TREND STILL UPWARDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 13

TREND STILL UPWARDS

"TOTE" TURNOVERS

TWO COMPARATIVE TABLES

General increases still /mark • the course of totalisator turnovers in the Dominion, and it is only very occasionally that any club shows a decline in its return. This upward trend has now been in continuous progress for over five years. It is still impossible to forecast when it will cease. It is riot surprising that the rate of increase is not now so pronounced as it was up" till a year ago, for turnovers have already approached the figures of the post-war boom k but it was still quite definite over the recent Easter holiday period. ' Taking the meetings held during the Easter weekend (excluding the West Coast fixtures, as the Coast r.r' varies considerably), one finds that this year's figures, with one day's less racing, are up about 4 per cent, on last year, which represents quite a tidy sum on a large aggregate. f At times during the last year or so it has appeared as if totalisator speculation was approaching a period of stability, or at least was levelling out] to a stage at which increases would be relatively small and decreases more common, as when conditions such as weather were adverse. But the investments over the Christmas-New Year holidays, during the late summer months, and over the Easter holidays have shown that such a state has not yet come to pass. At Avondale last weekend, for instance, the return was up over 20 per cent.

The holiday periods give probably the best indices during the whole season as to the movements pf the totalisator barometer. The Easter holidays are second only to the Christmas-New Year holidays on the racing calendar. The following table shows the turnovers for the meetings held oyer the recent Easter weekend (excluding the West Coast, whose varying dates make comparisons difficult), with the figures for 1936 and for last year appended for purpose of comparison:—

1936. 1938. 1939. ' £ £ £ Auckland 102,291 132,420 153,838 Feilding 42,134 41,035 "57,690 Wairarapa .. 24,354 32,201 37,850 Waipukurau . 7,803 10,605 13,512 Tuapeka 2,825 3,888 4,922 Beaumont .. 8,404 10,061 11,723 Rirerton ... 56,175 79,083 86,033 Canterbury .. 59,474 > 89,487 93,307 Hawera T. .. 20,875 > 34,551 43;902 Metropolitan ■ T.*' 65,754 186,329 141,189

Totals .. £390,089 £619,660 £643,966 ♦'Two days at Metropolitan Trots in 1936, four days last year (Championship year), and ■ three days this year. This table shows that all clubs have enjoyed increases in their returns. Even the Metropolitan Trotting Club has done just a shade better than last year, when the Inter-Dominion Championships were held, at Add.ington, for the average for the three' days this year is bette? than the average over the four days last ,year. The increase in the Easter aggregate" is approximately 4 per cent., but there was an extra day in last year's total, allowance for which would make this year's rate of increase more like 8 per cent. Twelve months ago the rate of increase on the previous -year (1937) was over 20 per cent. A particularly substantial increase this year was enjoyed by the Auckland Racing Club, which has reverted to the win-and-place system of betting. This club used win-and-place for four meetings in 1933 and 1934, but then went back to the single-pool, which it retained till the meeting recently concluded. The Hawera Trotting Club experienced a record turnover. 1 A further interesting comparison in totalisator turnovers is that, afforded by the : holiday figures over the period from just prior to the depression to the present, a span of a decade. The following table gives the investments for the Christmas-New Year and the Easter holiday carnivals during the ten seasons since 1929-30, only those meetings being included in the totals that have raced regularly during the holiday terms under consideration: — Christmas. Easter. 1929-30 1,199,940 557,533 1930-31 ....:..;• 916,124 361,711 1931-22 ......'... 647,477 267,795 1932-33 '..' 581,090 285,321 1933-34 618,724 328,286 1934.35 602,329 315,337 1935.36 709,236 390,089 1936-37 ... 897,294 441,135 1937-3JS 1,029,601 619,660 1938-39 I!! 1,218,271 643,966 The 1929-30 season gave the approximate standard that the betting figures, had assumed following the post-war; boom, the reaction in. 1925 and 192b and the period of slightly increasing returns in the years preceding the depression being more or less consolidated in the 1929-30 season's return The falling-away in turnovers had begun the following season and the declines continued till 1933-34. when there was the first sign of recovery. The weather tin 1934-35 caused a temporary setback, but steady improvement has been shown in the years since then till the present. "This season's figures are relatively fetter than they appear in the table for each holiday period, as the Wairarapa Trots were abandoned at Christmas and there was also one less day at the Metropolitan Trots at Easter than twelve months ago.

DISTURBED'S NEW COLOURS

Disturbed, who has made a mark as a hurdler by already winning four times in a short career in the role, has scored his last two successes in the colours of Mr. A. Mullian, of Stratford, who purchased him from the Whangarei sportsman, Mr. H. Cotter, between days at Feilding at Easter. Mr. Mullian is also owner of Amoroso, Plato5 (now at the stud), and other horses. Disturbed was one of the horses bought in Sydney three years ago by an Auckland syndicate comprising Dr. W. C. Ring, Dr. A. McGregor Grant, and Messrs. A. J. and J. A. Court, G. D. Decry, and H. Morpeth. He was sold by the syndicate to Mr. Cotter twelve months ago last January, and since that sale he has been trained by H. Scaliy, now of Hawera, who is carrying on with him for Mr. Mullian. As a flat performer he won only a single event, at Egmont last winter, but he there indicated ability to stay and he has found his metier in jumping. •.■■■-• Now four years old, Disturbed, is a bay gelding by Excitement (a son of Hurry On) from the Dominion-bred Birkenhead —-Peace mare Restful, and he cost the Dr. Ring syndicate 200 guineas at the sales. Restful won a number of races on the West Coast before being disposed of to go to the Angle Stud in New South Wales. She was half-sister to Chakwana (a winner of numerous races and dam of Indian Sage and grandam of Lady Kyra), also to The Hague (grandam of Notium), La Paix (dam pf Auto Pay) Sleeping Beauty (dam of Palm), and Ralston; and the family is that from which have descended such good performers as Kilwinning, The Bank, Elvsian Battle Colours, Charmaine, Blixten,' and others. There is therefore every reason from such a pedigree to expect a horse well up to average in Disturbed. ■