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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5710, 18 December 1889, Page 2

Tim owners of racehorses who have so emphatically condemned theoontinued engagement of Mr Dowse'a services as handioapper to tho Dunediu Jockey Club must have apparently strong reasons for the couree which they have taken. The tnfuble arose over the handicapping , for tho Exhibition Cup race. Wnen the weights appeared it was said that tho race, worth £1600, was a gift to Mr Stophenson'a horse Occident. Mr Stcphenson is a etoward .of tho Olub. After the race tho horeo-owners, represented by Messrs Stead and Clifford, demanded that the handicapper should be dismissed. The Club replied that it would support iU officer. Messrs Stead and Clifford then, sent another letter to the Club, in which the following , occurs:— " The interests involved in racing in New Zealand have now become co large that owners urge the joint appointment by all metropolitan clubs, or at any rate by the metropolitan clubs of the Middle Island, of a o«mpetont handicapper, which they contend in tho only way to enable a paid handicapper to remain independent of local pressure from owners who, through their position as stewards, have had too much influence over local appointees, an abuse which has of late become notorious by its frequency. From the general tenor of your circular we gather that your committee are of opinion that owners should passively submit to any treatment by the Imndicapper, however unjust thoy may deem it. Whether we as owners concur in the doutrino or not, we at all events have the undoubted right of declining to ruu our horses undor conditions which we object to, a right which tho tone of your reply has impelled us to avail ourselves of by withdrawing , our horses from tho Cup and Publicans' Handicap." The result is that seventeen horses have been scratched for tho Dunedin Cup and thirteen for the Publioans' Handioap.