MORE ABOUT "DOPE"

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 9 August 1930, Page 23

MORE ABOUT "DOPE"

ALARM IN VICTORIA

The attempted doping recently of several horses in Victoria apparently has aroused no little alarm in that State. A Melbourne exchange has the following:—

Stewards acting under jurisdiction of the Victoria Racing Club are deeply concerned over recent happenings, but have formulated no remedy. The argjment that these things occurred away from racecourses may bring official consolation; but, so far from allaying the prevailing alarm, it leaves an impression of futility. .Exemplary action regarding dopers has been taken in other States. If the stipendiary steward system does not meet requirements here, a special officer or officers ought to be appointed to determine the identity of wrong-doers. Racecourse crooks are notoriously cunning

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and resourceful. Yet they have been outwitted elsewhere, and a stigma will be placed on Victorian administration if men of evil design and practice are not driven off the Turf. Waves of police activity have the effect of causing criminals of one city to migrate to another capital. It may be that horse-dopers, discovering conditions to be too hot in their native lairs, have invaded the Victorian metropolis. But, whereas inter-State reciprocity enables police detectives to keep in touch with the movements of undesirables, no such system operates on the Turf. Positive identification in Melbourne of men who were engaged at horse-doping in Queensland has been made. Shall these individuals be permitted to ply their calling here with impunity? The claim is made that no convicted person is allowed entry to our saddling paddocks. That may be ever so true, but the doper is pot necessarily a man who has come within reach of the law. He is a cool, clever, audacious scoundrel, with expert knowledge of drugs and how to administer them. »