RACING IN HEATS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18278, 20 December 1922, Page 8

RACING IN HEATS.

NOT CONSISTENT WITH LAW.

HEAT AND RACE DEFINED. »

WELLINGTON TEST CASE.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. \ WELLINGTON. Tuesday.

A judgment of considerable interest to racing clubs and sportsmen was delivered by the Registrar of the Supreme Court to-d£y, in the absence of Mr. .Justice Reed. The plaintiff in the action was John Bateraan Harcourf, president, of the Wellington Racing Club, and the defendant was the Attorney-General.

The plaintiff asked for a declaratory judgment for the determination of the following question of law:—" Whether the. scheme of running a lior.se race in heats or divisions as disclosed in the statement of facts is contrary to the provisions of the Gaming Act, 1908, 'or any amendment thereof."

After dealing very fully with the scheme submitted by the club, His Honor held that in its entirety it could not be carried out. There was, His Honor held, nothing in the statute to prevent the race being run in heats, but the heat might very easily be converted into a race. H the winner of the contest won a prize, that contest was a race, whatever nama it might pass under.

If, on the other hand, it. was a preliminary contest to decide as to which horses should be contestants in a, further competition, that was a heat. This was the popular distinction between a heat and a race, and that construction should be applied in the interpretation of this statute. It would be a breach of the law to run heats and, as proposed by the club, divide the stakes in equal "parts between the heat winners.