A MINOR TRAGEDY!

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 22

A MINOR TRAGEDY!

Cuddle alone carried £4307, the best individual backing for many years. At Wellington Meetings during the present season there has been a rather closer percentage ,return yto the peak years than ■■there 'has been • at- Auck>land. Advocates,1 of the win-and-place system will doubtlessly see in this what seems an obvious reason; but it should nevertheless not be, overlooked that meetings, at- Trentham in - the "bgom" years were generally ill-fav-oured with the weather,.but for which

the club'shighest individual day's turn-

over of £102,783, recorded onAnniver- (- isary Day, 1921, would undoubtedly,have bden. larger. This year's Anniversary Day figures at Trentham were £76,291, the best for any Wellington Meeting since the corresponding day in 1930, when £85,729 was handled. , • ■"^Bespite changes in, totalisator sys■temsj there is a fairly close general correspondence between the Auckland and Wellington figures over the period oif years from the "boom" till the present, as the following short table of best days will indicate:—' '

1920-21. 1929-30...''1936^37.

Auckland Wellington

154,188% 121,417 102*708 102,783 85,729 70,291

; This genera} correspondence will be found to exist with most of the important meetings, if exception • be made .with the provincial , fixtures in the .Auckland district, whose progress during the last few years has been somewhat extraordinary. The: individual pool on the Wellington Cup this year was £6919 10s, but the day was not a public holiday and there have been several better race

pools at Treritham than this during the '*■: present season. The best'was in the Douro Cup on Anniversary Day, when the machine closed with £12,323 invested on the race. The pool on the laet Auckland Cup was nearly £20,000, on the last New Zealand Cup £9531 10s, and on the last New Zealand Trotting Cup £9972. ■■-.■■■ The figures given will give some Indication of how investments now being made on totalisators in the Dominion'compare with those of other peak periods in- the Dominion. It is hardly necessary to include the figures for the nadir of the .depression, as it is fairly well known how low they then sunk. One may mention, however, that on Auckland Cup Day in , 1932 only £62,522 was handled by the machine; and on Anniversary Day at Trentham that season only £43,670 passed through the totalisator, the

There's a minor. tragedy in many a line of the curt "official scratching." Thus in a recent list issued in England:—"From all engagements in races for which geldings are not qualified to run—Heman."

, can be ascertained that was the largest Individual' pool on any race in England- last year. On' the Derby the aggregate investment was £36,504 On the Grand National Steeplechase in March £29,606 was entrusted to the totalisator. .The Cesarewitch and the 'Cambridgeshire at the back-end of last . season each carried a pool of just under. £30,000.

Yet all these figures fade into insignificance when1 compared with the totalisator /'totals at the Los < Angeles Turf Club's Meeting at..Santa Anita Park recently, arid particularly on the day the • £20,000 added Santa Anita Handicap was decided (February 27). On Santa Anita Day a sum' of . £307.976 was held by the totalisator for the eight events, and no less a sumthan £75,311 was pooled' on the Santa Anita Handicap itself. No wonder that the Los Angeles Turf Club can afford to give the richest prize in the world, for the club receives 5 per cent, of all money handled by the machine. The total investments for the season of 58 days' racing at Santa Anita Park this year was more thnn five million pounds— not dollars. The Dominion still has a long way yet to go for world records.

TURF NEWS IN BRIEF

The win-and-place system of betting will be operated vat) all meetings next week- except tHe;Otaki and Hawke's Bay. ' ■ .•.'■'■. "■■' ■.;'.,; ■..•■ . . Racing on "Wednesday at Otaki, Hawera, Hastings, Pukekohe, Ashburtoh, and Invercargill, and' on Saturday at Otaki, Hawera, Te'Awamutu, andilnyercargill. ' V Acceptances for the second day of the Otaki Maori '< Racing Club's Meeting next week \vill close at noon on Thursday. Egmbnt second-day acceptances: are. hot'due till 9 p.m. on Thursday.' .; ■■' :' ■!■■;'•". ' .'.-'.'■. I.','.'-:' •'' ■■ ' ■■. Indiscretion, >who has lately been jumping brilliantly at,Hawera, was favouring a leg while at easy exercise on Thursday- morning. -The Woodville-trainer H. E. Russell leaves by ,the Wanganella for Sydney next Thursday. He will take Mala, Golden Treasure, Brown ■, Oak, and the rising two-year-olds Golden Flame (Lackham—Megalo) and Sports Coat (Pink Coat—Jarretiere). The Hawera owner-trainer Mr. B. La Pouple has brought in; Le Marquis* a rising three-year-old gelding by Lord •Quex from.the Greyspear mare Lady Gen,' and Gold Glare, a rising four-year-old full-brother to Corowa; Tiger Gain'has recovered■■' from his mishap at Easter when a wheel came off the float conveying him to Tauherenikau, and he is galloping again on the Hastings tracks. A smile crowned Gordon Richards's features as he returned to the enclosure after he had "broken his duck" on Epigram on the final day of the Liverpool Meeting in March. It was the end of the first week of the flat season and success had been eluding the champion. . That Victorian racing is on the crest of the wave was evidenced when the V.R.C. decided that the stake for this year's Melbourne Cup should be the same as last year—£ 10,000 and a trophy valued at £200. Victoria's best sprint event—the Cantala Stakes has been raised £500 to £2500, and j'money has been added to the minor events Mah'moud's book for 1937 is full at 300 guineas, and other Derby winners whose 1937 lists are closed are April the Fifth (£198), Cameronian (300 guineas), Coronach (£9B), and Windsor Lad (400 guineas). Felstead's fee is 300 guineas, Manna's 300 guineas, Papyriis's £98, and Trigo's £198.