New Zealand Journalist Looks At Ascot... And Wonders

Chronicle (Levin), 21 July 1948, Page 4

New Zealand Journalist Looks At Ascot... And Wonders

| REECE

SMITH, / |

LONDON, July 21. At Ascot you ean.at least see the horses. This may bring some sort of pleasure to punters whose wretched beasts are running anywhere near the frorit. I wouldn't know. Pleasure or not, it is a sight, as may be recalled, denied them at the Derby. This is not to say Ascot' is any great shakes as a course near a city of London's size. The setting is rieh and green, and ;he t'otes are really good. Qn the 24 races of the recent. meeting, £1,000,000, a British record, went through them. How much went through the books there is no telling.

But the stands. A second year student arehitect with an axe to knock out thfe pal'titions between the boxeS, and a carpenter to put up forriis after him, could double the seating accommodatdon; with no new buildings. Boxes may : be ' iri

order- in .the members' stand, bitfc wheri half the total accommodation of the course is taken up with boxes, it strikes a Trentham Old Boy as too much of a good thing. While it can get wearing trudging about. the lawris and the heath (inside. the track) for an afternoon, Ascot is mo doubt^a splendid meeting if spent beneath a grey topper, in , a reserved box, * nibblirig .ori M bottle of wine out of the lunch basket. And now some snooper

from the Inland Revenue is look- , ing into a matter of the rent fdr " some of these boxes being^claimed as tax free business expenditure. Just what do you think of that? I went to Ascot crn Gold Cup Day, the big day of the meeting. The crowd did "not approach the size of the Derby croWd, perhaps because the Gold Cup Was ruri on a Thursday, and the Derby on a Saturday. Britain eontinues mid-week* racing, and mdnageS to fit in a little production as well. * •• ; Royal Ascot is renowned as the fashionable meeting. "Women certainly wea'r clothes there," I was briefed. I went along all the Same* The area was aenerously garnished with new look frocks, several of which, together with contents, drew the old lObk from your correspondent. Others appeared to be bad cases of broken shoulder straps. 0 . . -I can only sum up this well informed fashion survey by observr irig thdt riot a few of the clothes horses looked faster than the hacks I backed.

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v. N.Z. Kemsley Empire \ s Journalist •