RACING NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 20996, 9 January 1932, Page 9

RACING NOTES

[By St. Clai*.]

IAOXNB. January ll."Vfneent Racing Club. January 13, 14.—Foxton Racing Club. January 18.—Bay of lilanda Racing Club. January 19, 21.—Wairoa Racing Club. January 20, 22, 23.—Wellington Racing 22.—Aahburat Racing Club. January 23.—Wairio Jo ' - oy Club. January 23.—Waipapa Kauri Racing Club. Junta-! 27, 28.-Pahiat.ua Racing Club. January 29, 30.—Tafcapuna Jockey Club. February 3.—Tapanui Racing Club. February 3i 4.—Egmont Racing Club. February 4, 6.—Gisborne Racing Club. February 6.—Matamata Racing Club,

HORSES AND HANDS. One of the many mysteries connected yrith the art of horsemanship is why do horses go quietly and contentedly for some people and yet give a lot of trouble to others P (asks Banjo Paterson, in the Sydney ‘Mail*). Most of us find, when we get on a horse, that there is something wrong with us, but we don’t know what it is. Other people ride better; their horses go more quietly for them, and they oaa get their horses to jump fences or turn on the hocks on the polo ground in a style which we can only envy, but cannot approao. What is the secret? Is it a matter of build P I don’t think 60* We had 200 Australian roughriders breaking in horses at the Australian remount depot in Egypt, and they .were all hunt differently and they all rode differently. The best man we had was a certain Jack Dempsey, celebrated throughout New South Wales for riding outlaw horses in buck-jump-ing shows. Dempsey was a man about flft lin in height, beautifully built, .with long flat thighs, and he seemed to just naturally wrap himself round » horse. Another crack rider was a .Queenslander, named Stanbridge, a powerfully-built, blocky man of about oft 9in, with very short, round thighs, and yet he could ride anything. So far as one could see, he hardly gripped the saddle at all: in fact, he had what Mr Jorrocks called a washball seat, but he stayed there, just the same. Here were two men o£ absolutely different build, and they rode in absolutely different styles, and yet they both got results. But rough-riding is one thing and horsemanship is another, and very few of our rough-riders could be classed as food horsemen, for they nearly all had eavy hands. "Hands” means a light touch on the horse’s mouth, and is as much a gift of Nature as a tenor roice or aa that mysterious attribute known among boxers as “ packing a punch.” A man is either horn with Bands or without them, and if he has not hands, then he is just sounding brats and a tinkling cymbal when it comes to playing polo or riding a horse in a race or following hounds. An ounce of illustration is worth a ton of argument, so here is an illustration. At one Sydney Show I hapEened to be, judging hunters, and a orse came in ridden by a man who was a very strong horseman, but was cursed with the worst pair of hands ever seen on a human being. After doing two or three fences the horse .went frantic, and bolted round the ring three »r four times, with his rider hauling at him as though he were the anchor man in a tug-of-war team. Soon the horse came down flop on a piece of greasy ground, and the rider was removed to the casualty room. The same horse was entered next day to be ridden in the ladies’ hunters’ class by a well-known lady rider, a Mrs Elliott, who was one of the best horsewomen that I or anybody else ever saw. The committee came to me and asked me to forbid her riding, as they thought it would be next to suicide if she got on the horse. I had my own opinion about that, but to be on the sate side 1 sent for the lady and her husband, and asked them what they thought about it, The fair Amazon soon settled the matter by saying that she would put a halfcrown on the saddle, and that the half-crown would be there when she had finished the round. Her husband supplemented this by saying “ That horse pull P When my wife gets on him he won’t pull the hair off a pound of butter." I let her ride, with the result that the horse behaved like a lamb in her hands, took all his jumps beautifully, and as she cleared the final jump she Eut up one hand and straightened her at, riding the horse over the fence with one hand. So here was a horse that ran away with a strong male rider and yet behaved beautifully for a woman. The moral is that if you can’t hold them with a strong pull, try a light one.

In addition to those mentioned there were 16 two-year-olds whose earnings ranged from £6,080 down to £2,318 ; 15 three-year-olds from £5,082 down to £2,595; and 11 of four or over whoso figures ranged from £5,101 down to £2,956. The races won by horses over three years were mostly handicaps. JOTTINGS. Nominations for the Forbury Park Trotting Club’s Meeting are due next Tuesday at 5 p.m. There is plenty of racing in Ireland, hut the stakes are on the small side. While P. Behan, with nineteen winners of twenty-seven races carrying £9,400, was the trainer who did best in stakes ■in that country this year, J. J. Parkinson stood right out in respect of races won. In 1927 M’Carten won an A.J.C. Summer Cup on Vitality. Last month he took another Cup on Vertigern, and as he has been on Veilmond in the most valuable races that horse has won, V should be his favourite letter of the

February 11, 13.—Dunedin Jockey Club. February 11, 13.—Taranaki Jockey Club. February 11, 13.—Porerty Bay Turf Club. TROTTING. Jaauary 16.—Wallingtoa Trotting Olah. January 25.—Timaru Trettiaj Club. January 21, 30.—Ferbury Park Trailing Club. February B.—Now Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club. February 20.—Kaikoura Trotting Club, February 20, 22.—Auckland Trotting Club. February 27.~New Brighton Wotting Club. March 4, s.—lnvercargill Trotting Club. , ||| Supremacy, who won the Railway Handicap at tho recent Auckland Meeting, has now started in twenty races. His record is:— Ist. 2nd. Unp. Stakes.

Callaghan, the sire of Callamart, who won the Grand National Hurdles last August, is dead. The cause of his death was an enlarged heart. An examination after death revealed that it was 15in across the top,# and another 16in to the point. The leaders on the jockeys’ ladder after the holiday meetings are:—H. Gray 45. H, N. Wiggins 29, L. G. Morris 22, K. Voitre 20, R. Reed 20, S. Anderson 19, B. H. Morris 18, L. J. Ellis 18, G. Humphries 16, E. A. Keesing 15, A. E. Ellis 16. Ashley Reed, who has not been very successful in the saddle lately, celebrated his birthday on Boxing Day by riding Anniswood to victory in the Koornnng Trial. Reed showed all his old artistry in the saddle, holding a good position all the way and shooting to the front inside tho final furlong. Several trotting trainers and drivers did some fast travelling during the holidays by steamer, train, and motor car. The most venturesome was W. J. Tomkinson, who, in order to reach Addington for New Year’s Day, commissioned an aeroplane. He left Auckland by train on Thursday evening, and, arriving in Wellington on Friday morning, flew to Christchurch. Running in the same paddock with Miss Fleetham and her foal, was a draught mare who also had a foal at foot. They “ swapped ” foals and the change-over was of a permanent nature (says the Southland ‘News’). The foal that left Miss Fleetham to he reared by the draught mare is now one of the most-discussed horses in tho south —viz., The Smuggler. Steeplechasers can earn a lot of money in America. From August to the beginning of November, Mrs John Hay Whitney’s Green Cheese won £8,897 over the fences in that country. His last win was the Manly Memorial at Pimlico (Maryland), first money being £1,877. He was ridden by an amateur, Rigan and, with 10.8, ran the two and a-half miles in 4.48. The stake money given by the Auckland Trotting Club amounted to £5,750, and in this case the South Island scored most handsomely, for five owners won between them no less than 54 per cent, of the total. Mr Barton alone accounted for the large percentage of 24.9, winning £705 with Tempest, £4lO with Surprise Joruney, £l6O with Sir Voyage, and £l6O with Golden Pedro. His total winnings amounted to £1,435 at the meeting. At a special meeting of the delegates of the New Zealand Trotting Conference to be held in Wellington on 21st inst. the members will be called on to consider a letter from Messrs Harper, Pascoe, Buchanan, and Upham, solicitors, Christchurch, on behalf or Mr R. M. D. Morten, asking for the removal of the disqualification on his horse, Ngingongingo, or requesting the President, under Rule 29 of the New Zealand Rules of Trotting to appoint such judges to review such case and hear such appeal as he may think fit. * _ One of those who travelled extensively during the recent meetings was the Ricoarton jockey, A. E. Ellis. Ellis went to Auckland for the first day’s racing at Ellerslie, and rode the winner of the Railway Handicap, Supremacy. He was at Awapuni for the second clay’s racing there, winning on Arajean. He returned to Auckland for the second day there, and then proceeded to Tauherenikau, where, during the two days, he had fifteen rides for six firsts, four seconds, and one third. Eight winners in a shade over a week is good compensation for hard work. In connection with Cracker’s win at the Carterton trotting meeting on Boxing Day, the driver, A. J. Corrigan, related an interesting incident. King Bruce, who was leading from Cracker fell, and tho mare jumped right over the fallen horse, _ but tho sulky struck him and Corrigan was thrown into the air. In falling he struck the rail, which shot him toward the empty sulky, and by what he termed a miracle, he was able to scramble into the seat as Cracker made away. When the spill occurred the horses behind veered across the course and so little time was lost by Corrigan, who soon had Cracker in a handy position again and went on to win comfortably. ‘ Collyer’s Eye ’ (Chicago) is a paper never flattering to Agua Caliente and its management. In its issue of November 14 it had something unpleasant to say concerning a million dollars sweepstake promoted at Agua Caliente last year, but a matter of greater moment to horse owners was the following announcement by the paper mentioned. “Quite a furore was occasioned when it became known that more or less of an epidemic of glanders had spread among the horses forced to remain over from the summer meeting. This most dreaded of horse diseases caused the cancellation of stall reservations for the meeting scheduled to commence Thanksgiving Day.” Possibly the epidemic had something to do with the small fields and the abandonement by the management of its meeting after twenty-four days’ racing. THE NGINGONGINGO CASE. Tho following circular letter has been addressed to the Presidents of all trotting clubs by the president of the New Zealand Trotting Association, Mr F. H. Williams: —“As the members of the New Zealand Trotting Association have been elected by, and are the administrative representatives of the Trotting Clubs of New Zealand, they consider that it is necessary to submit the facts which led to their recent decision to resign. I am enclosing a copy of the evidence upon which the Judicial Committee of the Auckland Trotting Club disqualified the horse ‘ Ngingongingo ’ and also the driver, Andrew Bryce, for a period of twelve months for inconsistent and unsatisfactory running. It will bo geep Item inis evidence that not only

was there no evidence which would justify a conviction for inconsistency, but the evidence of the Stipendiary Steward who stated: ‘ I had a look at the horse in the birdcage, and he appeared to me a beaten horse, in fact he appeared distressed ’ negatives the suggestion that he was a non-trier. Bryce lodged an appeal, and although he submitted some fresh evidence in support of the same, the Association, solely on the evidence submitted at tho Auckland enquiry, allowed his appeal, being in no way influenced by the additional evidence referred to. “Furthermore it held that before punishment could be inflicted for inconsistency, _ it is obviously necessary that inconsistency should be proved, and that there, being no evidence before the association of inconsistency and the evidence of the Stipendiary Steward indicating that the horse was a trier, the association could not uphold the club’s decision. This, 1 think you will admit, was the only and proper conclusion that could be come come to, especially when it is remembered that the punishment inflicted meant taking away a trainer’s and driver’s livelmood for twelve months, tho taking away from an innocent owner of a substantial stake, and disqualifying his horse for twelve months. “The club then appealed to the conference, which after calling additional evidence and hearing _ tho appeal reversed the association’s finding and ordered the disqualifications imposed by the club to stand, the association to pay the costs of the appeal. The nature of that additional evidence the members of tho association are still entirely in ignorance of, but our representative at the appeal advised us that it did not materially assist the case for the stipendiary steward. The rules of trotting provide that all decisions of clubs must come before the association for endorsement or otherwise. Before endorsing any penalty imposed, tho association considers it incumbent on it to be satisfied that the right of imposition of such penalty must be supported by the evidence submitted at the club’s inquiry. This is a common sense view to take, yet under the decision of the appeal judges in the recent case the association is bound by the rules to endorse disqualifications for inconsistent and unsatisfactory running in the absence of evidence which warrants such endorsement. “ It is a well-known fact that in the past we have had instances where judicial committees —in the majority of cases with the best of good intentions —have imposed unjust penalties which have been removed by the association, and the said judicial committees have realised that the finding of the association has been just and in the best interests of the sport. The recent decision of the appeal judges deprives the association of the power to rectify any similar wrong in the future. In the position which the association now finds itself it feels that it cannot function as hitherto. That is the fundamental and only reason why the members considered that the unusual circumstances demanded unusual action, and that therefore they could not remain in office. They have always been able to accept with the best of good grace a reversal of their decisions where in cases there has been any doubt, but in the case under review they were unanimous that there was no possible doubt, as the decision of the appeal judges was totally unsupported by evidence of either fact or motive.

“ The association is naturally much concerned because of the effect the judgment will have in the future, both on the work of administration and trotting generally, and perhaps of the influence it may have on owners to make them relinquish their connection with a sport that has taken so many years to bring to its present standard and popularity.

“ A special meeting of the conference is called for the 21st inst. to consider the resignation of the members of the association and what steps should be taken in connection therewith, also an application from Mr Morten for the removal of the disqualification of his horso or the appointment of fresh judges. The copy of the evidence supplied will enable clubs to confer with their delegates and discuss the position with them before _ attending the conference and considering any resolution which may be placed before them at the special meeting.”

AMERICA’S BIG WINNERS. Up to November 14. the following were the principal winners in America this season:— TWO YEARS. 1st. 2nd. 3rd, Stakes. Top Flight... ... 7 0 0 £43,800 Bunting Blaze ... 6 2 1 16,725 Tick On ... ... 3 3 1 11,470 Oscillator 5 4 1 11,061 Kakapo 4 2 1 6,762 THREE YEARS. Twenty Grand ... 8 1 1 43,709 Mai# ... 6 1 4 40,900 Si. Brideaux ... 5 6 1 13,231 Clock Tower ... 5 4 2 11,000 Spanish Play ... 9 6 2 10,678 Tambour 3 3 0 8,210 Jamestown 3 0 2 6,602 Risque 6 2 2 6,116 FOUR OR OVER. Mike Hall 2 4 4 22,595 Sun Beau 9 2 1 22,185 Plucky Play 8 3 6 13,355 Questionnaire .. 4 1 0 8,037 Paul Bunyan .. 4 3 4 5,400

At 2 years ... 3 0 2 £2,000 At 3 years > 0 0 0 — At 4 years ... 1 6 2 ' 690 At 5 years ... 1 2 3 745 5 8 7 3,435