Two-Horse, One-Owner Race

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31654, 15 April 1968, Page 1

Two-Horse, One-Owner Race

(N.Z. Press Association) INVERCARGILL, April 14. A “walk-over” could be declared in the $l6OO Riverton Steeplechase, feature event on the second day of the Riverton Racing Club’s Easter meeting today. Only two horses—Koral and Bush Creek—are acceptors.

They are both owned by Mr W. E. Hazlett and trained by W. J. Hillis, and are automatically bracketed, thus leaving only one totalisator number for the raee. The Riverton club has been officially advised that the “totalisator cannot be opened on the Riverton Steeplechase on any account” and thus it has been declared a non-totalisa-tor event. It will be run as the first race of the programme, which has now been reduced to seven totalisator races. Provision is made in the

Rules of Racing under the heading of a “Walk-over" which states: “(1) Where only one horse weighs out for a flat race, it must walk over, unless the stewards specially exempt it from the necessity of doing so, but in a hurdle race or steeplechase the horse need only to proceed to the starting post, and shall then be deemed to have walked over and (2) where only one horse weighs out in a race in which a sum of money is given (whether added to a sweepstake or not) only one half of the amount which by

the conditions of the race was payable to the winner shall be paid." Whether one totalisator number, as in the case of the bracketed pair Koral and Bush Creek, would be regarded as only one horse weighing out is a question that has arisen The stable.could scratch one of its runners and ensure that it was a “walk-over.”

Hillis said yesterday it was intended to start Koral and Bush Creek, which would race over the two miles and a half course of the Riverton Steeplechase.