SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1921, Page 5

SPORTING.

TARANAKI JOCKEY CLUB. THE ANNUAJ, i. r Ek,TING. PAST XVOBK AND PROSPECTS. The annual meeting the Taran&kl JoeJtey Club ■¥:«•* held lft«t night. Mr. I». A. Noluk (chairman of the committee' presided over a good attendance of <n:er. "rs. In moving th< adoption of the report (already published), the chairman >aid that tea club had Ind a very ..uu.essfnl year, and this year was entering on a new era. The assets had increased, as th*»y now it duc<*d the property which had been acquired from Mr. Newton King, and their assets now Flood at £l<; 322. The profit and loss account showed*that stakes tad been increased by £2GOO, Of this amount £llOO hud been apportioned to the Christinas meeting, whe: totalling £3675 had teen allocated, and £l5OO to the February meeting, when the stake.! totalled £5525. Seme had thought that they should have exerd e ?d more caution in regard to increasing tke stakes al the Christmas meeting, but every member would agree that the Increase had paid well, as It was the best Christenas meeting they had ever had: the racing was goed and the claes of horses competing was better than usual. The autumn meeting did not prove as satiafictory ns they had anticipated, and in a number of races there was no second dividend. This may have been due to the fact chat they were racing too close to the Wellington ar.d Takapuna meetings. That was a contributing factor, no doubt, but the main reason was that the season had been a vary dry one, causing a number of horses to go amiss. The totalhatoi receipts had increased by £15,000 at the Christmas meeting and £2OOO at the autumn uneeting. Tn ail, close on £lBO,OOO had been put through the totalisator, v,’: ieii was very satisfactory. The gate receipts were £2Oll, as compared with £2224 the previous ear, and though a certain amount of this was due to the restricting of complimentary tickets, it was largely due to the Incrcas.ng popvlarlty of the club. He Indicated thai thsrc was a poa'tbffity of concerted action being taken by clubs in regard to restricting complimentary tickets, owing to tholr abuse in the past. He referred to the need for conserving the’r finances as much as possible, pcln’ing out that the Co’eram nt were now going to take fractions shd Unclaimed dividends, which had previously been regarded as the property of the - Hubs, and were used to improve their property. tests had been made, but It was doubtful if anything would ccwne of this. It was surprising th<- ..mount of tax paid by radnjj i clubs to the Government. Sir Geo. Clifford had slated this totalled 'vor £400.000. The i Taranaki Jockey Club had paid £7038. which I was £BOO or £(‘00 more than the previous I year. | The most pleasing feature was the recom- ' mendntlon by the Co::.mission that thej should ■ get a new permit for one day. with the i consent of Purliamont. In this onnection he ! paid tribute to the way In which f;v£r. Mc- ( Leod had rat f .ir case before the Caammi sion when on its visit tere They had asked | for two days, with the alternative that wr I n hould go. one, so that they x-ould ee able i to race in conjunction with the Hunt Club, i The result was that New Plymouth would now have spreu days, as compared With an ater- | age of 4% <1V 3 last year ’ Tiz " Jactey c,wb ' r days, Trotting Club 1 day, and Hunt CluD j 1 day. He thought the club ir.d every rra- | son to h ' satisfied, aud that Taranaki as a ! whole had done fidr'.y well though he did i not know whether the recommendation would survive Parliament. The club had made a I start with its improvement scheme. The bu.k 1 of the work would have to be done in one ( year in connection with the rebuilding schozre, but there was a lot to ' > done before that, and the co mmittee vauld hive to move cautiously in the way of finance to find £40,000 or £50,000 for bullfiinj.s A certain amount

of siade work on the track was now in hand, and was proceeding quickly. By Christmas they would be able to obtain some idea of j what was proposed to be deme. The chair'man paid a tribute to the splendid work of the secretary (Mr. E. P. Webster) during tbe ' thirteen years he had been secretary. He had the club’s interest at heart, ar.d It Waa largely due to h m tiia the club had risen to Its present rxtetiou. He also paid a tribute to the excellent services rendereu by the caretaker, Mr. Blewman. Mr. W. C. Weston, in seconding, said that Mr. McLeod, iu conjunction with the chai’’man, had prtJpared a ve--y flue address to tte Racing Coinmteaion, and the conun*ttee were greatly Indebted to them. Th - report was adopted after a very brief dlscusaum. Officers were elected as follows • —President, Hon. O. Samuel (re •’.ected) • vice-president, Mr. Newton Kin.- (re-elected) : treasurer, Mr. W. C. Weston (re-elected) committee, Messrs. A. Alexander, W, P. Nlcoll, f\ E. Orbell, O. W. Sole, A. R. Standish, and L. B. WebI ster. Mr. Emeny moved that the committee be recommended to sell the privileges for the I refreshment booth by auction. Ti.ii was seconded by .Mr Higgs, and after (hfiouislon, »en | gatlved. Mr. Emeny also referred to the necessity ' for restricting admission to the bird-cage. ' Mr. A. W. Webster gave notice to .nova | the next meeting that, the rule in regara ta I the election of stewards he altered bo as t<» provide that the twelve .stewards ate elected annually by the .members ins. cad six being elected by members, the balance belli® appointed by thfe committee, as at present. Mr. Newton King paid a tribute to too exreilent work done by Mr L. A. Nolan as chairman, and also as delegate to tbe F:*mn® Conference. Mr. Nolan was accorded a hi arty vote of thanks. In returning thanks, Mr. Nolan referred txt, the excellent work done by the committee a-id, tie stewards, and the Harmonious way which all had worked together. LEADING ENGLISH JOCKEY* CRAY DOING WELL By Telegraph.—Press Assn —CopyrightLondon, July 25. Bullock heads the list of jockeys with 58 wins. 30 secou. and 22 thirds, out of 227 mounts Donoghue is second with and (aislakc third with S 3 wins. Gray has the highest percentage, having had 12 wins, 10 tieconds and 5 thirds cut of 44 mounts.