PONY RACING.

NZ Truth, Issue 99, 11 May 1907, Page 2

PONY RACING.

Spreader writes : After many years oi ostracism the. Aus-tralian Jockey Club is on the eve of reinstating at least some of the owners' jockeys and horses who have been following the unregistered 'games: Reeenl? legislationr to wit the now famous antiGambling Bill, has v been the* upshot of this new move. Here iii New Zealand we do not debar the. pony from , racing, among the "taller" of the. breed provided he be eligible uc** cording to the statutes of tfaoing ias set down by the governing bodies. In Australia, on the other hand, any meeting m wbioh ponies were participating could not -receive reco^aition from the leaiding Jockey . Clubs, fienee they, were simply unregistered, meetings and- as such catered for all classes of unregistered horses (including ponies). There is a rule %n existence m the A.Jf.C. topic of statutes, '• to the extent that ho unregistered pony or horse pr I' their connections could 'apply for reinstatement our initiaitdan tp- that .body until they had ' ibeen at ' least .'.three years cl^,r from bhd taint of the illegitimate . game. By far ithe grealter proportion of ponies raoing m Australasia at the present tijnve are ' direct descendants of Ifli-e tho'rofU'gMbred racing . stock of the ooloiiies and consequently figure m the stud books'!; suoh horses -to be eicgdibie ,to . .st^rt r ;_iit races of the pony- class, must, to say' the least of it he stunted m hieigbt, the short sprim't raoes th-at dre caitalogued for their- -benefit are not such that wouid give the public the impression that tbey 'are viewed' hf the racing clubs as animals of stajnina. That tbe bneedisog of horses, under a certain standard m. "Height is highly detrimental to the physica.l qualities of the racehorse seems pretty clear. One of the< strongest arguments m favor of horse-racing is that it helps to improve the breeding of horses. Does poriy rae* ing have any leneificial effect either as a sight or from a breeding po-tnt of view. Let us' stick to' the horses and eliminate pony races from the programmes until some st-fonger argument is. put forth thain the fact that India takes a few ponies for polo or a few such ancient argjuments that one hears' m defence- of ponies-