FARNBOROUGH SWABBED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27385, 10 May 1950, Page 5

FARNBOROUGH SWABBED

Incident At Wellington Trots The Oamaru-trained Farnborough was ordered back to the birdcage at the Wellington Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday. Farnborough was an acceptor in the Sharpe Handicap. He reared up at the start and broke a shaft of his sulky and refused to be harnessed into the emergency sulky, which is taken to the start of all races. He also interfered with Quarterdeck before the start and damaged his sulky. The starter, Mr A. J. Hastings, refused to allow Farnborough to take part in the race. As the horse was in the starter’s hands and the totalisator had balanced, there was no refund to investors. • Farnborough is trained by J. M. Bain, who races him in partnership with Mr E. D. Johnson, and was to have been driven by M. K. Gray. It was later reported that the stipendiary stewards had ordered swabs to be taken of Farnborough’s saliva, and that an exhaustive inquiry had been held into the horse’s behaviour at the start. After hearing several witnesses, including the Wellington Trotting Club’s veterinary surgeon, Dr Edwin Wolff, the stewards decided to approve of the starter’s action in not allowing Farnborough to start and to forward the evidence to the New Zealand Trotting Conference.