RACING Winner Lucky To Retain 1st Place

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 4

RACING Winner Lucky To Retain 1st Place

One of the few surprises of the Geraldine Racing Club’s spring meeting at Orari on Monday was that there was no inquiry affecting the first and second placings in the Ohapi Stakes No. 2. William Robert beat They Told Me by a neck but the runner-up was clearly hampered when carried wide out on the track by die winner in the straight.

After some minutes the siren was sounded, but, as was announced shortly after, this was to give warning that a protest had been made which could affect third and fourth places. This protest made by L. McGuire, rider of Welburn, was successful, and Langsdale was relegated from third to fourth. Misapprehension Mr N. A. Mortimer, the Ashburton owner-trainer of They Told Me did not make a move to protest against William Robert holding first place because he thought his jockey, R. J. Skelton, would take that step. And when he heard the siren Mr Mortimer felt sure that Skelton 1 ad, in fact, protested. It was not until some time later that Mr Mortimer learned the inquiry concerned an entirely different matter. William Robert’s tendency to run off the course was the subject of an official inquiry after he raced at Ashburton recently. W. M. Turner, who trains the horse at Washdyke, and is also a part-owner, gave an assurance that he would try another bit and would also use training methods that might help. William Robert did not take a wide course around the home turn on Monday, but he kept a marked, steady “drift” towards the outside and there was nothing Skelton could do about it on They Told Me. It was like two races at the end, with William Robert and They Told Me closely engaged towards the outside of the track well wide- and well clear of the best of their rivals. Unsuccessful R. J. Skelton’s failure to protest seemed surprising. He would have had stronger grounds for doing so than he did when he protested against Te Mania iter riding Captain’s Command into second place in the Juvenile Handicap at Wingatui two days earlier.

Te Mania won the Wingatui race going away by a length and a half, and nothing that happened beforehand suggested that Captain’s Command had lost a winning chance in the running through interference. Though leading, Te Mania was two or three positions off the rails on the home turn and she was a little closer to the middle of the track at the furlong, but the narrowing of the space between the two-year-olds a little later was as much due to Captain’s Command veering in as anything else.

At that time Te Mania was leading by three-quarters of a length. But she was then

starting to widen her lead to her winning margin of a length and a half. D. N. Hadfield, rider of Te Mania must have been thankful the post “came” when it did. As he was taking Te Mania on to the track for her preliminary Pee Wee lashed out with his hind feet. One of his feet caught Hadfield’s stirrup iron, and this collapsed and broke a few strides from the post in the race. Need For Filming Recent race incidents, especially the one that led to Calvados losing first place in the Ranfurly Handicap at Wingatui last Saturday week, have emphasised the need for the filming of races.

Smaller clubs may baulk at the cost of cameras, but earnest effort and a spirit of co-operation could probably make the pooling of filming equipment on a provincial basis quite practicable. On Australian and American courses where they have the film . patrol authorities now know that conducting inquiries without such assistance would be something like asking a boxer to go into the ring with one arm tied behind his back. Racing authorities should be prepared to meet the expense of filming equipment for inquiries concerning incidents affecting the livelihood of trainers and jockeys, as well as incidents likely to cost owners dearly.