RACING TOUTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8950, 14 January 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

RACING TOUTS.

The tout of the present d»y produces a mixed effect of good and evil. It is no longer practicable for a " dead 'un" to be kept In his stable and at the same time to be maintained fairly in the market for milking purposes. If a prominent favourite for an impending event is absent butt one morning from exercise, the information is pretty safe to figure even in the evening newspapers. No man of rectitude approve* of the principle of an owner getting money out of his own animal by laying against him at the expense of a gullible public, and, If the functions of touts operated no further than in this direction, those who have the interest of the turf at heart would freely idlow that these waifs and strays were productive of good in their generation. Us the other band, it has been long admitted, as ad axiom of recognised morality of the turf, that an owner is not only justified in backing a horse, and in running him with a view to the bets which he may win by his success, but alto in endeavouring to conceal from the public the extent of the merits of his animal with the intent of thereby obtaining better odds in the market, always provided that he doss not seek to attain this latter desideratum by deliberately running a horse to lose. An owner who finds a dark horse up to unexpectedly good form is under no moral obligation to announce his discovery to the world ; and, inasmuch as racing is a commercial undertaking, he has a reasonable ground for complaint if au act of trespass enables someone, who bears no share of the burden of bis expenditure, to anticipate the news of his intended coup and to spoil his market. It is this effect of touting which renders the pursuit unpopular with owners ; and it is in recognition of their moral right to have their secrets kept in this respect that the Jockey Club very properly frame stringent rules and penalties against invasion of the privacy of the Newmarket trial ground. The calling and normal antecedents of a professional tout are such as to disentitle him to much respect even from his patrons. They may pay him for his gleanings, but they nevertheless are inclined to hold his character in contempt, and to trust him and his word just so tar as they can see and hear him, or so far as they think it is for the present worth his while to be veracious. The antipathy of trainers to such persona is as intelligible as it is fervid.—Field.