GOING TO THE DOGS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 14, 11 October 1927, Page 3

GOING TO THE DOGS

THE MOONLIGHT HUNT OF METAL HARES AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCES (Special to The Dominion, by . Nellie M. Scanlan.) Sydney, September 20. A little thing shall lead them, and this time it is a toy, tin hare. Australia—gambling Australia—is in full flight.after it. They Lave bet on everything under creation, even "Fly Loo”; but the mechanical hare has tlic attraction of novelty. Whippet racing is digging in its roots in England. Nor has the question of its legality over there been definitely decided. But while the Government is reaping an unexpected £lO,OOO a week from this source, the moral issue is not likely to be seriously raised by an impoverished Treasury. The advent of dog-racing into Australia is so recent that its tenure in public affection is uncertain. It has yet to acquire legislative status, and as this is election month, well, you can see the difficulty, can’t you. There are questions of vast importance exercising the official mind of Sydney at the moment, allegations of bribery, counterblasts of corruption, and royal commissions busy on political laundry. But nothing obscures the greater importance of this new sport. Before you can have horse races, you must have horses, and a good galloper cannot be got for ninepeuce. It is a costly game all round, horse-racing. Take trainers, jockeys, stables and whatnots, and the "Gloamings” are few and far between. Then there are the formalities connected with the Jockey Club, the issue of permits,, membership and control, and the large expenditure on stands and appointments at the course. Horse-racing ranks as a big social event, apart from its gambling aspect.

New Zealanders are a fairly sporting crowd, and do not hesitate to take a chance. In fact, the howl about excessive gambling comes as regularly as the flowers that bloom in the spring. In New Zealand there is the totalisator on. race day, and a few .subterranean bookmakers in between. Over here in Australia the bookmaker is a permanent institution, and his calling ranks among the learned professions.

Horse races are limited to Australia calls, that waste of good evenings. The horses may gallop by day, but in the moonlight the hounds , hunt the mechanical hare, and so the poor Bookie works overtime.

When the tin hare first caught the Australian fancy, inquiries were made about the legality of betting at these meetings. Is coursing with an elec-trically-driven hare, coursing? There seems to have been some honest political doubt, hut not enough to deter the enthusiasts. They dashed .about buying up acres, laying out courses, purchasing speedv pups and training them by lamplight. Apd so we find the Greyhound Coursing Association, Ltd.—ves, Ltd.—and other kindred bodies. The Taniworth Club calls itself “The Humane Coursing Society.” That has a flavour of righteousness. The protests of the S.P.C.A about the tearing of the trembling flesh of the poor little live bttnnie has been silenced. The only crueltv possible under the new system, I understand, is if the man in confrol of tlie device regulating the speed of the tin hare should foolishly permit a dog to catch a hare. Then the dog has a big chance of being electrocuted in one bite.

It was tlie duty of one official, Mr. Gosling, to issue licenses for betting at these races, and despite official doubts lie did so. Up came a policeman and grabbed a bookie. The trial, which was made a test case, was heard at Glebe Last week, and the magistrate decided that coursing with a mechanical hare did not justify the hazard of betting. It was not real coursing, and therefore illegal Rage ripped the country. Politics were forgotten; election rows cooled off. Epping, outside Sydney, whicli races everv Wednesday and Saturday, was undismayed. When you note that 211 bookmakers operate at Epping, the importance of that decision must be recognised. But Epping decided to race the dogs, and the bookmakers, rather timidly at first, but gradually becoming bolder as the night wore on, shouted their odds.

The first effect of the Magistrate’s decision was to send the shares in. Greyhound Coursing Association, Ltd., crashing from £G down to £2 10s., but it did not deter several other companies in the course of' formation from going ahead.

Saturday night at Epping was the first event since the ban was put on betting. A cold, bleak, wet night, with a howling southerly, yet 15.000 people went out to see the dogs, and the tragedy of it is that so many are boys and youths. People who work in daytime cannot always get off for the races, and it is an expensive outing at best. But a few shillings will take you “To the dogs,” and puts it within the reach of the bovs aud youths, and the lower wageearners. ' And here, standing about on stands without any protection from the rain (the dogs shivering under their wet overcoats), they flashed their week’s wages in the lamplight. Deputations of clergymen, protesting against these "night gambling hells” and bewailing the fact that the people are in very truth going to the dogs,” arc colliding in official corridors with deputations of bookmakers, a hundred strong, pleading their cause. The bookmakers are urging the C.J.C. not to enforce the usual penalties inflicted on a bookmaker who is fined, until the appeal against the present decision is heard

There are many differences between the horse race and the dog race, apart from the cost. A horse has to be ridden and held to its objective. There are no riders for the dogs, so a mechanical hare is the lure set to keep the dogs on the course, and extend them to the utmost of their speed and endurance. The man who controls the speed of the hare, keeps it just temptingly in front, and it travels round the course, with the pack at heel. With the dogs left to their own devices, the best animal should win. There can be no question of “pulling” or “fixing” it among the pups themselves. And a case of crossing or obstruction is not reported to the stewards. No, it is settled in the old, honourable way, as between perfect gentlemen. Thev fight it out then and there on the track, 'despite the fury of the bookies, the owners and the backers. More than one likely pup has thrown away his chance of winning, to defend his honour *n the track, or to dispute another form of supremacy with some provocative competitor on his flank. Of course there are nice little questions of diet, which will affect a dog’s condition and form. A certain meal before a race may knock many second’ off a champion’s time, so I have heard. And who knows what degree of intelligence may yet be developed in these raging hounds. Meanwhile, the horses hold the glad crowd during the day, and those who have anything left may spend it on the puppies in the moonlight. It looks as though the movies will tor once join hands with the clergv in combating this new source of evil. It is the movie patron who is noticeably “going

to the dog.” Yet the truly strange part of it is that tin hare racing in England was almost entirely due to the clergy. They had joined in the protest against the cruelty of coursing with live bunnies, and one enterprising clergyman asked for a mechanical substitute, to make it more humane. Even the Bishops supported the idea, little dreammg that a sport which had but comparatively few followers, would develop into oue of the greatest gambling evils of the day. America has its little problem in this matter also. In the . respectable ’ area in which Chicago is situated, and that territory, gambling is not permitted at races, and as you may imagine races do not thrive. But they have .coursing dogs. Recently an attempt was made to evade the law, and to devise, some method of backing your fancy, without infringement. Whether it will stand in a court of law has yet to be seen, but this is how the American is doing

it. Patrons of these coursing events were not gamblers, but “contributors.” At the dog races he did not go up and say : “Ten bob on Fleet Flossy,” or “Five sevens.” No, it. .was much more complicated. Before the race the dogs are paraded, and the patrons of sport look them over, take note of- their form, watch their paces. Having decided which pup he thinks will win, the patron goes to the appointed office and savs:— . “I think No. 7, Fleet Flossy, will win, and I want to contribute ten bob (or five dollars) to her earnings.” He is thanked for his generosity and handed a receipt. In this way a large sum is "contributed” to the prospective earnings of the many dogs. As the race starts, the total of the money is counted, ten per cent, deducted lor prizes, expenses, etc., and the balance returned as a sort of dividend among those who were lucky enough to contribute” to the winner. In otuer words, it is the Pari-mutuel, or totahsator svstem without the tote. When this craze for dog racing with tin hares reaches New Zealand, as it seems likelv to do, for it is rapidly spreading, it will be. interesting to see what methods are devised to dodger the gambling laws, and what the. racing clubs will have to say about this newcomer. Of course that £lO,OOO a week to the Treasury in England, derived from this new source of revenue, may not be overlooked by our legislators. ISince the above was.written, betting on mechanical hares in New South. Wales has been declared to be legal.]