Judge’s error

Press, 30 November 1982, Page 20

Judge’s error

Sir, - The most unadulterated balderdash I have ever heard, was the announcement before the last race at Addington, on Saturday night. It was discovered that the judge’s placings on race, four were a mistake 'and that the horse which had run second, was clearly the winner. This occurred after air dividends had been paid out I was a close observer of the finish, and like the course commentator, was quite positive that Tom Thumb had won. I waited for the photo finish print to be posted, which clearly showed that the official placing was wrong. It was not even a close finish-in the full sense of the word; the margin was unmistakable. How can a leading club, such as the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, justify such a mistake or how can the betting public have any. confidence in this sort of administration? Was the

fining of the judge a paltry $5O meant to be laughable? — Yours, etc.,

J. B. BAILEY. November 21, 1982. [Mr T. H. Davis, secretarymanager of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, replies: “Let me assure your correspondent that the com : mittee of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club is just as perturbed as he that such an error should have occurred. The amount that the judge was fined was the maximum allowable under the New Zealand Rules of Trotting.”]