RACING AND BEER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 23 November 1928, Page 11

RACING AND BEER

AN EPSOM SNAPSHOT

SIX MEN AND A BARREL MELBOURNE CUP DAY As we sat next to tlio Prime Minister, ivo took the tip and backed Statesman. This remark was made by Sir Arthur Duckham, loader of the British Economic Mission to Australia, who, with his three fellow missioncrs, was at JTlemington on Melbourne Cup Day (6th November), and who found in the presence and proximity of tlio Commonwealth Prime Minister, the Eight Hon. S. M. Bruce, an excuse for backing the winner. (The Bruce-Page Government has since won the Federal election campaign, with no very great diminution, so far as current figures indicate, of the unusually large number of seats which wore given to it by the anti-Labour wave of three years ago.) But Sir Arthur Duckham's statement is chiefly notable for its vivid comparisons of lUeniington and Epsom, which famous course is within two miles of his English home. NOT THE EPSOM NOISES. "We noticed moving among the people that on the whole they are better dressed and seem more prosperous than our English race-going crowds. Of course, in Australia you do not have quite the same proportionate number of really poor people. In England at Epsom you meet the man with ragged clothes, no collar, and a scarf around his neck, who has walked perhaps 18 miles to Epsom and probably slept all night, or two or three nights, on the Epsom Downs. I have seen six men trundling a barrel of beer down the London road to the Derby course. Presumably that was their sole means of sustenance for three days. You do not have that class of racegoer at Flemington. The people yesterday on the flat seemed to be good working^-elasa or middleclass folks, who had come for an honest day's enjoyment with their wives and families. "We were amazed at the modesty of .the bookmakers, who were almost inconspicuous by their comparative quietness. At Epsom they scream the odds all the time. One other thing we missed, and that was the crowd of gipsies, who add strange colour to the Epsom scene. They tell your fortune, and mingle with the sideshows that are part of the Derby Meeting. At JTlemington the control of the bookmakers seemed admirable, and I should think that it would be quite impossible for a bookmaker to 'welsh.' In England there is no such control of bookmakers, for betting is illegal. Yet we tax them just the same, which is one Of the paradoxes of the British Constitution." Lady Duekham here remarked on the absence from Flemington of the strident cries of the "tipsters." Sir Arthur Duckham: "Yes, of course. We missed those venerable old gentlemen, the tipsters, with the top half of their costumes like a jockey's, who sell you the winner of the Derby for 2s!" Lady Duckham: "And their weird top-hats 1" A TARIFFLESS INDUSTRY. "What impressed both Lady Duckham and myself as remarkable," continued Sir Arthur Duckham, "was that from the grandstands it was difficult to realise that such an enormous crowd of people was present. Of course the hill, witli its crowd of spectators, was behind us, but at Epsom on Derby Day the whole-of the race is run in one long, continuous uproar of enthusiasm. Even making allowance for the hill behind us, I cannot quite understand why it seemed that the Melbourne Cup was run in such comparative silence." Asked whether the comparative absence of uproar during the race could be understood to indicate that Australians took their national pleasures somewhat sadly, Sir Arthur Duekham laughed, and seized the opportunity to score neatly and offeneelessly oft' Australia's high protection. "I remarked when we were in Perth," he said, "that at last I had found the real secondary industry of Australia. An industry operated without tariffs, bounties, or bonuses. No, Ido not think the Australians take their pleasures sadly at their racecourses. They have- a great love for sport, which is fundamentally sound for any nation to possess, so long as it is not indulged in at too great a sacrifice. That is a platitude, perhaps, but at the same time if is quite true." "Women in the grandstands seemed to outnumber the men by 10 to 1," observed Sir Arthur Duckham. '' That is, except in the stewards' enclosure. Sitting there with my wife, we noticed ! how many well dressed women there' were." '' And they all seemed racing experts, to judge by their remarks," said Lady Duckham. "That they did," replied Sir Arthur Duckham. "We noted with interest the keenness of Australian women on racing and their profound knowledge of horses. In England, our bookmakers take bets from women, but a.t Flemington women. cannot bet, except by medium of their escorts. I prefer the English method. To require a man to make bets for his womenfolk makes his day's pleasure too much like hard work." MOKE NOISE AT CRICKET. "What is our outstanding impression of the Melbourne Cup?" asked' Sir Arthur Duckham. "Well, that absence of uproarious enthusiasm which characterises the.' English Derby. There they 'yell their heads off.' all through the race. But we heard more noise at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturdaywhen the runs were coming slowly than we heard all the afternoon at Flemington: There was no noise at all in the grandstands. . Lady Duckham: "Only just at the end of the race, and mostly from the women, who seemod fearfully keen." "The arrangements at .Flemington," added Sir Arthur,'"are far better than those at our Derby course at Epsom. There are more and better roads leading to Fleinington. What impressed me on reaching Flcmingtoh ■ was the complete system of controlling the crowds. There was no. congestion at the gates such as we' experience -on Derby Day. Epsom is not ■ a closed course, and racegoers pay' for admittauce to certain, reserves only. The birdcage at Fleinington seems to me an extraordinarily fine 'institution,- which adds to the \ntqtcst' and attraction of the meeting. From > the grandstand, looking over the .flower gardens, the view appealed to me'as superb. ' With regard to the lay.-out. of the course, the design of the grandstands seemed to me particularly fine. Ido notithink'we have as handsome structures in England. I know the Epsom stands by comparison are'quite ugly buildings."