Man Who Backed a £2,000 Dividend

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 588, 14 February 1929, Page 10

Man Who Backed a £2,000 Dividend

How would you like to back a double, on a racecourse, by the medium of the double totalisator, for over £2,000 to £l, and, what is more, get paid out? Well, there was a time when it could be done, and was. Nowadays, when we call ourselves an enlightened community. the double totalisator has been abandoned, and the double better has perforce to seek accommodation in this connection, and. if he be lucky enough to strike it, has to take a risk of not receiving his prize, unless it be booked with a penciller of undoubted integrity, and there are some. The Record It is not so very long ago since the double totalisator was in use, and of course the classic instance of its value as a short cut to fortune was recorded at Riccarton some years ago. The races were the New Zealand Cup and Stewards’ Handicap, races which today still carry a. good deal of antepost betting, despite the Gaming Act. The respective winners in that year, 1906, were Star Rose and Captain Shannon, and the dividend returned per medium of the double machine was £2,000 and then some. The exact amount of that dividend may not be breathed, for fear of offending the susceptibilities of a few —and the Gaming Act. But it was obviously a prize worth winning. No Queue In those days there was not the big amounts handled by the totalisator as we have known them of late years, and so when the £ 2,000, and a bit over, was Insisted as the dividend, there was a gasp of astonishment by the crowd on the racecourse. No sooner was the dividend put up than there was a rush to the pay-out window to see who the lucky investor was. for there was only one ticket taken out on that combination. One can imagine how the crowd eagerly waited to see the lucky party form himself into a queue and present his ticket. M issi ng Doubtless, too, in that crowd of curious spectators there were a few “dips,” the classic term for pickpockets, and. had the pay-out been effected there and then the winner would have required a strong escort. But apparently the winner knew a thing or two, and stood off. Probably he cele-' brated his win in champagne before bothering to collect, but whatever he was doing he never faced the one man, and the eager totalisator staff packed round their fellow-clerk, to have a look at the lucky one. Ever suspicious, there were some of that crowd outside the totalisator, peeved at the non-appearance of the ticketholder, who were ready to declare that nobody ever had the ticket. Y’ou can always come into contact with that sort. It was even said that a well-

known racing official held the winning bit of pasteboard. By Post But they were all wrong. These know-alls usually are. especially in matters appertaining to racing. It is now announced, probably for the first time in print, that the lucky investor

that day was Air. John Heslop, whose death was recorded in Taranaki last week. This interesting item was vouchsafed a couple, of days ago to a Sun man by a well-known racing official who stands high in the game in both islands. This authority stated that the late Mr. Heslop posted his ticket to the Canterbury Jockey Club, and was paid his big dividend by post. So, after over 20 years, the identity of the winner of the biggest dividend ever returned in New Zealand by the double totalisator was disclosed. Bigger Than Wairoa Belle This dividend of over £2,000 was more than twice as much as that given by the grey trotter at Nelson a few years ago. There was only one ticket on Wairoa Belle when she scored, and the dividend went over four figures. In connection with this surprise at Nelson, the story is told here of a well-known racing man, a good better, apparently, who is always on these good dividends. Accosted by an acquaintance as to whether he had backed Wairoa Belle, the “always lucky one” said “Oh, yes. Had £1 on it.” “It paid over a thousand,” said the acquaintance. “Yes, had the £1 on the machine,” came the reply, quite unperturbed.