N.Z. RACING ROTTEN, SAYS OTAGO FARMER TO THE COMMISSION

Grey River Argus, 20 May 1947, Page 6

N.Z. RACING ROTTEN, SAYS OTAGO FARMER TO THE COMMISSION

P.A. DUNEDIN, May 19. _ Blunt allegations by a disqualified trainer that the racing administration in New Zealand was rotten and that tfie sport was corrupt in other aspects, provided the only bright feature of the first morning’s sitting in Dunedin of the Royal Commission on Gaming. The witness was Cecil Arnold Crosby, a farmer, of Glenomaru, who claimed to have had training experience in Australia, in Ireland, and in New Zealand over a period of thirty years. “I have never found racing, at any time, honest arid fair, and the administration of the galloping game is rotten in every way,” said Mr Crosby. ‘‘Half of the horses in New Zealand are trained in the back of the bookies offices, and in the billiard rooms! The game is corrupt. There are offers put in your way at times, by bookmakers that are hard to refuse.” Mr Crosby claimed that the jockeys in New Zealand were “about the worst in the world.” The Dominion jockey, he said, “sat his horse like a sack of chaff, and a burst of wind would blow him off. There would never be ony good jockeys until a school was opened. “The old-time bookmaker took more risks than the present operator, who is just a bludger,” added the witness. Cross-examined by Mr E. Blun-

dell "(counsel for the Racing Conference), Mr Crosby admitted that he had been disqualified as a trainer for life, after conviction on the charge of being in possession of a stolen horse.