Trainers now allowed to join clubs

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 22

Trainers now allowed to join clubs

PA Dunedin' Professional trainers and drivers will be able to become committee members of trotting clubs and represent clubs on the Trotting Conference, the annual meeting of the conference decided in Dunedin yesterday. Rules barring committee members or stewards of ■clubs from holding professional licences and barring such licence holders from being appointed representatives to the conference were deleted.

Delegates to the conference, which ended yesterday, also decided that owners, breeders and racing managers may now be suspended, disqualified or pay costs up to $lOOO on charges of misconduct.

The list of corrupt practices has been expanded to include: “A licensed person or registered owner who knowingly aids or associates with. any prohibited person or disqualified person for the purposes of the sale, purchase, breeding, training or racing of any horse registered under the rules.” The time allowed for an appeal against a decision of a stipendiary steward has been advanced until mid-day the day after a meeting and

the deposit set at $lO9. The time limit was previously 10 minutes after a race and the deposit $4O. Where the decision is given on a Saturday or a public holiday, the time for the notice of appeal and deposit is extended to midday on the first available working day. Other remits passed included: © Racecourse inspectors were given the authority to enter premises of licence ' holders or registered owners for stable inspection or matters involving a breach of the rules. ® It is now legal for a trainer to leave his horse with another trainer for up to three weeks. ® The" keeper of the stud book or the handicapper will in future be permitted to race a horse. © The term for presidency of the conference, either in whole or in part, has been restricted to five years. Other remits passed limited brackets to two horses and made it mandatory for drivers to wear safety helmets securely fastened. The conference also decided the value of trophies and other prizes, apart from stakes will not in future be

included in statistical records. A remit by the New Zealand Metropolitan club to have allowance made to bar a horse from betting pools where it may carry 60 per cent or more of bets was lost narrowly. A move to pay the president an honorarium of $5OOO a year was lost, as was a call for a ward system for* voting for the executive. A move by the Auckland club to force the executive to give effect to directives from the annual meeting was lost, as was another part of the same remit that regulations passed during the year be placed before the next annual meeting for confirmation. A remit from the Waikato club that would have imposed fines or suspension of horses from racing for scratchings after acceptance time without good reason also failed. The executive was unsuccessful in a bid to allow stipendiary stewards to delay driver suspensions under special circumstances such as an engagement for an important race. A move by the Manukau club to have the annual meeting of the conference restricted to Christchurch was lost.