action. Possibly a number of horses will be returned befpre November, but it will be the general hope that owners who have-remained true to the Dominion's racing will '. be the first to reap the benefit of the better stakes. BETTER THAN SYDNEY. ' It will probably surprise many to : learn that the £250 minimum prize to be given at Eiccarton in November is higher than at almost - every meeting •in New■ South Wales. At the big A.J:C. Spring Meeting next month .some of the races carry stakes of only £300, and that meeting is the high-water mark of the New-South-Wales season. ■At Warwick Farm last Saturday two out of the seven events were worth only £200, and another was worth £250. At Canterbury Park next Saturday four out of the six races are worth less than £250; at Tatt's the -following Saturday the minimum is £250; and',at Rosehill a week later four out of the six races-range down .from- £250. Where therefore is the lure in racing- in Sydney, unless there is an outstanding chance of winning one of the very few important races, c against, the very best h,orses. from, the .Commonwealth, and the Dominion, or the illusion is held that the /'ring exists to make visiting owners rich? _ The stakes are better all round in Victoria, it'is-true, for the clubs there ' are' riot proprietary concerns, as so many are in New South Wales, and at quite a number of the more important meetings the prizes on the Saturday are from- £500 up; but the only type of ■New-Zealand horse that has.ever, had great success-in .Victoria is the horse 'who. is permanently stationed ;there. The exceptions in recent years could ■be numbered on,the two hands:, . ■ . The £250 -minimum si ,the : coming "meeting -returns-- the C.J;C.; to its^ 1930. mark, when the same'minimum..- pre'.".vaiied. .For. some time prior to^that year, excluding 1928 .(£250 again), the minimum at..the ,Cup Meeting r was £300. In 1921 and 1922, the years of the boom, it was £350 but those were of course exceptional times, it me meeting in November is the success it is now almost sure to-be, it may be ■only another year, before the CXC. restores the £300 minimum. Such figures :™a' h,l°.L SW r slakes ,h« is js yet no near approach to the . peak sums offered in prize-money. The New Zealand Cup this year carries £15130. In 1929 the prize attached to the Cup was £2000, in 1924, 1925, and ■1828 it^was £2100, and in. .1921, 1922 and 1923 it was £ 2500. The Stewards Handicap is to be worth- £700 this year, ■but that is a long way short yet oi the £2000 given in 1921 and 1922. and even of the £1500 provided in 1919 and 1920 and from 1923 to 1926, and of the £1200 in 1929. The Metropolitan Handicap, to which £750 has been apportioned this year, is similarly well below the stakes of £1500 and £1250 that were provided for many years in .this event. The New Zealand Derby, to be £1000 this year, had a prize of £2000' for several years following the immediate post-war era. ,' CkAMPIOISf HACK HONOURS. ■ An interesting prize for this year's meeting will be the £400 attached' to the Ot"ai»: Plate, the 1-1-mile hack race on the final day. This is. a. rise of £150 on last year's stake and is the best' ever given for the race. The C.J.C. obviously aims to secure the champion hack event of the Dominion, and'with its resources it should eventually do this, unless Wellington improves ita Douro Cup stake step by step with the C.J.C. Neither Riccarton nor Trentham was able to provide the most valuable event for the hacks last season. The honour went to Riverton. where the Southern Champion Hack Cup carried a prize of £350 added to a sweepstakes of £3 for starters. .The next-most, valuable hack events were the Champion Hack 'Cup at Te Aroha, with a stake of £300. and the hack plates at Avondale, with a similar stake. The C.J.C. Otaio Plate and the W.R.C. Douro Cup were each endowed with a prize of only £250. The smaller clubs had therefore forced the larger clubs to look to their laurels if they are not to be ■ousted from their privilege of offering the best prizes in the land for champion hack events. The C.J.C. has found itself in a position to give such attractive stakes for the New Zealand Cup Meeting this year mainly because of the great sue"cess of its latest meetings, particularly, the Grand National Meeting last month. But now that such stakes are being provided, every meeting to come ■in the near future is certain to attract the best horses and- have equally successful results. The club has in effect—and probably because it was the first to install an all-electric win-and-place totah'sator in the Dominion —been privileged-to begin the "race" to better stakes,'and as such it is in an advantageous position compared with other clubs. The Te Aroha and Riverton Clubs during the depression showed how clubs might benefit individually from the far-sighted policy of giving ' the very best stakes that it is. possible . to provide. -. The Wellington Racing Club is -in the fortunate position of being the second-club in the Dominion to install an all-electric win-and-place 'totalisator, and, as its apparatus, to be in use for the first time at next month's meeting, is the most ..modern thing yet of its kind, it should be able to profit as well as, if not better, than, the C.J.C. with an equally far-sighted policy of increasing stakes in the immediate future to the highest possible mark ■ commensurate .with financial safety. It is to the Canterbury and Wellington Clvibs that the welfare of racing in the Dominion must look at present, for. the Auckland Club has been lagging in bringing itself up to date in modern facilities. Such increased stakes as are promised M •£h« larger 'centres this- se.asert ' \rttt go a long way towards preventing the exodus of the , good horses to Australia, and they will also bring, about ..a much better home market for the Dominion's classiest yearlings at future National sales.