RACING Northern Riders For Greymouth

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31841, 20 November 1968, Page 5

RACING Northern Riders For Greymouth

The North Island jockeys, W. I). Skelton and L. K. Tinsley, will be at Greymouth for the second day of the Greymouth Jockey Chib's Centenary meeting on Mondav, December 2.

The feature race of the meeting, the Grey- . mouth Centennial Cup, will be run on this date, although the most valuable event at the meeting will be the Caltex Centennial Handicap, run on the first day. The executive of the New Zealand Racing Conference will hold a special meeting tn Greymouth on Friday. November 29. and will remain for the race meeting and other celebrations associated with the centennial. There will be trophies for all 16 races at the two-day meeting. Donors include the Auckland and Southland racing clubs, the Christchurch | Press Company. Ltd. J. Wattle Canneries. Ltd. and the Can-terbury-Westland branch of the Owners. Trainers and Breeders' Association. The Auckland Racing Club; will sponsor the McGregor Grant Handicap, a 10 furlong race for hacks on the first day of the meeting. The race has been named after one of New Zealand's most popular racing administrators and owners. Dr Grant, who came to New Zealand from Australia many years ago. made two bids to win a Melbourne Cup with Terrific. This year Terrific was not taken to Melbourne but Dr Grant made the trip and was guest speaker at the luncheon held by the Carbine Club, to which some of Australia’s most famous sportsmen be-; long. He is just as popular in

Australia as in New Zealand and was warmly greeted when (he appeared at Flemington on Derby day. “I'm pleased to see you here, but I'm pleased you left that horse at home." one Mel bourne racing identity told Dr Grant. Terrific, a ' boom" horse in the betting for two Melbourne Cups, never won in Australia Skull t ap Rule The Australian practice of riding exercising horses in skull caps will be introduced to New Zealand soon. The New Zealand Racing Conference has issued a di rective that all persons exercising gallopers should wear the skull caps. Because the demands for skull caps will probably ex-

ceed the available supplies no date has been set for the introduction of the scheme but by next year conference officials will be looking at the situation closely. A leading Melbourne jockey. R. Higgins, has reason to thank the Australian regulation regarding skull caps for being fit to ride at the recent Melbourne Cup meeting. On the day before the car nival opened Higgins rode a full mornings work at Flemington. Then he travelled to Caulfield to ride a two-year-old. The youngster reared and fell but Higgins's skull cap took much of the impact in the fall and saved what could have been a serious and expensive injury.