JUDGING AT SHOWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26027, 15 December 1945, Page 8

JUDGING AT SHOWS

Sir—Kindly permit me, through your columns, to reply to the persons who have written complaining of decisions given by Judges at competitions and shows held in various places in Otago. They make the charge that my skewbald horse Viking has received red tickets on his reputation. I think, Sir, that this is a serious reflection on the capability of those gentlemen who act as judges at shows and one that does not show the growlers up as genuine sportsmen, one of whom I claim to be, win or lose. I think after Viking’s performance at Invercargill, where he won from 25 competitors—and those horses ridden by what the judge announced over the air as the best riders in the South Island—that those people now have their answer. To settle the matter in the fairest way possible I issue the following challenge: My horse Viking will compete on any show ground over any jumps under a judge or a committee of three judges for the sum of £1 to £100; the winner to take the lot or place it In the hands of the Mayor of Dunedin for charity. Correspondence through newspapers gets us nowhere.—l am, etc., D. F. O’Connell.