WAITING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 20, 14 April 1927, Page 6

WAITING

FOR THE MONEY A TOTALISATOR DRAWBACK One of the greatest drawbacks to the totalisator is that fact that it makes it essential that the horses should go out a long time prior to a race, be it wet or fine, hot or cold, and this apparently casual treatment of thoroughbreds is always regretted by true sportsmen. With the bookmakers in operation the horses are sent straight to the starting point of a race, and sent off as soon as they can be got away. Here in New Zealand the horses are required to be in the birdcage at about 25 minutes before the starting time of a race, and then they are sent out to. do a preliminary, to potter about for a full 20 minutes, -to enable pur.ters to get “set.” Sometimes the clock is put back — not a| Ellerslie, thank goodness!—and all the time the horses are kept on the move to prevent them from cooling off after their preliminary. If the rain is of the very, very wet variety, the jockeys are graciously permitted to return to the saddling paddock, but it has to be really wet. An ex-New Zealand sportsman, who has been doing all his racing of late years’ in other climes, commented upon the undue period wasted between races, and he was not convinced when the object of the procedure was explained to him. Incidentally, he got thoroughly tired of waiting for the races to begin, and left the course. But the totalisator must be satisfied, for under the automatic betting machine the club relies to replenish its funds, or, more common these days, to wipe out the overdraft. It is therefore amusing to find an Australian going “very crook at the action of one club sending the field to the starting-point 10 minutes before the time advertised for the race to start, and he waxes quite sarcastic. , As he caustically remarks, why the hurry? This scribe goes on to sa> that there was no reason why the horses in the first race at Ascot a fe’ft days ago should have been sent to the post 10 minutes early, and kept waiting until the noon hour, when the event was timed to start. The practice was not fair to men whose charges

have big weights to carry. them have difficulty to struggle to m judge’s box after a quick despa without the additional disadvantag having to carry the weight about™ track for many minutes. Punctuam. is a fine thing, but getting to th f “before the acceptances are decia is another question. . in The owners who were c° n I_cern^ied 1 _ cern^ ied this waiting at Ascot will be enviea by Dominion sportsmen, who e J e . v ' e see their horses weigh out, a-na time to lunch and then stroll qu on to the members’ stand to ® ee „ rf >i’ v race. Our Australian friends s A do not know the meaning of the > * . Waiting, indeed! _