RACING NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21530, 30 December 1931, Page 4

RACING NEWS

By Sentinel.

Acceptances for the first. day of the Southland Racing Club’s meeting arc due to-day. , , Gustavo is to be treated to a lengthy spell. He is a really good horse and only bad luck has prevented public form to confirm the fact. Local owners captured a fairly good portion of the stakes attached to the Wingatui summer programme. Yesterday afternoon a number of representative sportsmen, including officials of the Dunedin Jockey Club and Forbury Park Trotting Club paid the final tribute of respect to the memory of Mr James Crawford by assembling at his graveside. Many expressions of sympathy were shown by the handsome wreaths that accompanied the funeral cortege to the grave. Solmar’s trouble in the respiratory organs is not noticeable during the noise of a race, but pronounced enough during training operations. It is a matter of regret that ..the trouble developed, as the son of Solferino and Marea can gallop, and looks good enough to take high honours on the tui'f. Forged ‘betting tickets were recently presented to two leading bookmakers at Kandwick. One bookmaker paid out £35 to the holder of a ticket which appeared to agree with a recorded bej:, but later he was obliged to pay out £35 more when e man presented a ticket, which was indubitably the genuine ticket, in respect of a bet already made. Rule 6, clause (a), of the Australian Rules of Racing has been amended. The rule will come into operation on March 1, 1932. Following is the amended pule:— 6, (a) Subject as hereinafter provided, no horse except a foal or yearling shall b e eligible to be entered for any race at any registered meeting unless the liamo of such horse shall have been registered with either the,registrar of racehorses or a deputy registrar, and no horse shall be so registered unless it_ shall have been previously branded for identification purposes. Provided that the committee may' exempt any horse from such branding for such period as it may allow. A Melbourne paper says that probably no horse has ever travelled in the comfort that is to be. provided for Phar Lap on his voyage to the United States. Special accommodation will be erected in the Mono war which will pick up Phar Lap at Wellington (N.Z.). H. R. Telford, trainer and part owner of Phar Lap, was in Sydney completing arrange--ments, and the light-weight jockey,' J. Martin, will leave by the vessel, and will assist in attending to the horse on the voyage. On the deck of the vessel there will be special enclosures covered with coir mattmg, with sand aa a floor, and there will also be provision for the champion to be given plenty of walking exercise; Three pieces of matting will be required, .one measuring 26ft by 20ft, another 12'ft by 20ft, and a third 15ft by 4ft. Phar Lap’s cabinet Will be well lighted and well ventilated. Because of a dispute with officials of the .Wangaratta Turf Club (Victoria) at its meeting, the bookmakers present refused to operate, and the programme was carried through without betting. Recently bookmakers’ fees were increased by the club, and a request for a reduction was made by a deputation of bookmakers before the first race. The club refused the request.' and the bookmakers left the : xcecourse. An attractive programme had been arranged by the Wangaratta Club for the meeting, which was one of the most important for the year; but when owners and trainers heard of the decision of the bookmakers there were many scratchings, and the number of starters in each race was reduced considerably. The Welter Handicap, for which a stake of £ls had been provided; resulted in a walk-over. When racegoers present found that it would be impossible for them to back their fancied horses they lost interest in the racing. The majority of the people left the course long before the last race was due to start. In England the plea that the Gaming Act exempts a baCker from paying his betting debts is no‘t always London recently it was put forward in a case in which a firm of bookmakers alleged that the defendant in consideration of their not reporting his default to Tattersall’s, agreed to pay off a betting debt by instalments. It was argued that the bargain constituted a fresh contract, and was outside the operations of the Gaming Acts. The jury took that view, and gave a verdict of £463 for the bookmakers. The defendant admitted winning between £650 and £7OO 'from, the plaintiffs, most of which he had used to pay business debts. In cross-examination he claimed to be an honest man, but said he had told the secretary of the National Turf Protection Society that, as he had not got the money, and was not likely to have it, he was not going to pay the debt. Furthermore, he had no -money when he made the bets. It is fairly common for starters to delay starts on account of one or two fractious horses,- who not infrequently get the best of the deal and greatly to the detriment of those that have been standing flatfoot. In fact, it really seems that starters are more anxious to get the fractious horse away than the rest of the field, whereas they should receive very little consideration. In England the rules now provide the following authority:—“The starter has full power to remove any unruly horse from the place allotted by the draw, and should he do so he must place it at such distance to one side of, or behind, the other runners that it cannot gain any advantage itself or cause danger to, or prejudice the chances of, the other horses and jockeys engaged in the race. Permission may be given by the starter for a horse to be held, or the starter may himself order an unruly horse to be held, but in all such cases the horse must be held ‘at a stand’ behind the other runners. Should an unruly horse cause undue delay, it may be ‘ left.’ ” ' In England in 1930 the yearlings sold at auction for 1000 guineas or over totalled 83, the highest prices being 7500 guineas for Hardy (Blandford —-Florena) and 7100 guineas for Seninole (Hurry On —Pagan Sacrifice), who died without racing. The prices of 28 others ranged from 4200 guineas down to 2000 guineas. Of these only the Gainsborough—Golden Hair colt, who was sold for 3000 guineas, has shown first-class form. This year 51 yearlings made 1000 guineas or over at auction, the top prices being 6600 guineas for a Spion Kop —Waffles colt. 4100 guineas for a Solario —Quarterdeck colt, and 4000 guineas for a Phalaris—Donnina colt. Of the remainder 10 reached or exceeded the 2000 guineas mark. The once well-known cross-country rider, 11. Carr, is at present on a visit to Dunedin. He probably holds a record for bad luck in connection with Pipi and how near and yet so far from being a great winner in connection with the New Zealand Grand National Steeplechase. Pipi was second to Haydn in 1902, seeond to Awahuri in 1903, second to Slow Tom in 1904, and third to Inniskillcn and Haydn in 1905.