REMARKABLE OFFER

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10726, 25 October 1928, Page 5

REMARKABLE OFFER

TO LEASE NEWMARKET OR EPSOM JOYNTON SMITH’S PROPOSAL. , “WHOLE THING NOW LIKE A FUNERAL” UP-TO-DATE AUSTRALIAN LINES SUGGESTED United Press Assn, by, El. Tel. Copyright (Australian Press Association.! LONDON, OcV 23. Sir Joynt-on Smith visited Newmarket at the invitatiop of tho Daily Express. He made a remarkable offer to lease Newmarket or Epsom for £20,000 annually for a decade l , on condition that he was allowed 15 days’ racing annually.’ The offer made a front-page story in the Daily Express, Sir Joynton Smith says he will bear (iny losses and pay hqlf the profits to charity. It was necessary to popularise racing. Thus ,the prize money would he increased. He described Newmarket as a cemetery of gaiety. The grandstand was' like ,the top of. a woolshed. The crowd was'*small and sullen, and there was not a single laugh or smile. The whole thing was like a funeral, without a band, without flowers, and colorless. The bookmakers were like an open-air convention of. bankrupt moneylenders. If the Jockey Club accepted bis offer he would guarantee to popularise racing on. Australian lines. He would tear up the dismal stone paving of Newmarket, and substitute gardens, shrubs arid l fountainns. He would place the bookniakers beneath brilliantly colored sunshades. He would employ a first-class military band, open better restaurants and buffets, and create a spirit of carnival. If the bookmakers who were the present ow-ners of the course boycotted him be would return, blow for blow and import his own bookmakers. He would instal a totalisator-as soon as it was legab “I have met competition before in Australia, I opened a course free and operated coaches to it free to beat the opposition. I have the ‘nesessary’ to carry out the offer. There is only one traditional penalty. If you are caught bluffing you lose a pot. If ayone calls lie can see your hand, Ho can also shuffle and cut before the deal.” Tho Daily Express, in a first editorial, says: “Doubtless potentates will smile at the offer, but they would do well to ponder upon it. Sir Joynton "Smith’s idea is right.”