RACE SURPRISES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 72, 7 March 1933, Page 2

RACE SURPRISES

DIVIDENDS AT PUKEKOHE LUCKY DAY FOR MAORIS. OUTSIDERS WIN TWO EVENTS. Maoris are always particularly enthusiastic patrons or racing to whom the lure of big dividends has a strong appeal and a party of them had a rich return from the success of two rank outsiders in the. opening races at Pukekohe cn Saturday (states the “N.Z. Herald”) The Maori trainer, Mr 11. llama, of Ellerslie, bred the first winner, Free Air, who paid over half a century, and himself owns and trains Wee Musk, who returned a price of over two score in winning the second race. Mr Kama did not support Free Air, but a number of delighted Maoris were among the collectors at the ten shillings window. The trainer, Mr M. Stack, of Thames, had ten shillings each way on his charge, and two Chinese also participated in the dividend. In the case of Wee 'Musk Mr Kama had £1 each way and Maoris were even more prominent in the paying out queues than they were in the first race. Mr Rama gave Free Air away as a yearling to a Maori friend at Thames and eventually she passed into the possession of Mr L. S. James, owner also of Gay Idea, who won the Takapuna Cup in January. His trainer stated he had hopes of winning the Ruakaka Hurdles at To Aroha with Free Air, but was disappointed in her unplaced performance, and was not sanguine about her chance on Saturday, although he was hopeful that she would stay the long distance on account of being by the good sire Kilbroney. SUCCESS OF MR HAMA. Wee Musk was cheaply purchased by auction by Mr Rama for 31 guineas. He was bred by the late Mrs E. A. Lindsay, who owned the good performer Unde Ned, twice runner-up in the Auckland Cup. Wee Musk was backward in condition when first- placed in training and took a long time to show improvement. On the tracks he had not lately accomplished anything to indicate that his immediate prospects were bright, and his owner was as much surprised by his tine finishing effort as were most racegoers. It was only at the last minute that Mr Kama engaged the jockey G. Connor to ride \\ ee Musk. Mr Rama is the most successful Maori trainer in New Zealand and won £1295 in stakes last season. He made a trip to Australia last July with Manawhcnua and Horowhenua, and stood to win a large amount of money of Mauawhenua had secured a place in the Melbourne Cup last November. He engaged the leading Queensland lightweight J. Conquest to ride the horse and soon after reaching the straight the jockey thought he was going to win, but could not cope with the final challenges of Peter Pan, Yarramba and Shadow King, with the result that he was beaten into fourth position ANOTHER BETTING INCREASE. In spite of the fact that two such large dividends would have the effect of withdrawing a certain amount of money from circulation the totalisator, under the win and place system, showed a remarkable result. The machine handled £20,1112 10s, compared with £15,068 last year, an increase of £494-1 IDs. Since the new betting system was instituted in the Auckland Province eight days’ racing and trotting have been held, and on each occasion an increase lias been recorded. The aggregate amount invested at Matamata, Rotorua (two days), Auckland trots (two days), Te Aroha (two days) and Pukekohe was £133,322 15s, -which represents an increase of £25,375 10s on last year s total turnover for the meetings named. An interesting feature of the betting at Pukekohe on Saturday was the fact that Limes paid less on the win machine than she did on the place machine, this being due to the fact that owing to the dead-hbat for first, two horses shared the win pool, whereas each had its usual share of the place pool.