Britain: An official handbook > 1966

SPORT
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The classic flat races are: the Two Thousand Guineas for colts and fillies,
run on the Newmarket course, owned by the Jockey Club; the One Thousand
Guineas for fillies only, also run at Newmarket; the Derby for colts and
fillies, run at Epsom; the Oaks for fillies only, also run at Epsom; and the
St. Leger for colts and fillies, run at Doncaster. The Derby is the outstanding
event in the racing calendar; it takes place annually in early June and
the scene on Epsom Downs on Derby Day is one of the most colourful and
exciting of the sporting year. The most fashionable race-meeting of the flat
racing season is held on the course at Ascot in Berkshire, in mid-June and
is known as ‘Royal Ascot’, being traditionally attended by the Sovereign.
The best known steeple-chase is the Grand National, run annually since
1839 over the Aintree course near Liverpool. Most steeple-chase meetings
are held during the period September to May, one of the most important
being the National Hunt Festival Meeting at Cheltenham early in March.
In England and Wales there is racing on 64 racecourses (excluding
point-to-point courses), at which there are about 820 days’ racing annually;
Scotland has seven racecourses, where racing takes place on an average of
50 days in the year. There are approximately 8,700 horses in training in
Great Britain, at an average cost of about £12 a week each.
Horse racecourses must be licensed by the Jockey Club or the National
Hunt Committee. On-course facilities for both cash and credit betting are
provided by bookmakers who must have personal permits, and by totalisators
operated by the Horserace Totalisator Board, which is empowered to deduct
from money staked with the totalisator such percentage as it may determine.
The practice is to deduct 15 per cent from the losing stakes in the win, place
and forecast pools and 10 per cent of the double and treble pools; this
provides an average yield of approximately 11 per cent of the total annual
turnover. Facilities for oflf-the-course betting are provided in licensed betting
offices, of which there are some 14,400 throughout Great Britain. People
under 18 years old are forbidden by law to place bets.
A levy from both bookmakers and the Horserace Totalisator Board is
collected by the Horserace Betting Levy Board, which distributes the revenue
for purposes conducive to the improvement of horse breeding and racing,
for the advancement and encouragement of veterinary science and education,
and the welfare of those employed in racing.
rreyhound Racing The racing of greyhounds after a mechanical hare started in Britain in 1926,
when the first modern greyhound track was opened at Belle Vue, Manchester.
There are now some 140 licensed tracks in operation, nearly all of which are
situated in or on the outskirts of large towns, and meetings are generally held
two or three times a week. The licensing authorities for greyhound racing
tracks are the county and county borough councils. Some fourteen million
people a year attend the tracks.
The main authority of the sport is the National Greyhound Racing Club,
founded in 1928; its functions include drawing up the rules of greyhound
racing and exercising strict discipline over all aspects of the sport. The
National Greyhound Racing Society—an association of 62 of the leading
tracks accepts the rules of the National Greyhound Racing Club and
controls the general policies of greyhound racing. Most of the classic grey¬
hound races, including the Derby at the White City, the Laurels at Wimbledon,
the St. Leger at Wembley, and the Cesarewitch at West Ham, take place in
the London area, although many other large centres have their ‘big’ nights.
There is a considerable volume of betting at greyhound race-meetings,
both with bookmakers and on the totalisator which may be operated by the