The Sun THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1929 MONEY AT THE RACES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 855, 26 December 1929, Page 8

The Sun THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1929 MONEY AT THE RACES

A WHIMSICAL English essayist who invested a pound note in the Stock Exchange Sweepstake of £125,000 over the Derby, confessed that if lie had been offered at the moment the choice between being Confucius and drawing- the winner of the Derby he was all but certain that he would have chosen to draw the Derby winner. And hundreds of thousands of other people would have made the same choice. But, after the same philosopher, who would not he Confucius, had failed to draw so much as a penny from five sweepstakes, he realised clearly and at once how foolish are the dreams of avarice.

How many people, not only in Auckland hut from all over the Dominion, have dreamed of meeting’ Santa Claus today at Ellerslie, ladened with rich dividends lepresenting much money for no work at all, except the study of horses’ form, the achievements of jockeys and the wisdom of prophets? There can be no definite answer to such a question, for it is impossible to say how many or how few persons in this community or elsewhere are immune from the universal gambling infection. '“Offer a large prize of money for competition, and poets will struggle for it with shop assistants. It is impossible to escape the disgusting passion for riches.” The gambling phase of sport on the Turf, however, may be left to the reflective thought of those who either do not gamble at all or to others who, having- failed to back the right horse, belatedly denounce betting as one of the bad pleasures of international avarice.

There will he more popular interest in the fact that today, in sulky weather representing no season at all, Auckland’s great Yuletide carnival of racing began at the Dominion’s most attractive garden racecourse. r j'his comparative reference need not vex other centres' of population in this country nor provoke their jealousy. It is a tribute well deserved. Ellerslie at its best simply is more beautiful than any other racecourse throughout the British Empire, and may be excelled elsewhere only by the glorious Parisian park at Longcliamps. But lest local conceit become too exalted, it ought to be mentioned that, in other lands, the crowds at the races are gayer than Auckland’s and temperamentally happier at their favourite sport. And most of them dress as for a midsummer carnival. Here, women alone grace the lawns with the colours and caprices of Fashion. It is pleasing to know that Auckland’s racing festival is looked upon by its eager supporters as a national reunion of sportsmen on a scale bigger than even that of the summer carnival at Christchurch. There will he representatives here from all over the Dominion, and many ardent devotees from Australia, grumbling a little at the grey sky, and hoping, like everybody else, for seasonable sunshine. Seven days will be given to enthusiastic indulgence in the leading sport this side of the Line—four to gallops at Ellerslie and three to trots at Epsom. Altogether, £37,000 will be paid out in prize-money, and if the gambling strength of the occasion he equal to what it was last Christmastide, over £625,000 will change hands through the totalisator, to say nothing about the large sum of money which will enrich the illicit bookmakers. If it be true that totalisator investments serve as an economic barometer for the Dominion, there does not appear to he much wrong with the country. Here and there, perhaps, the total betting has been lower this racing season than it was during the boom year, hut generally there lias been no dearth of money available for gambling. Fifty years ago Auckland took its racing pleasures moderately, but not sadly. For the whole of the 1879-80 season, the prize-money totalled only £2,250. And the people were content with summer and autumn meetings. Now, racing is popular throughout the four seasons of the year. Each decade throughout the racing history of Auckland there has been a marked increase in the sum of stakes. It was not, however, until 1895 that the total prize-money for the year topped the ten thousand pounds mark. Five years later the aggregate exceeded twenty thousand. A year before the World War the Auckland Racing Club’s stakes alone were well above £30,000. The period of conflict increased, rather than decreased, the prize-money. After the war, when everything “boomed,” the club’s prizes climbed rapidly to the record sum of £73,550 in the 1921-22 season. Since then the annual sum lias declined steadily to £58,550 last year. Still, there is enough money available to provide a generous share of sport. In addition, the Trotting Club has gained in popularity, and it also distributes big money every year. Perhaps the community can well afford it. In any case the expenditure and gambling investments will go on merrily so long as a sporting race, including the thousands of people who believe in the sorcery of dreams, expect to obtain for a pound an easy fortune.