THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1322, 26 August 1915, Page 6

THE CLUBMAN

Of patriotic racing institutions there are many througnout the Australasian colonies, and large sums have toen raised in the Commonwealth by means o£ the ordinary and a tew special race meetings, and some ot tn© leading clubs have signified tneir ±n«.encion ot making special grants in connection With the war tnis year, white others nave decided upon devoting the net profits of their meetings ciurmg.~the coming season. >jew zeaianu racing and trotting clubs nave nati a particularly good year, better than previously, and though they have contributed well it is more than probable that they will be able to do sail better as a result of the year’s operations. That they wnl do all they can we may confidently expect. Some are in a better position than others, but with all doing their best there wnl be left no room to cavil. The Canterbury Jockey Club held a special meeting during the National race week, and went into the question of ways and means, and decided upon giving the net profits of the year foi patriotic purposes, guaranteeing a minimum of £2OOO, which in the event of the profits being less than that amount will have to be made good out of a reserve fund. There is not to be any increase in stakes, and the chances are that all going well the patriotic funds may benefit to a very much larger extent than the sum mentioned. We should not be_ surprised were it to reach to over £5OOO. The Canterbury Jockey Club does not own its racecourse, which is a recreation or racecourse reserve vested in trustees, but it is financially strong, and has always been a most liberal dispenser of stakes at a minimum cost to owners in the way of nomination and acceptance fees, and the average value, of the prize money has always been larger than has been given by any of the other leading clubs in the Dominion.

The Dunedin Jockey Club has fol« lowed the lead of the Canterbury Jockey Club by deciding on giving the profits of the year’s racing to patriotic purposes. This club has been steadily making headway ever since the old Foroury racecourse was given up. Stakes have been increased gradually, and the club, which at one period in its history was in a very prominent position and was considered ths leading one in the South Island, has got fairly on its feec again. Like other clubs, the Dunedin Jockey Club contributed shortly after the outbreak of the war, and a further sum of £5OO out of ths profits of the seasons past is to be. devoted to the Sports Queen Committee, which has been domg good work. The committee have been enabled to add £740 to the. stakes for the ensuing year, and it is to be hoped that the season’s operations will result in a very substantial addition to the Wounded Soldiers Fund as well. Additions to the prize money invariably mean an increase of support to the clubs that make the increases, and it will be time enough for clubs to talk of reducing the prize, money when it is found absolutely necessary to do so. That time has not arrived yet, and it is to be hoped never will.

The Auckland Racing Club’s Programme Committee have done their work, and have made some further increases in the stakes for the coming season. The club was already committed to an increased expenditure of £6OO on certain classic races, and so is really only providing an additional £5OO, part of which is being distributed over minor events. The increase represents £llOO, bringing the total to £42,550, the largest amount yet offered in the Dominion by any one club. The Auckland Racing Club is the most wealthy in the country, but, nevertheless, with large sums required to be spent in the near future on much-needed, long-promised improvements, and having stakes already good, there was some reason for not adding largely to the prizes for this season. There was no need to increase the prizes for the classic events to be run in 1916, 1917 and 1918 just now, seeing that the nominations will not be taken for another ten months, but the increases are only

made to a few events, and are not large. An important alteration has been made in connection with one of those events. The Great Northern Oaks is to be run in the spring and its value raised from £6OO to £7OO, and there will be no penalties or allowances in connection with the event. The effect of this will be to keep some owners of good three-year-old fillies from sending them to Canterbury in the spring and will no doubt cause, more attention to' be paid to the spring meetings held at Ellerslie. Twelve months ago the committee of the Auckland Racing Club refrained from increasing their prize money when they issued their spring programme, and, indeed, withheld their summer, autumn and winter programmes for some time before finally deciding what they would do. A more optimistic feeling exists now. The Auckland Racing Club has given on a fairly liberal scale towards various

relief funds in the past, and may be depended upon to do something still more substantial in the future, though the committee may not range themselves on the side with those whose clubs have decided to devote all their profits to war funds. We take it that what is more likely to be done is to give special sums as the season progresses. Other clubs than the Canterbury J.C. and Dunedin J.C., and quite a number of trotting clubs have signified their intention to devote the profits of the season for similar purposes.

Though the Canterbury Jockey Club is considered probably the most conservative in the way of entertaining and has a particularly short free list, complimentary tickets being few in number, it has only been by expecting people to pay for their entertainment and having hard and fast rules that it has been able to gather in the money to make stakes good and pay liberal salaries. The practice of being so hard where admission tickets

are concerned, and charging more for the admission of ladies than is charged on other courses, is a subject that is always being unfavourably commented upon by many who are accustomed to receive privileges elsewhere that are denied to them at Riccarton. The Canterbury Jockey Club adhere to the same old practice year in and year out in this respect, and members of clubs from distant parts of the Dominion feel that they do not receive, the same l hearty welcome as they meet with elsewhere, or which they extend to officials of all clubs themselves. The racing stewards in New Zealand as a body get their sport, so far as admission to racecourses go, cheaply enough on the l whole, and there are many who rarely have to put their hands into their pockets to pay for admission to courses in the North Island. There are certainly a few who are exempt from payment

when they go a-racing at Riccarton, but it is thought that the list might with advantage be extended by the executive of the Canterbury Jockey Club, which is by no means popular as a result of its policy of exclusiveness.

A suggestion was made shortly after Mr. G. D. Greenwood’s mare Banksia had won the Winter Cup at the Grand National meeting that an objection might be lodged against the stake being paid over to Mr. Greenwood, who had decided to donate the first stake won by any of his horses to the Red Cross Fund, on the ground that under rules regarding partnerships and leases he was a partner with his trainer, R. J. Mason, to whom he pays a percentage of his winnings, and such partnership, if any, was not registered. Mr. A. W. Rutherford, as far as we are aware, is the only owner who has taken the precaution to register the agreement he has with his trainer. It was Mr Rutherford’s gelding Encore that ran second

and it would rest with that gentleman to take action if he wished in the absence of any move being made by the club. When it was known that Mr. Rutherford was talking of making a test case of it, a number of horse owners who heard of the matter when questioned as to how they paid their trainers were reticent. As the rule has been in existence a considerable time, and might possibly be made retrospective, they no doubt considered that under the circumstances silence was goiden. Mr. Rutherford has no 1 desire to deprive the Red Cross Fund of the £490 that it would receive through Mr. Greenwood’s generosity, and there was some hesitation on his part as to whether he would make a test case of it, though if successful he would have been in a position to give the prize money himself. There was another aspect to be considered. By running second with Encore Mr. Rutherford became entitled to £l4O, and if the stake won by Banksia came his way he would have to forfeit the £l4O which, would go to Mr. Gardner, the owner of John Barleycorn, who finished third, while Mr. J. George, the owner of Glenroy, who was placed fourth., would come in for the £7O won by Mr. Gardner. We should think it unlikely that Mr. Rutherford will test the point in view of all the circumstances. We are not aware under what arrangement the trainer of John Barleycorn is employed, but probably eighty per cent, or more of horses trained by public trainers and private trainers alike are taken on conditions which provide for a contingency out of winnings, and if the rule can be interpreted as some people read it, then for a long time past many owners have been placed in the same position as Banksia’s owner. The extraordinary thing about the matter is that the rules have been revised time after time by clever lawyers, and that the chairman of the Racing Conference (Sir George Clifford) is a barrister himself, and quite a number of the Conference delegates versed in the law and racing law have allowed this important point to escape their attention. As recently as the last Conference a Wanganui delegate moved to add some words io the rule covering the ground, but by a majority of votes the rule was allowed to stand. The question as to whether agreements between owners and trainers must be registered is one that will receive early attention no doubt. It will take some pages of the official calendar to make the partnership announcements if Mr. Rutherford’s construction can be placed on the existing rule, which many legal gentlemen are no doubt considering on behalf of other owners at the present time.

Committees of racing clubs have vested in them a lot of power, but when it comes to a question of purchasing a racecourse or committing members to heavy responsibilities it would be advisable for clubs to have some definite, rules on such matters requiring the committees to call special meetings. Some clubs do have rules of that kind, but apparently others have not. Cautious committeemen might feel reluctant to act in matters of major importance without consulting members. On the other hand some committees might be more enterprising and would prefer to take upon themselves the responsibility of acting upon their own judgment than taking a vote of members. There appears to have been some difference of opinion in the minds of some of the members of the South Auckland Racing Club as to whether it was advisable to shift their racing headquarters from Claudelands, near Hamilton, to a more distant locality. The committee secured the course first before consulting the members as a body, but happily for them an overwhelming majority approved of their action, and no doubt they were very sure of their ground before taking the course they did. The South Auckland Racing Club was never to our mind an appropriate title for a club racing 80 miles from Auckland, and we are pleased to note that the members unanimously decided to change it. Henceforth the club will be called “The Hamilton Racing Club.”