REDUCTION PLANNED

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 6

REDUCTION PLANNED

RACING IN N.S.W.

A WARTIME MEASURE

HOSTILE RECEPTION

(By Trans-Tasman Air Mai!, from "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, July 3. The New South Wales Government's plan for a wartime reduction of racing in the area in and near Sydney has been given a hostile reception by thousands of persons whose livelihoods depend on the industry. There is only limited opposition to the principle of a reduction as a means of solidifying the war effort. It is the apparently careless way in which the Government plans to make the reduction that has perturbed race clubs, owners, trainers, and all interested in the industry. The Government aimed at a general 50 per cent, reduction, wnich would have meant race meetings only on Saturdays and public holidays. Certain representations convinced the Government that this was too drastic, and it has been learnt that a slightly smaller reduction is planned. , The scheme, though not yet officially announced, provides that the two city trotting clubs will race on 20 instead of '40 days. A reduction of meetings from 26 to 13 for the two city greyhound clubs and from 40 to 20 for the 47 country greyhound clubs will be made. ■ It is the horse-racing cut that is causing most alarm. Instead of 171 meetings, it is proposed that there should be 99 —69 for clubs in the metropolitan area and 30 for provincial clubs. The latter, five in number, race on courses from 40 to 60 miles from Sydney on Tuesdays and some Thursdays. They give paltry prize-money, their patrons consume huge quantities of petrol in going to the courses, and the racing is poor. The Government proposes that Tuesday and Thursday meetings should be abolished, and the clubs given 30 Wednesdays. The remaining reduction of 42 days would be shared by the Australian Jockey Club's Warwick Farm branch (now racing at Randwick), three clubs racing on Saturdays, the old-established Hawkesbury Club, racing on one Saturday and four Wednesdays, and four clubs racing on Wednesdays. GROUNDS FOR OPPOSITION. Opponents of the plan rightly claim that the Government has given little consideration to the position of persons affected by the reduction. They point out that if attention had been paid to the importance of the clubs, three at least of the provincial clubs should have been eliminated: A calculation shows that under the present plan loss of prize-money will amount to nearly £60,000 a season, apart from the fact that, with fewer racing dates, the club's overhead expenses per meeting will increase, having a further serious effect oh the prize-money they will be able to give. A development lifted the subject into the political sphere. A meeting of! owners and trainers decided to ask the Commonwealth Government tp- intervene in the State Government's proposal. It was claimed that, the Federal Parliament should decide whether any reduction was necessary to aid the national war effort, and that, if action was considered necessary, the reduction should be on a Commonwealthwide basis,- and not applied to any one State. New South Wales is the onlyState which has so far moved to reduce race meetings.