WHAT RACING COSTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 32, 1 November 1907, Page 10

WHAT RACING COSTS.

INTERESTING FIGURES. Until the day when air-ships have their vbguo the' racehorse will stir most quickly the sporting sense of , man. Millions hayo been spent in the pastime. All the world over hundreds of thousands have known no other calling than the tending of the horse in its effort to excel'. Here, in Victoria alono (says the Melbourne "Ago"), the people have given, through! the premier club, over a million pounds in prize-money during forty years. Breeders and owners have added a quarter of the amount, and gladly expended thrice a. million and a quarter in gaining the prizes and tho honours. Then, , since thirty years ago, the people have, through still another club, encouraged tho breeder and owner with noarly half a million as reward. In less than half a century quite £5,000,000 have been spent in the luxury of being able to get ono animal "just past the post." There is no abating of tho struggle. ■ At tho present moment thero aro SOU well-bred horses within 20 miles of Melbourne, each in training for the -winning-post. There must bo 400 more ,of- only slightly less quality, in the remoter'parts of the State. Tlieir value is probably, nearly a quarter of a million pounds. 'That would bo their worth in the sporting world-. As a business investment they would never return dividend. The niost cunning actuary in the world woujd fail to. devise a table by which horse-racing could bo made to yield a certain profit. It is almost.'as much a matter of chance to the individual 'as gold-mining has been. More so even, for in no one, year in Victoria have tho prizes raced for nearly equalled the money spent in gaining them; It has sometimes happened that owners have, in tho aggregate, paid twice as much for the right of racing, for a stake as the stake is worth. •To those fees—they , come to £20,000 in a year—must be added the cost of training. Most owners have_ to pay £2 10s. a week for each horse in training. Many of them pay as much as £3. A racohorso cannot be made prepared for less than 30s. a week. So that, striking an avdrage, the 1200 racehorses in Victoria to-day are costing nearly £125,000 a year in the preparation. The 317 jockeys who will ride.them will share in £17,000, and the raceeourso charges will mean to tho owners £20,000 more. Add registration fees, railago, and equipment, and the total can be set', down at £150,000. . '

This to win the £75,000 offered by tho racing clubs. Lest it might bo argued that the stakes are moan, it should be. remembered that the public are tho dictators of what tho amounts should be. It is tho public who, , by tho oxtent of their patronage, put it in the power of the. premier race clubs in tho Stato to increaso or decrease, the prizes offered, and to add to or neglect racing. And it is the example sot by that club which is followed throughout tho Stato. While'it is. true that not more than one. in twenty of tho horses in training about Melbourne to-day will win a race, at the coming spring meetings, so long us the "glorious uncertainty" of happenings continues as it has done in the past, not ono of the animals will be steadied in its tasks. The. records of racing, teem with surprises. Only a. day or. two ago at Flemington; a 24-guinea , youngster triumphed at tho first attempt, whilst in a box a few yards away was a 2000-guiuea aristocrat that had hardly paid for her oats bill. Sudbury cost 1750 guineas, and hover once passed tho post first. York was bought for 30 guineas; and won three Grand Nationals; whilst Wakeful, .originally priced at 310 guineas, scored victories worth nearly £17,000 to her owners. It is this element of chance that sustains owners. In a much less worthy manner, perhaps because, they are less fortunately situated, there are many of the public y.-ho court the same element in* tho betting ring, and many. owners spice the genuine flavour of the: sport in the same way. But there are, and always have been, owners who have nover spent a shilling on a horse that, did not go in" feed and wages, niid keen. And thoro aro many patrons of tho racecourse who can see "something, in a flying horse" without a.thought of gain.