THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1481, 12 September 1918, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

Place betting has been largely looked for on Australian racecourses, and would have still been popular with a section of racegoers, but in order to turn people to the totalisator the Government decreed that bookmakers must not go on on those lines. At the annual meeting of' the Australian Jockby ■ Club, on this subject Mr. Adrian Knox, chairman, said he had often been amazed at the odds accepted by the public from the placefielders. Commenting on this, the “Bulletin,” which cannot be accepted as an advocate for the bookmakers in the light of'its policy-towards them in the past, says: “There is nothingremarkable in this, but it would be interesting to know whether Mr. Knox’s amazement extends to the odds the public take about places under the 60, 20, 20 totalisator system. It cannot have escaped his notice that , the odds are often more wildly insane than anything the most ravenous place-fielder ever tried to perpetrate. There are occasions when there are no odds at all —when the backer of a second or third runner is handed back less than he put up. If there is anything to he said for such happenings as that this page would like to hear what it is, but though the request for information has been many times made nobody breaks the silence. Take the second and third place-bets paid by the machine at ’ Rosehill on Saturday: Maiden —13 to 1, evens. Highweight —First division, second horse backers lost 25 per cent, of their stake, third 2 to 1; second division, second backers lost 40 per cent, of their stake, third backers laid 20 to l.‘on.’ Rosehill Handicap—s to 2 and 2 to 1. Parramatta Mile —Second backers lost 20 per cent., third 7 to 1. So in five races the punt,er on a place could 'find a place-getfgr each time and lose on three.”

There are some weak points about place betting, per medium of the machine. In Australia they - are ..getting to learn that there is a difference between accepting fixed odds against or laying stated odds on, and putting money in the machine and having the odds regulated by the investors, so that it becomes a gamble as to ..what the investor ! -may receive back. The 1-2-3 system, or the 1-2 . system as we have it in NAw Zealand, may be right enough for those who like it, but if it had not been for the fractions. by dividing up the money into two dividends the system would have been much longer in being introduced on New Zealand courses. The practice of calculating dividends on the ten shilling basis: and hot paying out fractions of a shilling was all against backers, and the broken money, even to fractions down to sixpence, must have amounted to a very large sum since the alteration came about. We have always believed that the straightout machine' was the best for the speculating owner as against the cutting-up system. If there had always been one on our courses we are sure that a lot of money that the pencillers have diverted would have found its way on to racecourses. There would certainly have been less double betting, though there will always be a section—and a very large section —of the public trying to win large sums fOr small investments by backing horses before the day and taking the chance of them running. As masters stand in New Zealand, unless an owner , breaks the law —more honoured ■ ip the breach than in the observance by many, who run the risk of disqualification—and . backs his horse straight out for some important stake withtlie pencillers, who only operate on a few races in New Zealand in that way, he must either bet 1-2 or not at .all. he may feel that nothing short of an accident will prevent his horsA winning and put, say, £lOO in the 'machine. The moment he does so he knows he is contributing nearly £l3 for the privilege. The pool, which his hundred has swelled to the extent of £B7, is divided, £75 per cent, to the winner and £25 per cent, to the -second. If his horse should win he gets a fourth less than if the straight-out business was in vogue. Of course, there is the other side of the picture. By a bit of unexpected bad luck, or good luck, his horse only manages to get second.

Under the circumstances it is nice to get back one’s stake, a bit more for preference, or a bit less to soften the blow of an unexpected defeat.

Preparations for installing the new Julius totalisator are proceeding at Ellerslie. The first step in that direction has been to demolish the machine set up a few years ago, and which has done so much good service in a short while. It was generally credited with a capacity for doing more business in a stated time than anything in the same line seen in the Dominion, but while it was equal to the work required of it, and might have lived on keeping up its favourable record for some years, the advantages claimed for the new machine which is to take its place are said to be much superior, and there is less risk of a breakdown, and the certainty of being able to cope with a still larger volume of business in less time should it be forthcoming, which

seems likely in the ordinary course. It is better to be prepared for extraordinary increases than to be behind as was sometimes an experience at Ellerslie until the Julius machine was installed. The advantages of the machine which has been discarded were so much superior to the old ones that it was at once apparent to us that from its use business would be of the up-grade order and more general satisfaction all round would result. We were not mistaken, but at the same time we would have hesitated to gamble largely on the length of its existence, worked as it was on wires which might have required some replacing. The new machine will be worked by electric power when installed by the Auckland Racing Club, but in the meantime by oil engines. and it will, so we are assured, be second to no other so far provided in the Dominion or the Commonwealth, though that at Randwick, installed by the same company, is on a more extensive scale. What the cost of the new machinery will amount to we have not heard officially, but that it will be fairly large goes without saying, and in time we shall know.

In the report of the annual meeting of members of the Australian Jockey Club, the chairman (Mr. Adrian Knox) stated that the first estimated cost of installing the totalisator at Randwick, which we remember_ seeing stated would be about £65,000, had far exceeded the committee’s expectations and had reached to £82,000. This meant, of course, for the machinery and the elaborate buildings to house the staff. Complaints in connection with the working and paying out at the totalisator at Rand wick were made at 'first, and no abnormal business has been reached so far from a New Zealand point of experience, but it takes people who are new to the work time to get into the right groove, and it is said that expert New Zealanders have expressed surprise that so much has already been accomplished and so few shortcomings have been recorded. What New Zealand experts in totalisator workings do not know would be

worth - learning. We invariably hear them quoted as authorities. Perhaps it is because New Zealand clubs on an average have a larger turnover than those in the totalisator States of .the Commonwealth, in some parts of which a lot of expense has been incurred in getting the necessary machinery to cope with less business than New Zealand clubs have been getting through. It may be that New Zealand racegoers haye more wealth per head on an average than those who attend meetings in the totalisator States where the bookmakers are not working and diverting money, but many clubs have more meetings during each season than New Zealand clubs, and consequently the people in particular areas are being more frequently taxed. If there were double the number of days’ racing at Ellerslie during each season we might be certain that the totalisator turnover would average less than for the fewer number. We may expect, while inflated prices continue for our exports, that there will be increased business at the totalisators throughout the Dominion. Whether that will be so at Ellerslie this season with new machines installed remains for time

to reveal, but we are assured that what business is done will be done with even greater expedition than before, and if horses are not required to be out so long before every race, and paying out methods show corresponding improvement, and'people in the paddock, like those outside, can get sums of ten shillings on when they do not want to speculate in larger amounts, then there will be nothing wanting.

The performance last week of the eight-year-old pacing stallion Our Thorpe, who put up an Australasian record of 2min. 6 l-ssec. for a mile against time at Addington, in Canterbury, is one of which his present owner and his breeder and lovers of the American sport, which has taken deep root in this country, should be proud. It has always been claimed that the son of imported O.Y.M. and Lady Thorpe, who was got by YoungIrvington and bred by the late Mr. Henry Mace, could do even better {han he achieved on Friday, and there was some talk two seasons back of taking him to America. He, however, acquired a habit of jumping as if over shadows on the track, just as horses do that are short-sighted, and on one occasion, if not on more, fell while racing at the top of his speed. It is very pleasing indeed that he has come up fit and well after an easy time last year, during which he only started once in the autumn, in March, and once last June. On the first occasion a second to Cathedral Chimes, who had raced three times previously during the season, went down to him, the going being very heavy, and the next time he was set to give the winner, with whom he was bracketed on the machine, 6secs. Each of the races referred to were over a mile and aquarter. He has been kept going, with the result that he has confirmed the good opinion A. Fleming, bis owner and driver, has always held of him.- There is no doubt he is a great, miler. He is now King of Australasia as a mile pacer, and Adelaide Direct, whose 2min. 6 2-ssec. he beat, is still Queen.

It is interesting to note in the above connection that the handicaps for the New Zealand Trotting Cup have appeared, and as that race is the most valuable in the southern hemisphere, the doings of the sixteen horses engaged during the next twelve weeks will be noted as keenly by the followers of that branch of racing as will be the doings of the horses to be nominated later for the New Zealand Cup. Cathedral Chimes, who was second last year to Adelaide Direct, conceding that mare 3sec., is this year asked to give her ssec. Adelaide Direct, started thirteen times and that was the only race she won. One such stake a year, however, will pay. With that exception, Cathedral Chimes won each of his other four starts afterwards, and it is likely that if he had had a race or two previously, as the mare did, he would have been much closer than four lengths. He beat her in the Free-for-All two days later over a mile and a-quarter, and has proved a great consistent horse in his races. If Our Thorpe and Cathedral Chimes and more of the good 'ones meet in the Free-for-All in November that race should prove of as much interest as any in the trotting and pacing calendar. Whether any of the southern cracks will come to Auckland later in the season and attempt to lift the mile and two-mile purses that are always hung up by the Auckland Trotting Club remains to be seen. We trust that they may. This club has a most attractive programme for the coming season, and the Auckland Trot LingCup is now of more value than any other race in New Zealand next to the New Zealand Trotting Cup, and every inducement is held out for the owners of good ones to continue their visits. They carried away just about half the prize money given in the Auckland province last year, and the visitor is always welcomed, and if he can win in an open field he deserves to do so. Thanks to the efforts of a good many Auckland residents who are in the game now, the southerners do not have matters so much their own way as they were wont to do.