SPORTING

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 23 July 1925, Page 9

SPORTING

AMERICAN RACING

A NEW ZEALANDER’S OPINIONS

There arrived in Wellington last week, after a, trip to America, Mr Harold Carr, a popular figure in the theatrical and “movie” world, and also a keen racing enthusiast. Mr Carr did not lose the opportunity while in the States to patronise the racecourses; and the racing, both gallopmg and trotting, to use hie own woYds, had him “skinned.”

Mr Carr, who, by the way, has three youngsters by Catmint at his place in Gisborne, stated that though the surroundings on the racecourses were different to those in New Zealand, one could not help enjoying the racing, which to his mind was of the best. The fields average about five per race, this being accounted for by the fact that each club will hold so many days’ racing on end, the Belmont Park Club conducting 17 days’ racing without a break.

, But if the fields are small the class of animal competing is high, and it was common for second-raters to break a minute for five furlongs and run six furlongs in about 1.12. Air Carr thought when he saw a. second-rater do this on a heavy track that the distance must b e short, or the time-keeping unreliable, but he was assured that everything was correct.

“You know there is no totalisator, and bookmakers are not legalised to bet on courses,” said Air Carr, “but the bookies are there all the same, and they do big business. No money changes hands on the track, and before a mee-t----ing, if you want a bet, you must lodge an amount up to which you are then abl e to bet with a bookmaker, or get somebody to guarantee you. This done, you go to the course, where the bookmakers will also be found, and you simply write down your bet on a slip of paper and hand it to him before each race. Settlements take place the same evening. There are three ways of betting—win, place, and ‘show.’ You can back your fancy to win outright, or for a place, which means first or second, or for show, which is first, second, or third.

“I was one of those inclined to doubt the performances recorded by American horses,” said Mr Carr, “but lam satis, fied they are genuine. It is not a matter of men being comfortably well off going in for racing, but of millionaires, plenty of them, who spare nothing to get ilie best horses possible. These horses get the best attention and feeding; there' are some of the best trainers in the world; the riders are finished horsemen; the tracks are dirt, and fast. All these items must tend towards speed. “Black Ebony, the Kentucky Derby winner, which was ridden by America’s greatest jockey, Earl Sande, won easily in the mud. in 2.37. Sande, who had only recently recovered from an accident, offered another rider £IOO to give him the mount on the favourite, but the offer was refused. Sande then got the mount on Black Ebony and won. “It is the same in the trotting sport,’’ added Mr Carr. “Th© speed shown by free-legged horses is astonishing. In the- events I. saw the horses went away from a stand, and there was none of that jigging on the mark that we so often see here. And once going there was no suggestion of them breaking, although in the drive to the winning post- the whips would be out. The Americans certainly have both galloping and trotting at a high standard.”