RANGITIKEI RACING CLUB.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume V, Issue 212, 16 August 1894, Page 5

RANGITIKEI RACING CLUB.

The following is the annual report of the committee of the Rangitikei Racing Club : — Your committe, in presenting their annual report and balance sheet, think that they may fairly congratulate the club on last season’s work, resulting, as it has done, in a profit of 13s gd. As you will remember, it was resolved at the last annual meeting to try, for the first time in the history of the club, a second meeting, which it was decided to hold in the, spring with a stake limit of /'350. This proved a very lucky hit, for we were rewarded with not only quantity but quality no less than four N.Z. Cup candidates sporting silk, amongst them being the ultimate winner of the Cup, Mr Douglas’ Rosefeldt. The one day’s meeting resulted in a profit of £53 16s 3d. The summer meeting was rather an anxious one from a financial point of view, for not only had we added /'ioo to our stakes, but we had also to pay out of ordinary revenue the totalisator tax amounting to 18s 4d. Had it not been for the unprecedented support given by the public to the totalisator (no less a sum than /"7661 having been put through without a hitch by Mr Frank Hill and his competent assistants) we must have come out on the wrong side of the ledger. This is a point which should not be lost sight of by your incoming committee when framing the programme for the next summer meeting. Your committee tried a further innovation this year in not selling the privileges of the gates and grand stand. The accompanying balance-sheet will show you that this course proved, financially, very successful, and it certainly did away with the very unpleasant friction between the club and privilege purchasers which had heretofore obtained in connection with passes and complimentary tickets. Telegraphic communication with the course has also been completed during the past season. The sum of was given away in stakes, while the club’s revenue from all sources amounted to £1765 ss, of which sum owners contributed £435 10s in nominations and acceptances, or roughly speaking one-third of the stakes offered. Your committee consider it due to Mr Frank Hill to congratulate him and his really - very efficient staff on the excellent man-" 1 ner in which they put through their totalisator at our summer meeting the unexpected amount of and on the expeditious manner in which they paid out. The pool on the Cup amounted to £ 1265 in £1 tickets. This amount is, we understand, a New Zealand record for one machine. Mr Henry as handicapper and Mr Wood as starter fully maintained the reputations they had already gained in their respective and most responsible positions of trust, and Mr Levett has beeQ. most enthusiastic in his care of the course. We leave your incoming committee a credit balance in cash of 15s Bd, which should encourage them to go on and endeavour to “ make hay while the sun shines.” Your committee cannot conclude without congratulating the club on the position it has attained in the colonial racing world.