BANKRUPT JOCKEY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 111, 7 April 1927, Page 3

BANKRUPT JOCKEY

UNPROFITABLE FARMS.

DIFFICULTIES BEGAN WHEN DISQUALIFIED.

v NEW PLYMOUTH, April 6. Pleading disqualification for life from his occupation as a jockey as the reason for his financial failure, Hector Edward Gray, once the best-known rider on the New Zealand turf, appeared in bankruptcy liefore a meeting of his creditors to-day.

A sum or 39 8s was stated to be owing to unsecured creditors. Bankrupt estimates that (he deficiency in his estate is £324 6s 2d. Gray stated that his estimate of Iris loss on two farms that he owned was £15,000. At the end of his examination the creditors resolved to facilitate his discharge providing the Deputy Official Assignee satisfied himself that all the assets have been disclosed and that bankrupt’s conduct as far as his affairs are concerned has been satisfactory. In his written statement Gray said his difficulties began in May, when he was disqualified from engaging in horse racing. Up to that time he had two farms, one at Hamilton and one at Midhurst. Mortgagees and unsuccessful deals in farms had left him in a bad iwsition, and in order to protect the general body cf his creditors against a creditor who was foreclosing on one of his farms he voluntarily filed. Bankrupt said that as a jockey he was able bo earn a very good living, and it was, of course, since this source of income had been cut off and the price of farm produce fell that his present financial position came about. He was totally unfitted for any work other than the handling of horses. If ever he should be able to undertake the training of racehorses, he did not think there was any doubt but that he would be able ultimately to pay his creditors in full.