Racing: Club takes punt on bookie

By MIKE DILLON

It's more than 33,200 days since anyone bet with a registered bookmaker on New Zealand soil.

The last time was in 1911.

Anyone who remembers the occasion probably needs a walking frame, but Robbie Waterhouse might need one too after Te Rapa races tomorrow night.

It will probably be a fiercely busy day at the office for the high-profile Sydney bookie, who will be offering punters their first opportunity to shop for the best odds between the tote and a bookmaker.

Waterhouse, in his $3000 suit, will tomorrow offer a contrasting image to the shady bookies of the early 20th century, even if he had an 18-year glitch in his own career until last August.

The husband of Australia's queen of racing, Gai Waterhouse, he looks more like a stockbroker.

The Waikato Racing Club's initiative to have Waterhouse field for the country's richest race, the $500,000 Mercedes Super Bonus Classique, is described as one of the best promotions in the sport in living memory.

But it is also a test of whether there is a need for fixed-odds betting to compete with the tote.

The safest bet tomorrow will be the even money that New Zealand will not reintroduce individually licensed bookies operating on their own.

There is as much chance of ice hockey becoming New Zealand's national game as there is of the law changing to permit bookmakers.

Waterhouse operates tomorrow solely as an agent of the TAB and the club.

If he makes a loss it is the TAB's and the Waikato Racing Club's loss.

The TAB will have a number of ts odds-setting staff from Wellington observing his operation.

"This will give us the answer to whether there is a demand for the TAB to offer fixed-odds betting to compete with the tote at feature meetings," said club chairman David Ellis, who has set up the promotion.

"We are really in the dark about it, but we'll be watching closely and it will probably take us until all the figures are analysed in four weeks' time.

"Meantime, the key factor is that the raceday providing the richest race in the country gets the excitement it deserves."

Bookmakers will probably never disappear from Australian racecourses, but fierce competition with the tote has seen their numbers cut in half in the past 15 years.

Bookies traditionally made their profits from what they call the mug money - a not-unkind description of what is essentially the uneducated, $20 each-way flutter.

As racedays have developed more and more into social occasions, that money has gone through the tote in the grandstand.

Bookies are left with the semi-professional punter staking $1000-$2000 on something for which he or she has solid information, either from the stable or through judging the form off race videos.

There is no mug money to balance against those potential losses.

Waterhouse predicts there will be the same number of bookies in 15 years.

Not everyone agrees.

Sydney Racing Club racing manager John Nicholson, attending the Karaka Yearling Sales, said it was getting very difficult for some.

"The vast majority of racing administrators are pro-bookie, but no one I know of is prepared to allow them to field free of rent.

"It is getting harder and harder for them to exist.

"A big part of the turnover is phone betting. Most are on course only because their licence says they have to be."

One of Melbourne's leading bookies said the social dynamic of racing had seriously worked against the bagmen.

"In years gone by, everyone came down to the betting ring at Flemington to look at the prices.

"Now the VRC has built that massive great grandstand, in which everyone sits down to a meal and drinks and no one comes to the ring. They all bet on the tote."

Waterhouse said bookies had a bright future.

"I don't agree with the general view that bookmaker numbers will continue to dwindle.

"They add too much value to a raceday - enormous value."