RIVAL BETTING SYSTEMS

Southland Times, Issue 23178, 20 April 1937, Page 11

RIVAL BETTING SYSTEMS

“FORBURY” SCHEME

SINGLE POOL MACHINE FAVOURED Whether you prefer straight-out betting on the totalizator to “one-and-two” boils itself down to a question of personal experience. If you’ve been lucky and struck a run of profitable straightout winners, then you will vote for the win-and-place system; but. if, like the majority of small punters, your luck has been in-and-out, and you’ve been pipped for first place by a nose or a neck a few times, then you’ll plump for the 75-25 per cent, machine, writes “Otakou” in The Evening Star, Dunedin. That’s how I look upon the argument on betting systems. Being a modest, but, unhappily, an unfortunate punter, I’m interested in the settlement of the argument, and as a few shillings are being put away weekly for the next Forbury Park trots I was particularly interested in the decision of the Forbury stewards to adhere to the “Forbury system.” Yet if a plebiscite of racegoers in Otago were taken there is little doubt that they would vote overwhelmingly for the single pool machine. Punters have not had a happy experience with the “win and place” through the depression years. With usual optimism I went to Wingatui some years ago for the June meeting. It was a hard winter, with wages down and the family growing. I selected the win machine for my betting. Believe it or not, in the 24 races I backed 19 seconds, three thirds and two “also rans.” But never a penny did I . get back! That accounts for my bitter prejudice against the “win and place system. And there are hundreds who have the same feeling about “win and place,” one of the methods adopted by the racing and trotting clubs in the depression days to stem the rapidly declining attendances and the tobogganing totalizator investments. A Costly System

It's a costly system for the small punter. He has to double his wager to cover his original bet —and if a favourite fails to win and runs into a place he is still out of pocket on the great majority of races. ' • After the bookmaker was declared illegal on the New Zealand turf racing boomed under the 75-25 per cent, pools, and although gate receipts are mounting all over the country the totalizator investments have not increased in ratio, according to the statisticallyminded punters. Why? The answer is obvious. The public do not like the betting system in vogue, and from the reports of the meeting of trotting trainers, owners and breeders in Christchurch last week the main figures in the racing game are determined to smother the “win and place system. . _ In the centres of racing—Trentham and Riccarton—the “win and. place works more successfully than in any other place; yet at Addington—the trotting headquarters—all and sundry are loud in their protests against it. At Riccarton and Trentham, the best horses from all parts of New Zealand are raced, and each district has its representation of patrons, who follow the horses from their home stables. Bet- ■ ting takes a wide range, and even the favourites pay prices to gladden the hearts of the punters. All the best trotters are located in the Canterbury district, and when favourites at the pacing game win their price is usually something to be .sniffed at, even on the' Straight-out "totalizator. Coming on to the Otago and Southland racing circuit, the position becomes much less pleasing because of the restricted betting on one or two horses in a race. The Forbury Way The public have treated the Forbury system as farcical since that day when hot favourites romped home in several races at pronounced odds-on prices, backers on the place machine lost money on their investments, and the man who came away from the course after backing four winners with enough profit io pay for steak and oysters was on good terms with himself. That was an exceptional day, as since then the favourites have not enjoyed such runs, but the public has a long memory. The odds are always against picking winners, and when the public has to “buy money,” in effect, it stops punting. Some of the prices, too, at Wingatui have been absurdly small for winners and not worth collecting on the place machine, on which, if you back favourites, your profit after six collects is likely to disappear with two losing wagers. On the 75-25 per cent, totalizator the punter has two chances of collecting with his modest investment —and there is only a small proportion of racegoers who, if honest with themselves and their purse, cannot afford to lose more than 10/- on each race. If he wins, all’s well; if he runs second he gets some of his money back as compensation. And he has no complaints, except against his bad luck in backing a horse which just fails to get there. If you are studying the machine and find the price of the hot favourite unacceptable, you look for something in the race which might beat him or, at worst, act as runner-up. If he wins you get a good price, and if he runs second you make a profit or have an infinitesimal loss, about the price of an afternoon tea ticket.

Only One Gloaming Winners at 50 to 1 do not keep racing going. The money goes into the po.ckets of a very few lucky investors, who, in the race-course phraseology, ‘‘button up.” Totalizator investments must increase before extra stakes can be offered to induce owners to race more widely, and there is nothing like a long winning run of well-supported horses to build up the investments. Only o*he Gloaming is found in a decade, but on the win machines in this province any moderate which appears to have a good chance is sent out at a “Gloaming” price. As the owners have a habit of saying: “You have to win races to collect”; and any one of them will tell you just how hard the game is without his having to double his investments —and often as not lose money although his horses run seconds consistently—because of the “win and place” style of betting. Whether or not the opposition to “win and place” is blind prejudice, the fact remains that owners and trainers who still have the money to bet on their candidates refuse to bet with the freedom they did in the days of the 7525 per cent, machines. The odds are against them all the time. The only trotting meeting where they continue to step up to the windows and put their big bets through is at Timaru, where the single pool has been adhered to. But what does the bookmaker think about it all? According to the enemies of the illegal operator, the bookie, is pulling the strings surreptitiously to have die win and place system retained by the clubs. If that system suits the bookie, ob-

viously it does not suit the punter. The bookmakers are having a grand time with the little-fancied horses coming home at long odds and the favourites paying “afternoon tea” prices and the backers of horses both ways losing money.