CUP AND PUBLICANS’

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26027, 15 December 1945, Page 5

CUP AND PUBLICANS’

ONCE THE LEADING DOUBLE The Publicans’ Handicap, which was first run in 1874, derives its title from the fact that in pre-totalisator days the stakes were provided by subscriptions. The Dunedin Cup and Publican’s Handicap double was the largest local medium of betting before the totalisator came on the scene. Several fielders operated a £2OOO book on the Cup and also linked it on a large scale with the Publicans’ Handicap. In those days, the bookmaker was part and parcel of racing, just as much as the owner and trainer, and was regarded as very necessary for the life and interest of the sport. The Calcutta sweep was also a very popular method of speculation and was operated on all the principal events. Antepost betting was reported from day to day and no doubt helped to build up the interest in coming events, the public being kept informed of market fluctuations. Racing in New Zealand is now surrounded with more legal restrictions than in almost any other part of the world. What a sensation it would cause if a “ Call of the Card ” was made on the eve of the Dunedin Cup! But the legal ban forbids this most interesting feature of old-time racing. Legal restrictions have not only deprived racing of some of its most attractive features but the passing of the years has also dispensed the sporting atmosphere that placed the leading owners and sportsmen among the most prominent and popular citizens in the country. They were rightly entitled to prominence in the social world on account of their personality and hospitality. Nowadays the law must be strained if a dinner party is to be given to celebrate a win in the Dunedin Cup. The sport, however, still retains the popularity that built it up to a national pastime and a great industry. The Dunedin Cup meeting will be opened next week and it is safe to predict that the accommodation at Wingatui will be taxed to capacity.