RACING NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24950, 24 June 1942, Page 2

RACING NEWS

By Sentinel The Grand National Hurdle winner Limbohm is being schooled over fences. Aussie Ra is being qualified as a hunter and may appear in that role if he stands a preparation. Bashful Lady was made the strongest favourite of the day at Wingatui, and those who backed her " both ways " lost money. The usual tactics adopted with topweights in a field is to reserve their power until the business end of a race. At Wingatui some of them were up in front disputing things with the pacemakers. Valantua was up with the field about half-way through the journey attached to the Otago Hurdles, and may make good at the game, even if a bit. late in life. Valcron was well supported for the Birthday Handicap. He was moving up when racing to the home turn, but then faded out. He received a knock on the eve of the race and may have been short of a final gallop. In the light of her success at Oamaru Gold Flight was one of the disappointments of the Wingatui winter meeting. She came in for strong support for the Birthday Handicap, but did not finish in the first seven. She was a late arrival at Wingatui. and does not act well on a soft track. The dividends on the last race at Wingatui were not posted anywhere, nor were the dividends throughout the day on the totalisator building, as is the usual practice. The idea of hoisting the dividends over the roof of the totalisator building originated in the Argentine, and was first adopted in New Zealand by the Canterbury Jockey Club when the late Mr F. H. Pyne was president. Prior to that the dividends were chalked up on a small board, about which the investors crowded to learn the price paid by the winners. It will be interesting to note how the system of reducing the fields adopted by the Wellington Racing Club is accepted by owners. A horse may be kept in training for Trentham, and then be ruled out as a non-starter. The same fate may be met on the second day of the meeting, and this would be sure to cause a good deal of dissatisfaction, particularly in connection with horses for which arrangements had to be made to travel considerable distances. Form is the best method of eliminating the rubbish from a field. It has been adopted since racing began in connection with classic events, as very few owners start a horse at considerable expense for the pleasure of seeing their colours carried in a race. Form should also be the method of reducing fields at Trentham, and so bar the way to horses only good enough to get in a good horse's way. If the manner in which some fields are strung out at the finish of a race at Trentham or Riccarton is noted, it seems obvious that many horses go out on a hopeless mission, and their trainers and ' owners must be very bad judges. Some qualification should be necessary in order to reduce fields to something less than the safety margin, and eliminate the unnecessary danger created by crowded fields. The question whether Hunt Clubs should be allowed to hold totalisator permits under existing circumstances can be regarded from more than one point of view. It may be said that hunting is a rich man's pastime. It entails the expense of keeping a hack or hunter, a pack of hounds, and attendants. "Hhe various hunts depend on racing to supply their maintenance expenses, and in some cases have to pad their programmes with trotting events. The stakes on a hunt programme are on the small side, and not particularly attractive from a racing point of view, and the question arises, Why should racing support a rich man's pastime when a permit could be used to very much greater advantage? It must not be overlooked that racing is now a very much more important industry than hunting, and with the serious reduction of permits, racing should receive first consideration. It would, of course, be still open for racing clubs to cater for hunters with races over fences and hurdles, or on the flat.