OUT THEY GO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 187, 9 August 1930, Page 18

OUT THEY GO.

CHAMPIONS RETIRE FROM THE

RACE TRACK.

The exodus this season from the race track to take up stud duty of so many good horses should cause the, trotting authorities to don their thinking caps and endeavour to find some way of providing an incentive for owners of such horses to keep them.' • racing. Peterwah (4.23 4-5), the best trotter the Dominion has had, has finished his racing career, and this is not surprising, as to get any money he would have to race with the best pacers, and, as in every handicap under the present system of handicapping, there are horses on the limit with better records than their handicap marks, the owner of Peterwah was not given any very great encouragement to continue racing his great trotter.

Great Bingen (4.19 2-5), Jack Potts (4.23 4-5), Ahuriri . (4.20 2-5), Padlock (4.21) have retired and will take up stud duty, and it is understood that there is little likelihood of Peter Bingen (4.18 4-5) doing much more racing. It can be taken as certain that these horses would be kept racing if there was any good prospects of them winning races, and that they should be forced out—that is what it really amounts to—shows that there is something radically wrong with the sport, or rather the system governing it. It is safe to say that fairly handicapped, a race between Peter Bingen, Great Bingen, Ahuriri, Jack Potts and Padlock, at two miles, would create more interest than any contest which will be staged in the Dominion this -sea 1 son'. Those five horses, fit and well, would race any other five in the land, and yet, because they are handicapped on so tight marks, they are retired. And what has happened now will happen again at the end of the present season. • Eather than the champions should go out of the game, there should be every inducement for tihem to be kept in. The remedy is quite simple. The present handicapping system should not apply in classes 4.30 or better. This would then allow handicappers a free hand to make a fair handicap, and give every horse a reasonable chance. Horses who have reached the 4.30 class have won a fair amount of stake money, and tihere is no reason why they should then receive an unfair advantage, which so often is the case at present.