THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1478, 22 August 1918, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

The totalisator has been in use in New Zealand for thirty-seven years. Year after year for a very long■ J- 1 there were complaints in conn c with the way it was worked cmi many courses. All manner of coin P lai f ntS were made concerning all too ire quent happenings. They took vari d forms. Investors became suspicious they lost confidence. Suspicions grew, and hardly a meeting passed without strong protests against th workers of the totalisators being raised on one ground or another. Complaints would be made that t dividends had not been rightly calculated, or that money was rung up while races were in progress, sometimes when races were over, and up to Quite a recent date such things have occurred. Sometimes dividends have been paid out short; at other times investors have received too much, and on occasions clubs have lost heavily when it has not been the totalisator contractors that have blundered. When they have paid too much they have blundered. When they have paid out short they have committed robbery in the opinions of backers. Demands were made from time to time for Government supervision, without response. As old totalisators were replaced with machines of greater capacity and registering accuracy, and the clubs themselves, for their own protection, and the proprietors, too, got more capable and responsible men to keep a check, complaints became less frequent and died down to a minimum, and it was nearly a general feeling that very little was wanting to arrive at a completely satisfactory condition of affairs. * * * * In view of the fact that the Government has been drawing a large revenue from the totalisator, and has become a sleeping partner in the business, doing no work and bearing no expense in the cost of the machines, their installation and upkeep and their working, it was felt in some quarters that the least they could do was to appoint responsible persons to attend the meetings on their behalf and see that everything was in order. By doing this it was thought that they would disarm those opponents of the machine, who have never ceased to decry it from various standpoints and who have always been ready to assail it most strongly when its working has not been as satisfactory as investors should have found it, and there have been grounds, however slender, for them to assume that everything had not been above-board. On the whole the totalisator has been worked on more satisfactory lines in recent years than in earlier days. The business has been growing steadily, not to say rapidly, and a lot of money is being handled. Any mistakes made now will affect a greater number of investors than previously. Some of the clubs may consider that they are as well able to conduct their business in the totalisator department as in any other, and that there was no need for any supervision on the part of the Government so far as they are concerned. They are, however, hardly likely as a body to resent the appointment by the Government of an inspector or inspectors of the totalisators. We should hope not. They do all that they can to provide the necessary machinery and staffs, making for the efficiency of the business, which means so much for themselves. If they do not run their own totalisators they employ good firms to do so for them, and if the Government is prepared to lend a hand in supervising and share some of the responsibility, and thus help to maintain or strengthen the confidence of the investors, they will welcome the presence of a representative from the Internal Affairs Department approved by the Government, in seeing that the requirements of the law are strictly carried out. * ♦ » • The chief clerk of the Internal Affairs Department, Mr. P. J. Kelleher, was appointed to supervise the working of the machines at Riccarton and Addington last week, and thus the inauguration by the Government of what has been termed a new system

in connection with the management of the totalisator has been brought about. In advising the two premier clubs of the South Island, racing and trotting, of the Cabinet’s approval of Mr. Kelleher’s appointment, the Hon. G -W. Russell, Minister of Internal Affairs, defines the duties, which will be to act as an inspector within the totalisator-house, and to see that the figures for each race are accurately compiled and displayed before the race starts, in order that the requirements of the law may, in future, be strictly carried out. Until he appends his certificate as to the accuracy of the total no race will be allowed to start. The figures approved by him will be those which will be shown in the totalisator for each horse and for the grand total. The Minister of Internal Affairs added: “I look for the support of all clubs in making this appointment as a further guarantee to, the public of the accuracy of totalisator returns.” Mr. Kelleher will not find the duties any

sinecure, and will have learned a very great deal during the four days which engaged his attention in starting out upon his new-found duties, and it was hoped that there would be no delays in the business and no loss of turnover and the consequent revenue to the clubs and the Government through his presence there as a new broom. * * * * Since writing the above the Government inspector has attended in his official capacity at both the meetings referred to, and it has happened that at each there was a very large increase in the totalisator turnover, and it has been surmised that it may have been in a great measure due to the presence of the new official that the delays in getting the totals adjusted after closing down at the receiving windows occurred. The large increase in the volume of business would make some difference, of course. Though racegoers as a rule are not hard to please, they are impatient over delays, which are often caused by themselves. Seeing that a Government official has been appointed primarily to watch their interests,

if the delays were really due to his presence, or to a greater or lesser extent to his having to check the working of experts, allowance should be made, as it was his first experience, and the experience, it has to be remembered, had to be gained at the chief meeting in the South Island and at a time of year when the days are short, and eight events are really too many to compress into the time without more up-to-date and very expensive totalisators to register the investments. The curtailment of the days of racing and the rush of people to do their investing has made a difference everywhere, and the crush must be most acute on our principal courses. It is very pleasing indeed to have to record that the new racing season has opened with such a financially successful meeting, as one result of which there will be increased fund& for patriotic purposes and the Government. All the profits go to patriotic objects after the payment of ordinary working expenses.

Another New Zealand Grand National meeting has gone down on the records, and the Canterbury Jockey Club, which has done so much to encourage owners to put likely horses to the jumping game and generally in catering for horses in every department of the game, can be congratulated on the main results achieved. The best horses in commission in the Dominion for jumping events were drawn to Riccarton for the substantial prizes; the racing was good and the many who journeyed there got plenty of entertainment, and the meeting, which is looked forward to by dwellers all over New Zealand as one to witness when it can be conveniently done, will be as popular as ever, despite drawbacks which seem inseparable. There are few meetings that do not in some respects fall short of what racegoers look for. The hypercritical can sometimes find some defects in management and are not slow to point them out, but allowances are made by the generously disposed when shortcomings are the result of exceptional circumstances. Such were in evidence at Riccarton on the opening day of

the meeting in connection with the totalisators, want of greater expedition being noticeable, due, it is supposed, not to any lack of ability on the part of the staff collectively, but to the necessity for checking over of their work by the Government official after it had been completed. The appointment of the totalisator official and the reasons given therefore are referred to in foregoing notes. The meeting was a great success in most respects, and financially probably a record one. „ * * * Waimai, though beaten by St. Eimn in the New Zealand Grand National Steeplechase, the chief event with the longest history, has earned the right to be classed the best ’chaser on actual form that has raced during the winter months over fences, and there is reason to believe that it was the best effort the son of Spalpeen has put forward. There are those, however, who argue —and with some reason —that Master Strowan was allowed to drop too far out of the big race in the early stages to ever hope to succeed. The backers of the favourite who were not present, on reading the reports of the race came to that conclusion, but it has to be remembered that Master Strowan does not look like the master of weight that Waimai is, and that he was undertaking the biggest contract of his career over fences, and though he won over the same course last year it was under a lighter scale. The Riccarton country provides the best test of merit under ordinary conditions. Waimai and Master Strowan were clearly the best on form of the steeplechasers that ran during the week, but it is' a pity that Coalition and Yellow and Black, who finished first and second in the Beaufort Steeplechase on the second day, did not get through in the National as well as others, because their failure to get the course must leave it open to question what the result would have been had they done so. The time in both those races was good, proving not only that the courses were in good order and not affected by the recent snowy weather, but that the horses were capable. * * * * The Grand National Hurdle horses that competed in each of the leading races can be described as of a useful class, but there were no champions amongst them. Art, the best of previous seasons’ performers at Riccarton that ran in the Grand National Hurdle Race and in the Sydenham Hurdles, would have been entitled to be considered the best that ran at the meeting this year but for the appearance on the scene of the Aucklander Kauri King, who has gradually come on and raced into form at other meetings until he has developed, as we have more than once expressed an opinion he was likely to do, into a really good hurdler. His form, taking both his performances, leaves him with the undisputed title as the best hurdler we now have, and he may improve still further, because he has only been schooling and racing over obstacles a few months. All the same he had a much better preparation for the contracts he so successfully fulfilled, and it was due to superb condition that he scored. The respective owners of St. Elmn and Kauri King are men whose trainers do not keep their horses in glass cases, and though both were carrying handy weights they had been got into form by racing and schooling well when it could be judiciously done. Being North Islanders kept in the north longer than others from different parts of the north it was no disadvantage to them. On the contrary they were able to work while some others that went south earlier were practically idle, and their previous racing and their weights stood to them. * ♦ • » There were no very pronounced outstanding features in connection with the flat races at the National meeting, which has proved an especially pleasing one for a number of Auckland owners, who amongst them took a large slice of the prize money, winning four races, running second four times, and third twice.