RACING COMPARISONS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1325, 16 September 1915, Page 11

RACING COMPARISONS.

Arguments relative to the amount of prize money distributed in New Zealand and New South Wales are common among racing men in this State, says “Pilot” in the “Referee,” but I fancy those who backed New Zealand to come out on top with its horse and trotting meetings, as against our horse, pony, and trotting fixtures, would be winners. It is more than probable that double as much money is distributed at Sydney meetings as at those of all classes held in the rest of the State, and last season the metropolitan total, inclusive of the sum reurned to owners by clubs in the way of sweepstakes and forfeits, did not exceed £212,000. Of this the Australian Jockey Club was responsible for £97,344, the other “horse” clubs nearly £50,000, the “pony” clubs slightly over £54,000, and the trotting clubs not quite £10,500. Roughly speaking, something over £147,000 was totalled at registered meetings in Sydney, and even allowing for the fairly large sum distributed just outside the metropolitan area, as well as at

Newcastle and some of the principal country towns, it is safe to say owners did not have the opportunity of competing for more than another £lOO,OOO at registered fixtures in this State, while as for the “pony” and trotting clubs, their stakes were small by comparison with those of the metropolis. Comparatively few of our country clubs give one prize of £lOO during a year, and even in towns of importance £2OO is regarded as quite a fair sum for a day’s racing. In the circumstances it is not surprising that such a number of country owners now turn their attention to the metropolis, where the cost of racing—registered and unregistered—is much cheaper and prizes much larger than in their own districts. It often puzzles me how some owners manage to make ends meet on the low prizes for which they compete in the country. The New Zealand country owner is much better placed, thanks to racing of importance not being centralised there in the same fashion as in New South Wales. It will rather surprise many of our racing men to learn that in New Zealand during the past season onlj' four clubs which used the totalisator gave less than £3OO for a day’s racing. Altogether the totalisator was used on 198 days at “horse” meetings in the Dominion last season, and the prize money aggregated £267,769. The Auckland Racing Club averaged £3768 for each of 11 days’ racing; the Canterbury J.C. £3779 for 10; and the Wellington R.C. £2686 for 7. These totals are not out of the' way for fairly large cities, but it is the prize money at country meetings that would excite the envy of many of our owners. There were only 23 days’ racing at totalisator meetings in the whole of New Zealand last season at which the prize money averaged less than £5OO a day, and only nine where it got below £3OO, the lowest, being £23'o. From this it will be gleaned that owners as a whole have a better chance of racing to a profit at country me-. ings in New Zealand than New South Wales. At New Zealand’s trotting meetings, racing days totalled 62 for a total of £63 225 in stakes, so that at galloping and trotting fixtures where the totalisator was in use the prize money aggregated slightly more than £331,000 for 260 days’ sport. There is no guesswork about Hie above N.Z. figures, as they are taken from official lists.