AMERICAN RACING

Hokitika Guardian, 4 December 1929, Page 5

AMERICAN RACING

COMPARED TO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, a : THE WORLD'S! BIGGEST STAKE. AUCKLAND, December 1. An interesting, figure on the Malolo, which arrived to-day on a pleasure cruise of the Pacific, is a millionaire American sportsman, Air James AV. Coffroth, who at one time rivalled Tex Rickard as a fight-promoter, who is now ifnrned as president of the Tijuana Jockey C%b, which owns one of Amercia’s greatest racecourses. His name is given to the Coffroth Handicap, the richest race in the world. Twelve years ago, when Mr Coffroth retired from the. business of fight-promoting, he founded the Coffroth Handicap, carrying a stake valued at 4000 dollars (£800). To-day the purse is valued at 100,000 dollars (£20.000). This year’s winning horse, Golden Prince, won a stake of £19,540 and, in addition, his trainer and jockey received £IOOO each, so that £21,540 went out on the winning horse alone, exceeding by several hundreds of dollars the highest stakes given anywhere else in the world. The two-year-old Futurity Handicap at Belmont Park carries a stake in the vicinity of £IB,OOO. To win the Coffroth Handicap means a fortune for the owner of the winning horse, yet, in spite of the tremendous sums involved in horseracing in America, Air Coffroth thinks the sport »s on a lower plane in the United States than it is in Australia and probably in New Zealand.

. COALMERCTALISM IN AAIERICA. “I was immensely interested in our recent visit tp the Commonwealth,” he said, “ and tfrdm whaVl saw,l am convinced you people here are greater racing enthusiasts than we are in America. We run racing more as a commercial ‘proposition than a sport, and there is not the same tradition about our great race tracks. Legislative interference is a most disturbing feature in the States. Take the case of my own club. They prohibited betting on racecourses in California and compelled us to take our sport across the border into Mexico. At Agua Caliente, which is just over the international boundary south of Los Angeles and San Diego, we have built an entirely new track to take the place of the famous Tijuana track which has been dismantled, and 1 am looking keenly forward to the opening meeting on December 28. ' TRACKS;(AND HORS&S.

“ You undoubtedly have better race tracks in America,” he added, “if iohsider; the racecourse at Randwick, ’(Sydney, very beautiful. In fact, I should say : there is l only one track in the United 1 States' than can measure up to ity and that is'Saratoga. Your horses are the world’s best, and, what is more, .you hbld 7 ,off tOftliem. It is the most difficult thing iff the world to get hold of an English stallion of any importance. To allow such a horse out Of England is regarded by English ! owners as worse than lese majeste. They hold on to their horses like they guard pictures in their art galleries. “ I consider it very likely America will adopt the totalisator "system of Australia and New Zealand. The Australian barrier .is the finest thing of its sort T have ! seen band the| kind of machines I saw at Caulfield and especially .Randwick, are what we are bound to have in the'States.