BRACKETING HORSES ON THE TOTE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1260, 11 June 1914, Page 11

BRACKETING HORSES ON THE TOTE.

For a long time past it has been the practice in New Zealand to bracket the horses of one owner starting more than one representative in a race on the totalisator. This was done in the interests of the public, who were sometimes in a quandary which to back, and were always demonstrative, more or less, when an outsider in a stable got home and a favourite in the same ownership was defeated. It was not very long oe f ore all the clubs fell mto line, though

some did not favour the proposal when it was first brought down. On occasions some of the clubs went further than this, and caused the horses in one stable, irrespective of ownership, to be bracketed, but then the owmers took a stand, and the trainers saw how unfair it would have been for the authorities to have gone to such absurd lengths, and protested. They have their rights, and so have the owners, and the public can ask too much. A contemporary in Sydney draws attention to the fact that in Johannesburg some backers are agitating for the coupling on the totalisator of all horses from the same stable in any race. As matters now stand horses in the same ownership are coupled, but a trainer may send out three horses in different ownership, and they are not bunched on the machine. This fact has resulted rather disastrously for Johannesburg backers on some occasions recently, and they are evincing an inclination to kick. Still, the bunching of all horses from one stable, says the writer, would scarcely be fair to owners. In Sydney, for instance, we have seen different horses from the same stable backed by their respective owners, and it would have been inequitable if the man with the horse apparently possessing the poorer chance had been forced into taking the same price as the other. Of course, he would have had two chances, but in the event of his horse’s success it would have been little satisfaction for him to collect at the rate of 3 or 4 to 1 about a 20 to 1 chance. As both “books” and machine are available as mediums of speculation in Johannesburg, it is pointed out that the owners could deal with the former and leave the latter to the public. However, in the case of outsiders, the machine odds are generally so much longer than those laid by members of the Ring that naturally owners wish to parvicirate.