No rule breached by incorrect weight

Press, 5 June 1982, Page 17

No rule breached by incorrect weight

No rule of racing was breached when Smart Bijou, a four-year-old, was incorrectly weighted as a three-year-old for the Lake Coleridge Handicap at the Hororata Racing Club’s meeting on May 22. Smart Bijou, with the help of an allowance, won the race by eight lengths. Mr H. J. Poland, secretary of the New Zealand Racing Conference, said yesterday that computer information by the conference to the club

incorrectly showed that Smart Bijou was a three-year-old and that the handicapper. no doubt acting on the incorrect information supplied by the conference, allotted the horse 52kg instead of 54kg.

Mr Poland said the matter had been referred to the conference solicitors for advice. They had advised that stewards had been formerly empowered to alter the' weight allotted by the handicapper. but that that power had been abolished in 1978. At that time the rules were amended, to make - it clear that there was no power to

require a horse to carry any weight other than the weight allotted by the handicapper. “It is. on the contrary, expressly provided in the rules that a horse must carry the weight it has been handicapped to carry." said Mr Poland. “In the opinion of the solicitors, the horse had been allotted a certain weight by the handicapper and it had carried that weight (less an authorised allowance). There had therefore heen no hreach

of the rules and there was no action that could or should be taken." Mr Poland said he accepted the solicitors’ advice. The conference, would therefore, not initiate any action. But he said the conference, was embarrassed by the fact that incorrect information had been supplied to the club and through it to the handicapper and he wished to express’ the conference's regret at what had happened.