A JOCKEY'S FEES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 28, 1 February 1913, Page 16

A JOCKEY'S FEES.

"WOOTTON WINS!"

iFrom Our Special Correspondent.)

Wrrtin"- under date Decern ocr 20, our London correspondent says:—Mr. Ernest _ustin Huxley must be rather sorry for having ventured on a legal tilt with Mr. Richard WoO-ton, the well-known AngloAustralian racehorse trainer. Not only was his Chancery Court action against Mr Wootton dismissed with costs last Friday, but Mr. Justice Eve gave the world'his frank opinion of Ernest Austin Huxley in terms that were calculated to make that gentleman fee! very small. Huxley's claim set out that his son, William Huxley, a successful young jockey, apprenticed to Mr. Wootton, was entitled to large sums of money which Mr. Wootton had received for him, and aa. account was demanded. According to Mt. Woottmt's counsel, "William Huxley with his parents and brothers and sisters at Sydney at the time when he was apprenticed to' Mr. Wootton. The boy was to serve four years' apprenticeship, Mr. Wootton paying him 10/ a week and .providing him with board and lodgings. The boy proved to be an extraordinarily good pupil, and he had winning mounts in his first year. The father came from Australia in the spring of 191 Heaving his wife and other children there without money, and since his arrival in this country had been a source of annoyance to his con and to Mr. Wootton.. He was now betting and 'touting on racecourses, and that was prejudicial to a jockey, because it might be presumed that he was obtaining the inside secrets of the stable with which hi< son was associated.

" William Huxley,"' continued counsel, " has been so successful that he has earned very lar<re sums, and they have. at his request been sent to (maintain his mother and brothers and sisters in Australia. The amounts are something extraordinary for such a young man to earn; this year, I believe, he had one retainer of £1,000 from a racing stable. His father, realising this, came to England to try to trade on him."'

Recently, Mr. Wootton had to go to Australia in conection with business, and Huxley senior heard of that. About a fortnight before Mr. Wootton sad-led, Huxley attempted by threats to obtain rrrone)' from him, and the resmlt was that a summons was taken out by the father against Mr. Wootton for assault.

1 It was made returnable on Nov. 19, •the day before Mr. Wootton was to sail, but it was withdrawn at the last moment. When Mr. Wootton was leaving Victoria Station on the following day he was served with the -writ, and on arriving ait Dover he was again served in case he had been missed at Victoria.

In discussing Hujdey, senior's action, Mr. Justrive Eve said:—

"The father is an individual of no means or occupation. He has left his family in Australia without means and in debt. When the boy was away riding the father turned up at his hotel, and wanted him to give him £1,000 and £10 a week. The boy did write asking Mr. Woo-fcon to pay his father f 1,000, but he afterwards cancelled that.

" Mr. Wootton was quite right, in _ke interest of the boy, in not making _he payment. I am quite satisfied that the motive here was not bona fide for the benefit of the eon. There are few fathers who would have the effrontery to begin an action of this kind. I believe it has been brought solely for the purI pose of extorting mot-.y, and it wrfll be I dismissed, with costs against the father."