Racing Terms Explained

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31669, 3 May 1968, Page 1

Racing Terms Explained

There had been many more cases of jockeys being fined or even suspended for not riding their horses out to the finish of a race than for unduly punishing their mount, says the president of the New Zealand Jockeys’ Association (Mr N. B. Holland). Replying to a corespondent of “The Press" who signs the

letter “The Innocent Always Reply,” Mr Holland says that riding a horse out to the finish is what is meant when racing commentators say “being kept up to his work.” The correspondent asks Mr Holland and Mr P. T. Wolfenden, a trotting trainer' and driver “who favour the continued use of whips on racecourse”: what is meant by the racing terms, being under the cane, being kept up to his work and being hard driven? If the full-force quick-action whipping of trotters as seen on television was not violence,

how many lashes were permitted before the offender was charged with excessive use of the whip? Why was a reinsman fined $5O for not fully extending Ms horse? Why were some horses in serious distress when returned to their Mails? Mr Holland says that the term “under the ■ cane” as used by racing commentators is meant to imply that a horse is being ridden out as is required under the Rules of Racing if a jockey has a reasonable chance of finishing in the first five places. "Some horses require stronger urging than others to make them give their best, others take careful handling —conditions understood by every rider,” Mr Holland says. “The use of the whip is an art which requires years of practice and experience and which many jockeys do not acquire even after years of riding. “Undue punishment refers to a rider who rides a two-year-old unnecessarily vigorously or to one who has stood up in the stirrups and continually hit his horse without getting response. "In these cases, which are rart, the jockey is warned or fined by the judicial committee.

“I think it would be safe to say that the general public—and most are hotse lovers —are happy when their horses are successful after having been ridden out to the winning post and the jockeys have done everything in their power to extract every ounce from their mounts providing ; they act within the Rules of Racing, under which they were granted their licences. ‘There will always be the odd person who does nbt

understand racing and objects to many racing and trotting terms but I am sure these are in the extreme minority. ‘The average weekly racing fan contents himself with complaints againrt the clubs which do hot provide amenities to his liking rather than against the jockeys, who are after all providing the means for the horse to reach the post first if possible.” Mr Wolfenden was invited by “The Press” to answer the correspondent’s letter on several occasions but no reply was received.