THE SEAMAN INCIDENT.

NZ Truth, Issue 90, 9 March 1907, Page 2

THE SEAMAN INCIDENT.

Sorrowing Punters and Sore-head

Pencillers.

It will be remembered that at the last Hawera. meeting a lot of ment was caused when Waitapu beat Seaman, a very heavily backed can-r didate m the Inaha Hack race, but failed to weight m correctly. The pinchpenny press was full of the incident at trhe fime, and some very strong remarks were' made. '

Meeting the trainer of Seaman 'm the city early m the week, I questioned him as to his version of the affair at Egmont. Needless to say I gleaiien some Very interesting particulars. Scotty McKay, Who had the mount on Waitapu, had been trying very hard to reduce, his weight, and when he got on the scale he Was, according to the Clerk of the Scales, If lbs over weight, and consequently dM not have to declare.' The gehtlejtnan m charge of the scales however,, may possibly have made a mistake, for, from what I can learn from different sources, he does not give the impression.. that he would'be alert to a happening of this kind. Indeed, it seems quite feasible that such a mistake might pass a clerk, if only on account of the rarity. The whole of the contestants, However, .cot through the weighing out process, Seajman's trainer, W. Davies, being present to look to his, jockey. Waitapu won m the easiest possible fashion, Seaman beating White Lie comfortably for second plate. ■ The horses returned to the enclosure and Davies was again present as the jockeys took the scales. .McKay, Who was, of course, first . on to the .machine carried his whip with, him, but the Hutt trainer drew attention to this as being against : the rules, and Scotty immediately. tHrew his mop away, and. then the Clerk of Scales, seeing he had no chance of bumpin'R the scale, had no option bait call on the second rider. Price 'passed muster- satisfactorily, and White Lie's -rider stepned oh, but to the astonishment of the onlookers he also failed to draw the. required weight, and thus it was that Highden came into .second money and dividend. McKay, the rider of 'Waitapu was most unfortunate, as he had wasted espedialiv to ride the horse, but the supgebtiion (advanced m somp quarters) that' he coult have tbiown away w&ig'ht while returning 'to the' scale is altogether out pi the question, for he rode with ibare saddle^ bxidle abd one "rubber." Besides he is an honest horseman, and though riot a Hewitt or a Jenkins, he is above suspicion, and from what I , know -of him, 'personally. I should say that if there is one jockey m New Zealattd- who thoroughly appreciates the honor "of riding a winner,, it is little "Mac." The napers have had a good deal to say about the incident but the only theory they put forward, besides the. emptying of the lead bags, Was that the jockeys may have evaporated m the . excessive heat. It it, of course, a .well known fact that jockeys do perspire freely during the running of a race m hot weather, but McKay could, hardly lose ' Hlbs; and m face of this, it looks like a miscalculation on .the part of the Clerk of the Scales.' One or two of the Southern stop-«.i> home scribes went into big letters over" the affair, and said funny things about the whole oi the. North Island meetings, and the meetings Of/ the South Island Bookmakers' Unions. Kow, these papers may know something .jabout 1 - v i)he bookmakers down that way, but what can they possibly vjchW about * North Island raofi meetings;-? for they never send a, ' representative up here more than once jii"- a : Diamond iJubilee. Proibaibly theif gas ; had something to do .with the Sd^ithern bookmakers refusing to pay, for J am led to believe that none of the* commissions placed m Dunedin have "been settled. It must be> said to the crcdils of the Wellingr ton pencillers, . however , that they made prompt settlement, , so that the punters here can feel that at. least they are betting with men who. have more silver and more, principle than the Dunedin "■books."