“TURF TUFTS AND TOE WEIGHTS"

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 4

“TURF TUFTS AND TOE WEIGHTS"

BOOK FOR RACING AND TROTTING MEN

“Turf Tufts and Toe Weights” is a book for the New Zealand racing and trotting men, who will find it both satisfying entertainment and a useful reference book. It includes a wealth of racing and trotting history, some of which should be on permanent (for instance, Alt Dickson’s story of the career of Mr G. G. Stead); there are new stories and stories well worth retelling about grand performers and personalities of other days; contemporary racing is well represented, most notably by a section devoted to the visits of the Queen to race meetings and studs in New Zealand; there are some bright anecdotes, and particularly interesting and thought-provoking is the piece at the end about the economics of horse-racing. The book is the product of a team headed by Karl Scott; most of the contributors are New Zealand racing journalists. There are some minor flaws (for instance, on page 159, is The Unicorn given proper credit?) Perhaps the most embarrassing conflict with fact occurs on page 26, where, in a story, the large statement is made that “the economist has no place in the racing and trotting game”; a big portion of the book (from pages 249 to 304) suggests strongly that in an all-in racing and trotting stakes the economist would finish (without the need to call for a photo) ahead even of the horse. But let that dismal thought deter no racing men from obtaining an entertaining and useful book which, it must be added, includes several sections of happily chosen illustrations.

SILENCE’S PROGRAMME STILL IN DOUBT Plans to race Silence in the Stradbroke Handicap at Brisbane on June 12 have not yet been definitely abandoned. A decison will be made when his Dunedin owner, Mr J. O. O’Brien, arrives in Sydney early next week. The Randwick trainer, Maurice McCarten, wrote to Mr O’Brien this week, reporting that the horse had made a good recovery from a rough boat trip to Australia and was showing promise in his work. If Silence is not taken to Queensland for the coming meeting he will be prepared for the Doomben Handicap next month. « DEATH OF COLT BOUGHT FOR RICCARTON A yearling colt, bought for a patron of G. R. Felling’s Riccarton stable at auction at Te Rapa recently, died after being placed on the inter-island steamer in Wellington on Thursday evening, and was taken ashore before the steamer left for Lyttelton. Felling, who is in Wingatui with Americus, which is to race today, received word of the colt’s death yesterday. The youngster was by Instinct from the Orelio mare; Golden Sal, which is a halfsister to Americus.