WANTS CLEANING UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 18

WANTS CLEANING UP.

TROTTING SPORT IN SYDNEY.

The Sydney "Sportsman" is_ never afraid to take the gloves off if that journal has anything to say, and the following touching trotting sport in Sydney is taken from last week's issue:— "Sportsman" does not think it would be doing the trotting and pacing spore a kindness to longer keep under the rose the true condition of light harness racing in Sydney. Things have been "oing D from bad to worse, and the consensus of opinion among those who follow trotting regularly is that it is now little better than when crooked running cruelled the game 30 years ago. Certainly we do not see half bricks hurled at horses, or coats thrown over horses' heads, as was the case prior to the closing down of the Driving Park, but for barefaced inconsistency conditions are just as unsatisfactory as they were in the "bad old days." For years the New South Wales Trotting Club has notified owners on its nomination paper that, unless a horse does within five seconds of the basis of a race, its nomination may be refused for two months. The rule, if carried out, would do more than anything else to keep horses up to the mark, but it has not in any instance been brought into operation. Time cuts no ice with the gallopers, but in the light harness sport a horse's time is the sole factor in his grading and classification. A timekeeper can thus become of vast assistance to the stewards when comparing a horse's time in a race with his handicap. Tasmania not only copied the five seconds rule, she carried it out with most beneficial results. The last few meetings at Harold Park and Victoria Park have been of such a nature that some people have stated their intention to discontinue patronising the sport. One of the worst phases at Victoria Park is racing some events on the grass. Horses are not allowed on the grass to train and owners have a plausible alibi when questioned, "Trained on cinders, my horse could not handle the grass."