INTERNATIONAL HORSE-RACING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18999, 23 October 1923, Page 8

INTERNATIONAL HORSE-RACING.

Philip of Macedon is said to have reckoned a horse race won at Olympus' iinong his three "fearful felicities." Tt is very likely that he .did, and human nature has not changed much in this connection. The international race between the last Derby winner at Epsom and a representative American three-year-old is now & thing of the past, and we shall be regaled with no more interesting cabled items relating to the condition of the redoubtable contestants. Upon American soil the American horse has been the victor, and the cogno.scenti will be able to say that they expected as much. For. in the beginning the majority of a racing men in England shook their heads at the idea of a match of this kind, and not without reason. For one thing, it is quite a serious matter to take a delicately nurtured racehorse across the Atlantic late .in the year, and then there are the problems connected with his diet away from home. Et is a far cry from Newmarket to Bel; mont Pfirk, and it was considered essential that Papyrus should be accompanied by his own supply of British fodder, and, so it was said, of drinking water as well. Even so, thera could be no equalising the conditions: the dirt tracks of the United States might well upset the sensitive machinery of a thoroughbred accustomed to the English turf, and a ehanjfp of climate interfere with a reproduction of perfect form. It is manifest that circumstances were in favour of the stay-at-home Zev in this contest. In accepting the proposals for the match from the United States Mr Irish, the owner of the Derby winner, was doubtless actuated both by a "sporting spirit" and by certain commercial considerations.

’here was a, handsome stake in the balance, and there was as well an economic aspect of the match thus indicated by a writer in The Times : —“lf Papyrus wins in America Mr Irish will probably receive £50,000 for the colt. If ho fails he may get £30,000 for him in this country, the same sum as if he did not go to America, because people in this country will not pay any attention to the American match. If he wins it means nothing to us, and if he loses it will mean nothing, since his defeat will be attributed to the journey and the changed conditions.” The racing world has a very business-like outlook.