A Costly Sport

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XV, Issue 148, 29 May 1925, Page 3

A Costly Sport

RACEHORSE OWNERS' TROUBLES

BURDEN OF TAXATION

STAKES NOT MEETING EXPENSES

Christchurch, May 28

At the annual meeting of the Canterbury Jockey Club th© chairman. Mr. George Gould, had th© following to say regarding the taxation of th© sport :— “Before th© war, with its attendant taxation and disturbance of money values, and under the wise guidance of the Racing Conference, an owner, given an average degree of knowledge and luck, had a fair chance of paving expenses out of stakes, leaving him free to bet or not—to bet according to his inclinations and the optimism or pessimism, of his nature. To-day, however, the position is very different. The cost of racing, partly duo to Government exactions, is almost double, while during the last four years stakes have receded. In 1914-15 the stakes given by this club amounted to nearly £38,000; this year they were £42,655, whereas to bear the pre-war relation to expenses they should be at least ££60.000.

“Racing is a fine pastime, but it has also a serious financial aspect for those engaged in it. An examination of racing statistics leads to the conclusion that only about one horse in four pays its expenses out of stakes, and there is a gap of about £2,000,000 between the gross amount of the stakes won and the costs involved in training and racing about 2000 horses. This gap many people seek to bridge by betting, with varying success, hence the desirability of increasing stakes so that the sport may more nearly pay its wav without fortuitous aids. Many country clubs ar© in difficulty, small as the stakes are which they can afford to give. When stakes are small there is a danger that owners who cannot afford to look upon racing as a pleasant way of spending money may try to carry on by manipulating results and boating the public. If it wer© not for the better stakes given by metropolitan clubs the honest sportsman could not live, and yet the Minister proposes to create mor© clubs in the backblocks, where there are neither horses, population, racing facilities nor means of training. “What can bo dono in those circumstances to put the straight going owner on a better footing? I say without hesitation that the Government should surrender, for the good of the sport, some portion of the money it takes from the racing community. The dividend tax alone now produces double the whole revenue from the totalisator tax a few years ago. If the Government would remit to clubs the 2J ner cent on the first £20.000 of each day’s turnover it would put small clubs on their feet and give a tremendous lift to honest sport. This would mean giving up about £3OO a day or £90,000 a year, a good deal of which could go direct to stakes, but the Government would still be deriving some £500,000 in various ways from the racing public, against which the general community pays no equivalent.”