Totalisators: Acknowledgments, References and Progress

Many people have helped or provided information that has been useful in preparing these pages. Particular thanks is due to the following:

Mervyn Smith: Mervyn came to New Zealand in the early 1950s to operate totalisators for ATL, using a totemobile based in Palmerston North. He later became manager for ATL New Zealand based in Auckland. He has provided documents and many reminiscences of the totalisators in New Zealand in the middle 20th century.

Del Linkhorn: Del was the engineer in charge of the totalisator machinery at Ellerslie Race Course in Auckland. He later ran totalisators in South Africa. Del has provided documents and discussion of details of the Ellerslie tote machine.

Neville Mitchell: Neville was an engineer for ATL based in Sydney. His entire career was with ATL, including installing the last of ATL's electro-mechanical totes in Ottawa, Canada. He has provided many documents and advice on how the old totes worked.

Brian Conlon: Brian's career has been in the modern totalisator business and he is now the Queensland On-Course Operations Manager for Tabcorp. He curates a museum at Eagle Farm racetrack in Brisbane and maintains a website devoted to ATL.

Matthew Connell:Matthew is Curator of Computing and Mathematics at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. He has provided access to ATL records and photographs held by the museum.

John (Tex) & Helen Ingley: John came to NZ from England in the 1950s and worked for Bell Punch. He moved to Southland to install and operate Bell Punch equipment. Helen is the daughter of William Young, manager of the Southland Totalisator Committee that ran the Southland totes. They have both provided much information on how the old totes were operated.

This summarises some of the sources drawn on for information regarding totalisators. It will gradually be made more complete.

Horse Race Betting: Fred S. Buck. Arco Publishing Company, New York.1946. 2nd. edition 1962. Describes in detail the operation of the totalisator at Aqueduct, Long Island. Lots of useful information. Interesting that they didn't trust the totalisator figures like in Australasia. The history section has many errors.

Win. Place. Show. A Biography of Harry Straus. The Man who Gave America the Tote: John C. Schmidt. Covers history of the tote in America and from an American view point. Of great interest is the support given by Straus to the computer pioneers, Eckert and Mauchly, in development of the Univac computer.

It is intended that these pages on totalisators will be gradually extended as information comes to hand and new topics are covered. This summarises the main extensions to the website from first release.

2011 December: Corrections. More images of NZ manual totalisators. Reference to description of Hodson's totalisators. Inclusion of Bell Punch booklet.

2010 September: Main structure of site completed. Spaces left for more discussion of the last 50 years. Images of first Ellerslie machine upgraded to better resolution.

2010 May: Initial release covering only the first Julius totalisator at Ellerslie.