THE AHAURA RACES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1754, 19 March 1874, Page 2

THE AHAURA RACES.

[to the editor.]

-Sir — With your permission 1 wish io make a few remarks upon a letter wbA appeared in the laßt Weekly Akg^L signed " Old Sport," with respect to '^A "recent ricTme T eting'im s "the^rey ya^p^. Race-course. The j- very confused arid" random : misstatements •■ of ithis " old " sporting. party. ..would _ not trouble us in 'the slightest degree 1 , bot'ftfr 'the^btrraptious assertion he make's: that, in his opinion, through the (i very bad management on the part of the stewards, only three races were run on the firat'day." A statement of this sort coming after the repeated explanations given by the stewards of the reason : why the .first, event in the programme was .not . brought off, ?Bhows at > once that, this new." Old S'pprt/^although. he.has, with a meanness which;ls^characteristic , of., all. '^sm'art."^) C1 'imitators, .filche^-the good name, of 'a^prmer^ reliable and able contributor p^ yours; qb sporting matters,, he has.no^ sustaih^tij^'reputaturn.' of the 'origirial ;/;' Old I .; SSpot"r t" in being qualified to express hiy -opinions on ! those vwhotri ''he may /^consider worthy ;of censure in af t ' fair and thoughtful manner. , The simple reason why there were ; ; only; . three Wyents on the first day of the meeting was because there were only two entries for the Trial "Stakes^ -whereas 'according to fthe adverr tised r conditions: there; shouldVhave been "three entries -or >ho race;" ;I' am now ready to admit;' that; we were' guilty of committing a' grievous ■error 1 in 'extending „jthe time for xec.eivjngthe,eritries f fbr this race, or rather in calling fotfresh .entries, and I am also compelled t6 :: admit that we were egregiously mistaken in supposing that our efforts to benefit ..the^-parties mpst interested would be appreciated, but in extenuation we can plead our desire to give the public sport for the subscribed money, and our anxiety to give the owners of horses every opportunity of contesting the events. The Trial Stakes race, was not , to be a handicapped evenb, therefore the owners of horses coiild nbt' ! c r 6 : mpl!ara of the weights,ofor<\theyt knew whalr their horses would have to carry Jjef&e the entries for- the race I were made. But the fact, was, the. circle had to. hef,,^ squared," and the attention paid' ' f ttf the' considera- ■ tion . of the best plan,' of solving the .prbbjetn left litile' timVfo'ranything else. And 'with ( respect r t'<S ihe" 'handicapping, "Old Sport" says "the owners of horses declared .the .petspns : appointed for such , purpose were hot' qualified, and gave great 'dissilisfacti'on'."^ WSs* thi*:t"ne >fault of ' the:. ste wards ; or werej they^bound as a matter. of course to cpnsup; the 'owners of hprkes" before they appointed the" officers lof f the : meeting ?, ; .Certainly " ho1& The most experienced haMica^per^'iK the Colony, arid the : recognised 'atitn'drity in such: matters, fixed"*th«> weights for our principal event, at the ; speqial request of the stewards, and our local handicappers based their weights, on Mr Hustler's apportionment: WKep^the efforts of our own ha hdicappersj "failed to suit the , books of the /'ring,, who controlled the running, the horse .'o.wrieri wer6 themselves allowed to nominate a handicapper, and he did not please them. The gentle- " rman r selected, by the jStevyards^ with the consent of the owners, to do ihe handicapping,;; is, it seems, again.; [chosen to make the weights, at the Greymo^th. meeting, so that the stewards oCtheiGreymbuth Jockey C'iiib have by^heir^action justified our'-choice- of a handicapper at Ahaura. The eve^t handicapped by Mr Hastings was one" of the races which fell through on the scob r nd;day,;;thO > eason being that the owners of ' Horses wodld not accept the weights of. the ;!> .h,andipapper they: themselves., selected^, r .,. Were the stewards to blame forihis? "Clearly not, . and this disposes I , ' I : hope, of "Old ' Sport's" 'foggy .notions fph; tW'sabject of handicapping.' ' .' : ' '■' "" • '' ' ! '"■• '■ A - /■' " What," enquires •*' Olk'SporV' "are j we going, to .dp "with the surplus public money' which' we 'hold ?" That is our business, arid* I'll" 'Warrant'^nTe??" Old Sport" >is not the man to come forward and claim his contribution of . the.aforesaid .surplus^ for it' Bp6rtsmen''&ujbh aa he is, judging by his readiness to attempt to throw dirt upbn' others, are not much given to "parting" for the public amusement, and it' is 'level* betting there is none of his money in our. hands. He will, therefore. forenVost of all bChers, understand the vantage we gain by having the^eputation .of " hoW.ing.it".^-a reputatioti which'is founded ongoddFglSunds, . aiid. .we, glory in, it v ., We . are ;pr?>ud of the fact' "that We rha'de the -first' successful effort to breakup. a. oomb^nation which, in one form or. other, has had' a blighting influence.upqn legitimate sport, and which has : very, nearly r damned fthe.:pastime of. horse-racing ; in this part jbf the Colony. We had good, money ,to run for, and we ' have it ' still;; : thanks to' :! thV j splendid " failure " of 'our meetitig i'f we r • offered* it T freelyy : but oui* good intentions" were not met in that spirit • which > aptuateft true •sportsmen, young pr^qld,, and [we consequently; put down with a stro l og hand the jttempts. made tq^ get the better of us. With respect to™ the yefy~3isco'ntented suggestion of "Old Sport " that we should ; hand over our r race fond to the Totara Flat Racing ' Conimittee, \ve, inlreply, emphatically exclaim V nary red f Unless " Old Sp6'rt""ban 1 show after keeping >our money thrpugh the ," blackguard snatchipg "which has been rakde to get at it, we are riot qualified t& tate'&re of it still, he makes out; a badveasefor his . bncolic^frieuds ; but' wei ar.e;.not gpjng t~ . refuse, tp.^ubscribe to their.ra^ejfund $tH liberally as they did to purs riotwithstand- ] ing. In conclusion, I cari inform*" Old Sport" that we intend ta abide by the action wo have taken, and " we are prepared to maintain our position, bjit 5 if we should even decide to, return thV money wehold to those', who^ su bacrißed it, we will have .the satisfaction 1 of knowing, what has become of it. In' bidding adieu *to *' Old Sport" I trust His friends, the owners of horses of whose welfare he is. so solicitous, will have better luck at Greymouth than they hadhere, for they didn't make much out of us most assuredly.; -■ , :i , lam, «&c.,_™__^^._^. A STE.WAKn^AT THE LATE AHAUBA RACES. AhaurajiYth March 1 ; lS'Ti. „

; '■'■'- 1 *•'■ ■ ■.'■ „. ... •■..u.oi.f • ■ [lOTHE.EDIIORkJj 5U Sir,— l have only just, seeriiai letter signed- " Old Spor V'4n the Grby~River Arot^, of March 11. < In /. jtfslcOb the handicappers I beg that you willtgßte me space: for this letter*. The" ' race in which the local handicappers had to apportion the weights was only one mile and a half, and there were very few if any lightweight jockey^ we therefore commenced our handicap slightly heavier than that of Mr Hustlers for the two miles race run

on the previous day, and began with Lacenfeed at 9st. 41b., Nero being next with 83t. 101 b. For the two-mile race on Monday (Mr Hustler's handicap), Nero carried 7st. 101 b., and Lacenfeed 9at. 21b, and as Nero appeared to have the best of the mare all the way, and won. the race apparently easily, I think we were justified in giving the gelding the extra- 121 b. . Sandy came next — in his last performance in Greymonth, neither his weight nor thab of Lacenfeed were mentioned in the published reports, so we had to judge them t>y their previous race on the same day. in which Sandy, carrying 7st 301 b (61b over weight), beat Lacenfeed at dat Clb. He (Sandy) therefore, I take it, was upon his public performance very fairly in at Bst lib. Septimus was next, and from his performance in the Ladies Purse he would appear at a mile and a-half to be very near Sandy. North Star, being unknown to us more than what we had seen of her in her gallops in the mornings, and the fact that I had seen her win a saddle and bridle at the Waiau races about two years ago, was thrown in at the light weight of 7st 41b. I thirk, therefore, sir, the handicappeis were perfectly right in the way in which the weights were distributed, and had all the horses started, each to run on its merits and to win, we should have had a good race. ..,•■;■ Will your anonymous correspondent, ".Old Sport," inform me what lie means by the bad management of the stewards preventing a race on the first day? I saw none, and I am sure no true racing man did. Had the owners of horses been aa ready to run their horses as the stewards were ready to give the money, the late Ahaura race meeting would have been a complete success, lam, &c M W. Phillips, M.R.C.S.E., &c, One of the Handicappers at the late 'Ahaura races. Ahaura, March 17, 1874.