NOVEL RACECOURSE SCENE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21325, 28 October 1932, Page 11

NOVEL RACECOURSE SCENE

WEIGHING-OUT JOCKEYS USE OF STEELYARDS 'lJie crowd at Kembla Grange racecourse on October 8, says a Sydney newspaper, was puzzled by a remarkable scene outside the .official stand. A jockey in livery held tightly with one hand to a bar. suspended from % beam, and with the other hand clung to a saddle, his feet in rope-made loops, while officials and owners looked o.n. As soon as he had completed this strenuous balancing feat another jockey, who had been standing hv in readiness, was assisted into the loops. Such a procedure was unprecedented at metropolitan and provincial race meetings, and the crowd looked on in amazement. The loss of a set of scale weights was the cause of all the excitement. When the riders engaged in the first division of the Midden Welter Handicap prepared to weigh-out the scales were in their customary place, but the weights could not be found. They had been placed in a cash drawer in the office the previous night, and the drawer also appeared to be missing. Jt was necessary to act quickly if the races were to be run. Mr. E. Woodbury, secretary of the Menangle Park Club, and father of the secretary of the Grange Club, motored to Dapto to secure another set, but was unable to obtain one. However, he got a set of butcher's steelyards, took them to the Kembla Grange course, affixed them to the official stand, and with them, supplemented by an. arrangement of ropes and straps,, the club officials weighed out the jockeys for the opening event. It was a slow procedure, however, and one jockey, N. motored to Wollongong with the Object of obtaining' a set of scales. This time the mission was successful, and MeLachlan was returning in triumph to the course ' when the officials discovered that the weights were safely in the drawer, and had not been removed from it, and that the supposed : missing drawer was in its accustomed j place, but had merely been pushed iv a little too far.