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Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21817, 21 November 1940, Page 6

Farland has been a remarkable illustration of the rule of horses for courses, as all except one of his wins have been secured on the Te Rapa course. As a four-year-old, when he commenced racing, he won twice there, next season he won twice again, and the following season he had two more wins, finally breaking the sequence by capturing the King George Handicap at Ellerslie. After being off the winners’ list for eighteen months, he got back again on Saturday on his favourite track. All his Te Rapa victories have been* over six furlongs. High Caste started twelve times at the spring meetings in Australia, for seven wins, and he was unplaced only once, when he was fourth in the Caulfield Cup, a race he might have won with any luck at all in the final furlong. High Caste concluded the Melbourne Cup meeting in a blaze of glory, making an exhibition of Beau Vite and Beaulivre in the C. B. Fisher Plate, over li miles. Whereas High Caste saddled up better than ever, Beau Vite was obviously feeling the effects of his strenuous race in the Melbourne Cup, and Beaulivre was even more affected by the two miles struggle. The biggest dividend paid on the totalisator in New Zealand on a single event was £1033/5/-, collected by the solitary backer of Wairoa Belle at a trotting meeting in Nelson in 1920. The

smallest dividend paid in New Zealand, probably in the world, was recorded in the Hokianga Plate at the Bay of Islands meeting in 1932. In single pool betting, Hawthorn was sent out a five to one favourite in a field of nine starters. He dead-heated for second place with Kai Horomai, the winner being Black Marlin. On the £1 tote, the dividend posted was 5/-, and on the five shilling tote, the dividend was 1/-.

The turnover at Riccarton this month was the fifth highest on record, and the best since 1922. The peak was reached in the boom just after the Great War of 1914-18. In 1920, the machine handled £340,141, and this was the only occasion on which £300,000 was approached. In 1919, £259,979 was put through; i® 1921, £271,454, and in 1922, £259,925. Although this year’s aggregate was nearly £87,000 lower than in the record season, backers made much heavier demands on the totalisator. The incidence of betting has changed remarkably. There are fewer three-figure operators; win and place has entailed much heavier selling of tickets; and there has been a pronounced swing towards the ten-shilling windows. The totalisators that were in operation thirty years ago could not handle the present volume of betting if they opened at 8 o’clock.