PLENTY OF MONEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 13

PLENTY OF MONEY

BOOKMAKERS’ HARVEST

While pessimists talk financial stringency, banks of the populace show more prosperous returns than havo been revealed for a long time. Bookmakers of Sydney, discussing this, say that people arc winning it from them. (Perhaps the Sydney writer that wrote this was a humorist !) Attendances at Sydney race meetings are on the increase. It is the same at country fixtures, and when Grafton Club’s secretary, Mr. F. W. O. Whiteman, last week took

a risk and printed 700 race books, more than had ever been turned out before, the whole were bought, and a record crowd clamoured for more. Grafton people are not giving their cash a frivolous fling, however. The district holds the world's record in banking deposits. Money was plentiful at the meeting, and reports are the same in the city. Bookmakers assert that at registered meetings cash is in abundance for beting purposes. Rarely have there been so many people at a '‘clash” meeting as there were at Canterbury, with Kensington ponies in opposition. And Kensington was popular, too. Strong Betting Ring Folk on the inside of racing circl.es declare that the pony betting ring gn Wednesdays has never been as strong as it is just now, embracipg as it does many of the biggest operators from Randwick. And bookmakers say that money for betting is exceptionally plentiful gn these courses. It is the same at registered tracks. The bets, books say, are not confined to small amounts, but embrace many tens, twenties and “ponies.” This, they say, indicates that business folk with a command of bigger cash than the average public backer handles, are indulging in a fling at the races. One backer had a great slice of luck last Saturday. Tie iodged a double figure bet for Lorient 11., all up on Oratrix in their two Canterbury races. On Monday he collected £ 600. Cavalry Stories A correspondent set a London writer a somewhat difficult problem. “What,” he asks, “is the funniest story you ever heard?” This one has always been, to me, a classic. You may know it. An Irish cavalry recruit was suffering his first lesson in riding. He had the wickedest brute in the squadron. It bucked and reared at such an alarming rate that the rookie was panic-stricken. At length the animal, in the course of his plunging, caught a hoof in ono of the stirrups. Pat slid hurriedly to earth, muttering, “Begobs, if you’re getting on, I’m getting off.” Another cavalry story which I have not seen in print anywhere. In this instance the recruit, in spite of being thrown on several occasions, gamely mounted each time to renew the struggle. When he had taken his final and worst toss, the instructor remarked, with the well-known sympathy of his kind, “Say, son, the only safe place for you is inside.”