SENSATIONAL DOUBLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27389, 15 May 1950, Page 4

SENSATIONAL DOUBLE

Dividend Of Over £2OOO At Oamaru ONLY THREE TICKETS HELD “We were tossing up between two horses, but, as my daughter’s name is Dale, we decided on Peggydale in the second leg,” said Mrs H. E. Austin, of Dunedin, who with Miss H. McGregor, also of Dunedin, held one of three winning tickets on the successful double combination at the Oamaru Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday. They had just received a cheque for £lOl3 18s 6d for their investment of 10s. The other tickets were held by a house surgeon at the Dunedin Public Hospital, who had arranged with a friend to make the investment, and a Ranfurly man on holiday in Timaru, who had come south for the meeting. “It was just a stab in the dark for me,” said the house surgeon when explaining how he had chosen the winner of the second leg. The holders of the three winning tickets were paid by cheque inside the totalisator house and a large-crowd gathered at the windows and side door to catch a glimpse of the lucky investors, who seemed to take their good fortune very calmly.

The dividend of £2027 17s for £1 at Oamaru was by far the largest returned at a trotting meeting in New Zealand, but.it fell short of the record of £2061 18s for £1 returned when Star Rosa and Captain Shannon won the New Zealand Cup and Stewards’ Handicap double at the Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting in 1906. That was the last meeting at which' the doubles machine was operated before it was reintroduced on December 15 last.

The best return since last December was at the Bay of Plenty meeting at Tauranga on April 22 when the dividend was £llOB 9s for £l, while on the first day that this form of betting was legalised, the return at Westport was £5lO 8s for 10s, only one ticket being taken out on the winning combination. On March 18, at the Ohinemuri meeting, the return was £561 4s for £l, and on January 2 at the Waikouaiti meeting the return was £547 Us, which stood as a record for an ’Otago or Southland meeting until Saturday. When Whitley dead-heated in the second leg of the double at Oamaru on December 31 the pool was divided and his supporters received £4ll 10s for £l. 'ln most cases the doubles returns at trotting meetings have not been as large as they have at galloping fixtures, the largest being at the Waikato Trotting Club’s meeting on February 11 when the dividend was £328 17s for £l.

On Saturday 7319 10s tickets were taken out on the first leg, the F. G. Plunket Stakes. And 694 of these were on the winner, Te Maru. All the .tickets were reinvested on the second leg, the Captain Sandy Handicap, and Hemisphere was made favourite with 260 tickets. He was followed by the Trouville - Aerogard bracket, 127; Desert Flight, 81; Daisy Bar, 41; Antrim Hall, 37; Economist, 32; Embiazon, 32; Kopara Lass, 29; Curiosity, 22; Direct Power, 11; Peter’s Pal, 5; Doris Grattan, Novacord, Wee! Logan, Peggydale, 3; Expensive, News Agent, 2; Bryawelon,„l; and Brydone Hall, nil. An interesting position would have arisen had Brydone Hall been successful in the second leg. The regulations state that where the first horse in the second leg has no tickets invested on his chance the pool shall be distributed on tickets held on the second horse. If no tickets are taken out on the first three horses, a position most unlikely to arise, the pool would be distributed to holders of tickets on the winner of the first leg.

The doubles dividends, for the most part, have been much greater than an all-up investment on the winners of the two races, and on Saturday £1 for a win on Te Maru, all up Peggydale, would have been jukt under £350.