Betting coup a NZ first

WAIRARAPA Harness Racing Club has pulled off a first in New Zealand by convincing racing's hierarchy to let it claim money punted in a special room many kilometres from the track as on-course turnover.
The club, which has been financially strapped for years, put a proposition to the New Zealand Racing Board to treat a tote installed at Masterton Cosmopolitan Club as an on-course facility for its meeting on April 8.
The board agreed and the pilot project is expected to significantly boost club profits ? it can retain a larger percentage of money bet on-course than money punted off-course.
Wairarapa Harness Racing Club has been staging its meetings at the Manawatu Raceway in Palmerston North since funding changes in 1996 forced it to abandon its traditional Hutt Park venue.
Since then it has faced many financial challenges, mainly as a result of difficulty getting Wairarapa supporters on-track.
New Zealand Racing Board chief executive Graeme Hansen said it was the unique geographical situation the club found itself in that swayed the board to agree to the trial.
He said the board had " deliberated at length" before deciding to give the proposal the thumbs-up.
The Wairarapa club had been reminded that it was "quite specifically a trial," Mr Hansen said and was not being looked on as a precedent that could result in other racing clubs attempting to get a similar deal.
Wairarapa Harness Racing Club president Wayne Stewart said the club would collect around 13 per cent from money punted on the special Cosmopolitan Club totes, instead of the 7 per cent normally collected on off-course bets.
He was hoping the special totes would boost turnover between $15,000 and $20,000.
Mr Stewart said he had first mooted the idea at a New Zealand Trotting Conference last year and meetings with the racing board and the TAB had followed.
The difficulty of getting Wairarapa punters to Manawatu Raceway had been highlighted by storms last year that closed both the Manawatu Gorge and the Pahiatua Track.
The initiative to have special on-course totes set up away from the track comes hard-on-the-heels of other innovations by the harness club.
Harness races have been slotted into galloping meetings held at Tauherenikau, and have proved a money spinner.
"We get more on-course turnover from three races at Tauherenikau than we do from a full meeting in Palmerston North," Mr Stewart said.
He said the club would like to have a full meeting on the grass at Tauherenikau but if this was to come about it would have to be on the back of another meeting.
Trotting trainers brought horses from up north or from the South Island and to make trips profitable wanted to get to more than a single venue.
Mr Stewart said it could be that the club could race on a Friday night in Palmerston North and then at Tauherenikau on Sunday.
He said Wairarapa Racing Club had been very supportive of the harness code's attempts to bolster its meetings.