OWNED BY A CHILD

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 145, 16 December 1927, Page 10

OWNED BY A CHILD

REGISTRATION OF TROTTER

APPLICATION REFUSED

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A boy of four in the Gore district is the owner of a trotting horse, a present from his grandfather. When the registration of the horse in the boy's name was applied' for at a meeting of the board of the New Zealand Trotting Association last night, the application was refused. The board decidea that it could not register a horse in the name of a child of that age, as it and the trotting clubs wouM have no jurisdic tion over an infant. "There are possibilities in:such case which we shouia not countenance " said Mr. Armstrong (Wellington). "We do not want to encourage a boy of four to race a horse. It opens the door to a number of abusesj and we can hold no claim against the boy-owner for the payment of acceptance fees. The application came from the Gore Trotting Club, which stated that the boy's grandfather had maao him a present of the horse." • A Member: "What will happen if some complications occur with the running of the horse? How are we ao^ ing to get on*" ■ .. The Chairman (Mr. J. H. Williams):' "It seems ridiculous that a boy of four should'bo racing a horse. Tho board should set its face against such a thing The boy should enter the horse in the. joint name of a man, 7 who would have power to nominatb or scratch the horse for races." Mr.-W. Hayward: "That might not please the grandfather, but ivo can't help that." Mr. Armstrong said the application ' was over the odds. It was preposterous. . • ;