Top racing identity rarely had a punt

Among many achievements Bill Mackie wrote a centenary history of the Auckland Racing Club. Photo / NZ Herald

William Noel Mackie, MBE, racing club executive. Died aged 92.

For 33 years until 1986 William (Bill) Mackie was a cornerstone of the Auckland Racing Club and the great Ellerslie Racecourse.

He came to be described as one of the great identities of racing, yet he was neither a trainer nor owner of a champion race horse. Even his ventures into punting were very rare and modest.

In his conception his job was to run the club, which he did with such thoroughness and ability that his advice was widely sought on such racing industry matters as Racing Conference moves to establish the Totalisator Agency Board, and as a member of a committee of inquiry into the racing judicial system and procedures.

Yet when he applied in 1946 to join the club's staff he thought he had little chance, despite being among 10 finalists from 200 applications in the uncertain times following the end of World War II.

The selection panel asked about his interest in racing to which he felt obliged to respond that he had been to a few meetings.

"I must tell you I have no great knowledge of it. I am keen on all sport. I believe I could become very keen on racing,"he said.

He told the club panel he regarded the position as an administrative job.

"If you want someone who already has knowledge of racing, I am afraid you will have to look for someone else," he added. At that point he rose to leave but was stopped by a vice-president, Jim Carpenter, who told him he couldn't have given a better reply.

"I'm not looking for someone who knows a lot of facts about racing, or a lot of jockeys and trainers," Carpenter said. "We don't want someone who already has sectional interests in the sport."

In fact the Auckland Racing Club, then in its heyday with race day crowds often in the tens of thousands, got what they wanted - someone to do the job efficiently.

The former Mt Albert Grammar pupil already had an accountancy practice and qualifications for both chartered accountant and chartered secretary, as well as a 1939 honours degree at Auckland in Economics and the Economic History of the [then] University of New Zealand.

That was followed by wartime Army experience rising to a captain heading special schools in Italy and Japan for New Zealand troops returning to civilian life and wanting university study.

Mackie, a slim, decisive man, became the club's full secretary - only the fourth since 1874 - by succeeding Stan Spence in 1953. By then he had decided he was not there to control the jockeys, trainers and owners who made the sport.

"I never set out to be popular in the job. I thought I was there to be fair and helpful," he said.

Ellerslie Racecourse and its business has always been a considerable task, a wide expanse of park, racetrack, much admired gardens and extensive facilities for horses and punters.

Bill Mackie came to be known to hundreds of racing people and was intimately involved in the construction of a new members stand and other improvements, including the introduction of computerised betting.

He also came to write, because of his interest and knowledge, A Noble Breed: the Auckland Racing Club, 1874-1974, a centenary history published in 1974. It contains over 300 pages of varied and detailed accounts. The original was handwritten at his desk.

William Mackie's other community involvements were numerous including the likes of Outward Bound, eventually becoming its national president.

He was a long-time member of Auckland Rotary and also well involved with the Pakuranga Hunt.

For leisure he would at times disappear with his young family to the sanctity of Piha, then a slow, dusty, tortuous drive to the black sand and ti-tree and surfing on flat ironing-board type surfboards. There was no TV and only a partyline at the local store to the outside world.

But Ellerslie became his life. "It was my job. I loved it," he told the Herald when retiring. But he never regretted only occasionally putting a small bet of a pound on the favourite. After all, it wouldn't do for a man in his position to have a big win.

And he also found that "almost without fail, every owner, every trainer and every jockey would tell me before each race that their horse was a good thing I mustn't let pass by".

"You didn't need a college education to work out that not all were going to win. I listened politely. I got on with the job."

William Mackie is survived by Joan, his wife of 62 years, son Anthony and daughters Angela and Felicity.