HANDICAPPING AT THE EXHIBITION MEETING.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7419, 10 December 1889, Page 6

HANDICAPPING AT THE EXHIBITION MEETING.

PROTEST FROM NORTHERN

OWNERS.

OCCIDENT'S JOCKEY INTERVIEWED.

[By TBue*APH.J

[from oxjr correspondent.] DUNEDIN, December 9. ; A protest from the Northern racehorse [owners was, lasi week, handed in to the Dunedin Club, with an intimation that unless the flandicapper (Mr G. Dowse) was immediately removed from office a majority of the Dunedin Cup candidates would be at once withdrawn from that race. The letter was considered by [the Stewards of the D.J.C. at a special r meeting held on Friday evening and a [reply was forwarded this morning to each of the individual owners in question. The correspondence speaks for itself. The 'communication received from and on be[half of the northern owners runs thus :— I " Dunedin, December 2nd, 1839. I Sir,—The owners of the following jhorses :—Cynisca, Alsace, St Malo, Scots Grey, Rose Argent, Tirailleur, Jet D'Eau, Princess Helen, Chain Shot, Wakatipu, Leopold, Fabulous, Corunna, Peerswick, Springston, Enchantress, and Lisbon, |ngaged in the Dunedin Cup of 1890, respectfully complain of the handicapping at the recent Exhibition meeting. They feel that unless a change IF made in the handicapping it \Hll be useless to send their horses to the Dunedin Cup meeting, and Although fully conscious that they are adopting an unusual course, they are cornBelled to request that another handicapper fe appointed. As owners must make •Kfilr final arrangements at an early date autumn racing season, they respectfully beg your Committee to take this matter into immediate consideration, and to favor them with a definite reply before noon on Monday, the 9th Inst. Will you kindly address Messrs Stead and Clifford, Christchurch. Signed, on behalf of the owners of the horses above mentioned, George G. Stead, G. H. Clifford (per t>. G. S.). —Secretary Dunedin Jockey Club." To this the following reply was sent :— " Dunedin, December 7th, 1869. " Messrs G. G. Stead and G. H. Clifford, Christchurch. Dear Sira,—l have the honor to inform you that your letter of the 2nd inst. has been duly considered at a special meeting of the Committee of this Club, when it was unanimously resolved that the interests of all concerned would be better and more conveniently served by making reply in the form of a circular letter addressed to each of the owners of horses, includiug your good selves. This course will render it unnecessary to trouble you further in the matter. —I am, &c, Sydney James, Secretary Dunedin Jockey Club." Thia circular wae separately forwarded to Messrs G. G. Stead (Christchurch), G. H. Clifford (Chmtchurch), S. H. Goilan (Napier), D. Rutherford (Albury), R. Ray (Riccarton), Hon. E. W. Mitchelaou (Wellington), W. C. Webb (Riccarton), and M. Sherwin ( Waimate). It is to the following effect:—

"Dunedin, December 7th, 1883.

"Sir,—Messrs G. G. Stead and G-. B. Clifford have addressed a letcer on behalf of yourself and several owners residing north of Utago to the Committee of the Club, complaining of the handicapping at the Exhibition meeting, and intimating that you will decline to send horses to the Club's Autumn meeting, unless a change be made in. the handicapper. Although the tenor of this communication is ad mitted by the writers to be unusual (and my Committee think unprecedented), it has, out of courtesy, had consideration at a special meeting of my Committee, and I am instructed to address you personally in reply thereto as follows: — When authorising your name to be thus used it seems impossible that you could have seriously considered the result of such a demand, viz., that a body of gentle men, who have for many years successfully managed the affairs of the D.J.C. with no other object to serve but the promotion of legitimate and honest racing, are called upon by a section of owners to dismiss the Club's handicapper or suffer the consequences of the withdrawal of their horses from all engagements at their Autumn meeting, which, in plain words, can only mean that these gentlemen are either incapable of judging as to the competency of their handicapper or knowingly employ one unfit for the position. My Committee must respectfully decline to accept any dictation or discussion as to whether their present handicapper has in the past or j is likely in the future to give satiefac- j tion, but will, in the usual course (as heretofore), carefully consider the fitness of all its officials when the annual appointments are made. My Committee are hopeful that, after more mature consideration you will recognise the impossibility of acceding to your request without the loss of all personal self-respect, a position they feel sure you do not desire to force upon them, and will hesitate before taking the course indicated. In connection with this subject it may be interesting to you to know (although it has no bearing on the question at issue), that since the appointment of the present handicapper in 1885, ! the sum of £15,518 10s has been won in handicap races (only) atthe Club's Autumn Meetings, and of this sum £11,702 17s, or fully three-fourths of the whole amount, has been won by owner? residing north of Otago. In conclusion, lam requested to convey to you the sincere regret of my Committee that you should have thought it necessary to take the course proposed. With the hope you will accept the assurance above mentioned —Yours, &c, Sydney James, Secretary Dunedin J.C." j The Star, in publishing the corre j spondence says:—" Without wishing to comment on the above correspondence, we cannot help, expressing the opinion that the Club's reply is altogether weak, and that a preferable course would have been to simply uphold the Club's officials, leaving the malcontents to take what action they might deem fit. We are quite aware that Mr Stead had in his pocket authority to scratch the -horses named, and that if he had chosen to exercise it, the withdrawing of seventeen of the thirty-three horses engaged Iα the Dunedin Cup would have been a most serious matter, and would have robbed our Autumn Meeting of a Sood deal of its interest. Probably a eslre to temporise and to allay rather than increase the ill feeling which has already been engendered was the reason that so mild a reply was approved of I>y our stewards; but. on i the other hind, we would ask what i action would f have been taken by say the i V.R.C. Committee had the conduct of their handicapper been impugned by a combination of New Soutn Wales racehorse owners, and a letter couched in similar language been forwarded to that body. Again, without wishing to gloss over Mr Oowse's mistakes, for undoubtedly the handicapping of Occident in the Exhibition Cup was a serious blunder, we would specially direct attention, in justice to that ' official, to the last paragraph but ■ one in the Club's reply, and ask how it came about, if our Northern friends have been unjustly treated, that so large a percentage of stakes at the Dunedin Autumn Meetings have gone north of the Waitaki. In order that both sides of the question of the late handicapping might be fully ventilated a member of our staff this morning interviewed Occident's jockey and got from Mr P. White, or Billy White as he is popularly known among Riccartonites, his version of the race for the President's Handicap. White, as most o£ our sporting readers know, is a quiet, well-behaved man, who has recently ridden for Mr Stead and others signing the " round robin" above referred to, and to-day occupies a place in the front rank of New Zealand Jockeys. Interrogated as to his experience in the race Mr White said .that though Occident held a fair position throughout he had to sit down and ride the Cup winner in real earnest, from the mile and a quarter post, or a quarter of a mile from home. ** From that out," to use White*e-owri words, " I had to ride him all I knew with my heels, (muffled spurs were worn) and though I pulled my whip out to him I did not use it. If I had not got up on the inside I could never have woo." Pressed on the point as to whether a less experienced jockey would have managed to squeeze Occident home, White (with gome reservation, and with an evident desire not to say anything hurtful to the feelings of the lad who rode St. James) said—" If Walter Buddicombe had had his eves open I would not have got up. There was no room for mc to get through, and earlier in the race I had been jammed when trying to get up at the back of the course, but seeing an opening I was not slow to take advantage of it, hence Occident's win. Before entering the straight,

St. James kept with mc, and so he did right up the straight, and 200 yards from home I thought he would win. You may confidently say that Occident would never have won if St. James , rider had not let mc get up on the inside. That is the biggest moral in the world." As to the third day's race, White is of opinion that Occident was harshly treated, and says that he remarked to Mr Dowse before the event was run that in a true run race on the previous day's form St. J&mes must win. He adds that he based this opinion on the way in which St. James ran his mile and a quarter in the President's Handicap. In confirmation of White's statement we may add that more than one who closely followed the race has given it as his opinion that St. James must have won the President's Handicap but for an error of judgment on Buddicombe's part in letting Occident Up."