Diamond Moose case could linger on for months

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 69

Diamond Moose case could linger on for months

By

G. K. YULE

It could be many months before the last is heard of the decision of the programme committee of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club to transfer Diamond Moose from the field for the Toyota New Zealand Cup to the Firestone Eurosteel Pace, also run at Addington Raceway on Tuesday, November 12. The validity of the club’s actions were questioned at the time and there were some who declared that if Diamond Moose’s ownertrainer, Nelson Dalzell, of Culverden, had lodged an objection with the Trotting Conference, officials would have had no option but to order the reinstatement of the horse to the Cup field. However, Dalzell took no action on the matter and whatever his thoughts on the club’s actions, he must have taken some pleasure from the fact that Diamond Moose led practically throughout and won his race in the respectable mile rate of Imin 59.7 s for the mobile 2000 m. It had been expected that the club’s decision would have been considered at the

meeting of the executive held in Christchurch during Cup week. However, this will not be done until the next meeting of the executive which will be held tomorrow week.

It seems as though the most likely action to be taken by the executive will be to place the matter before the rules sub-commit-tee for consideration by its members so that any rule alterations thought necessary can be prepared for presentation to the annual meeting of the conference to be held in Wellington next July. Under Rule 171(d) it is dictated that no club may make it a condition of a race that the number to start shall be less than the safety number for the course. The only exception is that in special circumstances the executive may approve such a move. Over the years the executive has ruled that other than in exceptional circumstances clubs must race fields of a size meeting the safety limits for the various courses.

Requests to race a smaller number have al-

most always met with refusals.

It was under Rule 171(d) that those who challenged the club’s action of transferring Diamond Moose from the Cup field felt action could be taken. The action resulted in a field of 14, one below the safety limit for 3200 m at Addington Raceway, being declared for the Cup. The club felt it had done nothing illegal, citing Rule 220 (2) as the basis for its actions.

This rule says: “Notwithstanding that the entry of any horse has been accepted for any race, the stewards of the club may, if they think it to be in the best interests of trotting, prohibit the horse so entered from starting in the race ...” It would appear that the two rules are contradictory, a situation which has existed for years. The views of the executive that full fields must be raced by all clubs have been reiterated from time to time, and there is little chance of any change in attitude.

On the other hand, some major clubs feel that they

have some right to control their own destiny, particularly when it comes to a race such as the Toyota New Zealand Cup with its record stake of $225,000 on November 12. There has been the occasional instance where a club has attempted to race fewer than the safety limit in a richly endowed restrictedage race in order to eliminate out-of-form horses or those acceptors lacking the class of the majority of the contenders. Again the conference has ruled against the club when application has been made to race a number less than the safety limit. It can rightly be claimed that in those instances the conference has acted against the interests of trotting. So much is at stake in the more richly endowed restricted-age races and there have been cases of horses of doubtful ability being included in order to satisfy conference demands. Those same horses have often been the cause of interference to favoured runners and obviously they would have been better on the sideline.

Even though Diamond Moose was successful on Cup day, it could hardly be claimed that he or any of the horses he beat should have been in the feature race. Diamond Moose had two further starts in top free-for-all company at the Cup meeting, finishing last both times. The New Zealand Cup could provide a strong argument for the retention of Rule 220(2). The race has an open limit, which means that any horse from maiden class upwards can be entered. Should the connections of a slow-class horse decide to accept for the Cup when the field is below the safety limit, a ridiculous situation would arise should the club be forced by conference rulings to allow it to retain its place in the field. Programme committees do not take lightly such action as that involving Diamond Moose. And in a race such as last month’s Cup, which generated almost $1.5 million in betting, it could be unwise to tamper with a rule which is really aimed at slow-class handicap events.