NEW ERA IN RACING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26354, 8 January 1947, Page 2

NEW ERA IN RACING

PLANES AS TRANSPORT .. By Sentinel It is safe to predict that 1947 will mark the birth of a new era in racing. Last year a dozen or so of racing greyhounds were sent by plane, from Ireland to America’-at a cost of about £IOOO. An English sporting paper published the design of a three-horse plane built to carry horses overseas or on a long journey. The design showed that each horse was in a separate compartment furnished with a feed-box; an indication that the horses would not go off their feed during the flight. It is now reported that shipments of horses by plane will take place between England, the Continent, and America, and 1947 may see the use of the same method of transport between New Zealand and Autsralia. The present year will see a commission at work with power to make recommendations concerning racing in New Zealand. Various clubs have already made a collective blunder by concentrating on a desire for the Gaming Commission to provide facilities for directing money to the totalisator, and not making a protest against the word “ Gaming ” being used instead of a “Racing Reform Commission.” The name at once aroused strong antagonism cn the part of those opposed to gambling, and the political ear is not deaf to protests that may be carried to the ballot box. One very important point is the desire of clubs to convert the Post and Telegraph Department into an adjunct of the totalisator. The department may decline to accept more work for an already overburdened staff. Some years ago the Mararoa broke down on a voyage to Wellington when the passengers consisted largely of people on the way to Trentham. Investments were sent by wireless from the ship, but the Post and Telegraph Department declined to deliver them. The commission has already been furnished with a guide by what has taken place in England and Australia, but a great deal depends on how the commission regards the evidence brought before it. The evidence will be more or less biased, and only a comparatively small part of it will be of a neutral nature. Evidence which will consider the best interests of racing and regard it as a cen-turies-old national pastime and the basis of a vast industry spread all over the world, should carry the most weight.