ARE BATTERIES USED?

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 106, 4 April 1936, Page 6

ARE BATTERIES USED?

AN AUSTRALIAN QUESTION. When analysing the performance of a horse that ran during the Victorian autumn carnival a well-known racingman, who has been on the “inside of things for many years, remarked that he could come to no other conclusion than that a battery was used on the horse. It is an interesting observation (says the Melbourne Globe), and raises the question once again: Are batteries still being used’ The fact that a tiny instrument of torture is found occasionally on a racecourse in other States provides an effective answer to the Query. Victoria has been rather free from such finds in recent years, but this does not. necessai ily mean that batteries are not being used in the southern State. Maybe the users are a little more careful in the handling ot them. There have, been a few performances and incidents that have aroused suspicion, but only in the minds of patrons of the sport. The stewards have passed them without question, so we can only assume that critics have been just a wee bit too suspicious. About three years ago, when the stewards caused a sensation by searching some of the riders in a race at Flemington, it was intimated that such examinations might be expected periodically but so far as is known there has been none since. Just to allay publio suspicion it would be a good idea if the stewards oxercised their rights in this direction occasionally.