BETTING METHODS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16938, 12 January 1923, Page 2

BETTING METHODS.

Jn France over £12,000 is paid annually for a special police force to stop betting at places other than race- ; courses. Despite that, clandestine j I'ockniaking has increased, and while j there was a great falling-off in the 1921 totalizator turn-over as compared with that of 1020. matter* wore even worse during the recently-concluded year. Up to the end of June investments were about £2,000,000 jess than the corresponding six months in 1922. Discussing this subject, the Paris correspondent of a London paper wrote recently ail follow*: —“ The position is serious, for, apart from the various charities, which draw their percentage, the racing tv cieties count on their share to increase iho added money given 'away in prizes and the breeders’ premiums accorded to all winners and seconds bred in France, in all but selling races. The attendances hare generally shown a decrease on the previous two years, but not suffi(lent to account for the difference in the mttuel returns. The cause is well known to all concerned, however, for ihe money invested is - practically as large as ever, but it does not reach the official ‘ betting machine.’ The largest amount of money is turned over in the enclosure, under the eyes of the stewards. It is well known that certain owners only show their colours to obtain the entree to the weighing enclosure, where they are always ready to oblige ‘ M. le Duke » or ‘M. le Baron ’ with a price about his horse in the coming race to save that gentleman the trouble of going to the mutuels and counting out of bundle of notes in exchange for a number of tickets, and the settlement is made either daily, at the end of the races, or weekly. The only way out of the difficulty seems to be to license bookmakers as agents to the parimutuel' and a percentage of the receipts. The question will be gone into seriously during the close season, and it is moat likely that the next Grand Prix trill Bee bookmakers working as well as the tote.” The dual system of betting is frowned down in New Zealand, but according to all accounts it gives satisfaction in the Australian States in which it obtain?. A popular Australian opinion is that, while it is appreciated by the general public, the totalizator does not satisfy the needs of heavy bettors. The other side of the picture, of course, is that the totalisator provides owners with such good stakes that the need for heavy betting is removed. Nominations for the Dunedin Jockey Club's autumn meeting will close at five o’clock this evening. Acceptances for the Wellington Racing Club’s meeting are due this evenThe Wellington Trotting Club’s meeting will be held to-morrow. As usual, the fields for the faster class events are nearly all drawn from Canterbury stables. Of the eighty-one acceptors for the Wellington Trotting Club’s meeting, forty-one are handicapped on the limit in the various events. J. Bryce has two representatives in the New Zealand Trotting Gold Cup. the chief event at the Wellington Trotting Club’s meeting Taraire ►hould race well but the popular opinion is that Ins stable mate, the three-\ear-*>ld, Ahuriri, will get the trophy attached to first place. 1 1 is interest ing to note that of eleven acceptors, all but two hail from Canterbury'. In the Trial Handicap, at the Wellington Trotting Oub’s meeting, local opinion points to Change having an ea6y win The following horses went north laet right, to compete at the Wellington Trotting Club's meeting:—Ahuriri, Taraire, Guiding Star, Fireman, Moon Drift, Rorke’s Drift, Jimmy Chimes, Dolly Dillon. Kaikai, Latona, Doris Dillon, Percy Dillon, Maeushlo, Sympathy, Miss Babs, Kellman. Nibbidard Tauhinu, T.»ocauda Jack, Fairton and Fancy Boy.

W. Hobbs went north last night with Palestrina and Wink to fulfil engagements at the Wellington Racing Club's meeting. The North Island horses. Probate, Matariba, Bestir and Missrule, who have been racing in the West Coast, returned home by last night's ferv steamer. Diamond Ring was entered for the Maiden Plate at Trentham but was not eligible to complete, having won a race on New Year’s Day at Hastings. On his only appearance during the holidays, Kick Off carried 9st 61b in the President’s Handicap at Hastings, and ran a mile and n quarter in 2min 7ser. He has 161 b less to carry in the Wellington Cup. During his stay in England. Mr Vivian Riddiford purchased a valuable and particularly handsome gold cup., which lie has presented to the stewards of the Wellington Racing Club for a race to be decided on. At a meeting of stewards this week, Mr Riddiford was unanimouslv elected a life member Of the club. G. Jones, who took Mr W. G. Stead" h horses to Australia- in the spring, remained there when the team was sold taking on the training of Radiant Light for her new owner. Mr A. P Wade. Radiant Light and another of Mr Wade's horses won races during the holidays and the latest information is that. Jones intends to settle down in Sydney. The New Zealand bred gelding All Aboard, by All Black—Float, won two hurdle races during the holiday campaign in Sydney. He is now regarded as the liest two mile hurdler in Now South Wales, but it is suggested that he dees not stay well enough to be a serious prospect for the Victorian Grand National Hurdle Handicap. The four-vear-old horse Blue Ensign (The Tetrarch—Blue Tit), for whom Lord Clonely gave 14,500 guineas as a yearling—a world’s record—is starting a: the stud in England this season at a fee of nine, guineas. Blue Ensign only ran once, that being in the Two Thousand Guineas, in which lie was no where. It is something of a coincidence that Noblesse Oblige (The Tet,rarch—Honora), who was sold the same year as Blue Ensign, and realised 9600 guineas, also goes to the stud this year a: a nine guineas fee. The bookmakers operating in Victoria are greatly disturbed over the re-enact-ment of the betting tajc of 6d on betting ticket©. One of the speakers at a recent meeting of pencillers stated that it cost him £6OO a year in t-axes, and it was,instanced that some tour hundred men were now required to pay £70,000 per year on betting ticket?. As an illustration of what was termed “the iniquity of that tax.'"* th* speaker mentioned that during four days at Flemington he took £6OOO in the paddock and paid £l5O in taxes, while not long ago he saw one man bet £6OOO to £3OOO, and it cost only 6d. A return from the Chief Secretary’s office tends to confirm the idea, that New South Wales could do with less racing. Last year 620 racecourse licenses were issued, the resultant fees totalling £1322 Tt would be interesting to know the exact number of meetings of all kinds held in last year. The total would certainly be an eye-opener. It would be reasonable to expect the *' tubing ” of horses to give much more satisfactory results in the clear atmosphere of Australia than in England. Ii is not so, however, though some horses can be mentioned that did fairly well in Australia after being operated on in the fashion mentioned. A suggestion was made that one thing favouring tubed horses on English tracks was that there was no dust. Btill. there are other drawbacks, and at Leicester on November 13 surprise was expressed that, with the fog so heavy, the first two races should have been won by tubed horses—-Long Corrie and Golden Error. The first named, who is a halfbrother by The Tetrarch to Graganour and The Sybarite (now in Australia) is i stallion, and would have been used I at the stud long ago only for the fact jof being a roarer. At the same time, it i is almost unnecessary to state that in England, as elsewhere, roarers have I siied 6ome good horses.

In Sydney a little while back Judge Scholes decided that ail racing prizes von by a couple of well-known owners were liable to income tax. He held that- they carried on racing as a business, and it is undeniable, says a Sydney writer, that there are few owners—big or small—-who race at the principal Australian meetings who regard it as otherwise. Outside metropolitan areas, however, there are still many men who look upon racing as a sport, and not a commercial proposition. Without in any way referring to the owners whose jeases were dealt with by Judge Scholes, the pride of possession of a good horse is with some much-boomed “ sportsmen ” subordinate to what they are likely to make out of it either in the way of stakes or bets. It is a peculiar fact that many rich men. who are prepared to spend a lot of money on a hebbv from which they get no return except the pleasure, are greatly disappointed if they do not at least cover expenses when they take up racing.

A respected city man of London discovered some time that small bets he made on big races, like many other city men, had become an extended and rather expensive habit, fie was having n small flutter every day, and’ he recognised frankly that it was, from the financial' point of view, in the familiar phrase. “ a mug’s game.” At the tame time, he found when he stopped i: altogether that he really missed the daily study of the racing column? and the mild excitement of the small bets. S< he was seized with the brilliant idea of acting as his own bookmaker. He pTocured a big money box into which nc faithfully paid all his bets, and out of which he regularly extracted precisely whatever his occasional winning amounted to at the correct odd?. At the end of twelve months, under this remarkable self-contained sporting system, he discovered an astonishing result. After having all the fun of backing his fancy just in the usual way, paying in. his money and drawing out iii winnings as though dealing with the ordinary “ bookie.” he had about £7O Mi hand—or. rather, iu the money fcox.