HECTOR GRAY.

NZ Truth, Issue 881, 14 October 1922, Page 11

HECTOR GRAY.

\ ■ Writing from London, a correspondent says: "I have not seen anything of Gray m this country, although I did spend a morning with Bob Bell, who claimed to be Gray's sponsor. Gray was then m New Zealand. He did not seem to have much luck when he resumed riding here this season, and he rather incurred the contumely of some of the critics m "connection with his riding of one of Sir Hugo Cunliffe Owen's hoi'ses called Precious. Apparently they regarded it as a good thing, for it was backed from 10 to 1 to about half those odds. I forget the course, but apparently Gray thought he had passed the winning post and accordingly eased his. mount, with the result that he was beaten. This caused a bad impression, and I don't think the critics have been quite just to Gray since, although <I observed some fairly favorable comment about him m the 'Weekly Dispatch' a week or two ago. ;It was discussing the possibilities m one of the forthcoming big handicaps, and m referring to Eaglehawk (one of Sir H. C. Owen's) it remarked that, although Gray was not an artist, ihe knew the racing game inside and out. In another column there was a statement that he. suited some horses very well. At any rate, a short while back he was riding quite a lot of winners, and I notice now that he is doing more riding for outsiders. He has not been free from trouble either, for at the Epsom meeting some time back he was cautioned a3 to his future riding. This was m connection with his guardianship of Bob Bell's horse (Polymaghus), which ran second. The steward's alleged that Gray failed to keep a straight course, with the result mentioned. However, it is obvious that the stewards here do some incongruous things. For instance, a little while ago.Childs (one of the leading jocjceys and highly esteemed.- for his honesty) incurred the displeasure of the stewards because of his riding of a horse called Dragoon, evidently a peculiar-temper-ed beast. The stewards took the same course as they did with Gray. There was a sequel, however,, m Childs's case, inasmuch as it. evoked achorus of disapproval from the racing Press, the "Daily Mail* writer m particular having a good deal to say about the injustice of it. In fact, there was such' an outcry that within a few days the stewards modified their censure and said that, m their opinipn Childs wC« guilty q£ an error of judgment, which, of course, is materially different to warning him as to his future riding. But m the one case you will observe that a local man, I presumably through the power of the Press, quickly had/ his grievance redressed; m the other: case because Gray is a 'foreigner' (as they sometimes impudently refer to the man from 'overseas)., the., matter of redress is his own concern. And the circumstances as far as I could judge were precisely similar, for Gray'.'s mount also was not an easy customer to manage." .