Page 24 Advertisements Column 1

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 4 April 1889, Page 24

away well .^rith her horses, for although the stable money was all on her, and their other representative went out entirely unbacked, the grey sister 'to? Soudan ran very unkindly, and would not join her field. The despised outsider Tennyson, following his usual custom, took his opponents along at a great rate, but Audacity stuck to him, and had him settled in the straight, and ran home an easy winner. The official time for this race was lmin 15 4*sseo, but a number of private watches made the time lmin 20sec. The City Stakes, on the second day, was won by Salisbury after a splendid finish. The nine acceptors for the Waverley Stakes all came to the post, and Escutcheon was chosen to carry the bulk of the public' money, though Audacity had a large b?dy of speculators investing on him. Kotuku also was- the medium of 'considerable support. To the surprise of nearly everyone, on the course the. unthought-of Jet d'Eau came through his field in the straight, and won with a trifle' up his sleeve by three lengths. Ims was oertainly (remarks the Hawke's Bay Herald) turning recent running topsy-turvy with a vengeance. Jet d'Eau, since he came j into , the - possession of his present owner, has j started in a number of races, and has generally t finished last. It is said that on each of such , occasions the horse ran in plates, bat yesterday his shoes were removed. Was that the cause of his running so much better yesterday than he has ever been doing P Be that as it may, expression was given by a good many of the public upon the result of the race by hooting horse and rider when the jockey was weighed ' in. V Mr Ronald M'Master, of Duntroon, informs me that he has named his filly by : Neckersgat— Fidelity, Sincerity. The choice,' in so far as it keep 3up a connection in a direct line, is a commendable one — the grand dam being Promise and the dam Fidelity. %♦ Several letters have appeared in the papers commenting on the trotting races at the late banedin meeting, the writer in each case, asserting" that these events were the media of more or less glaring swindles; one of the countrypapers (the Taieri Advocate) takes up the theme, and blames the Dunedin sporting writers for not exposing the prime movers in what it chooses to think were cases of barefaced roping ; and in going in and out among the 'sporting public I have met with several people who are evidently impressed with the belief that at this particular meeting there was more than the usual percentage of stiffening., I must confess that I do not go all the way withthese denouncers ; and I am not going to allow' myself either to be persuaded into leading the, wxpopuli in an outcry against the doings at; this particular meeting, or to be pushed into thej foreground in a quarrel which is not of my own making. I prefer to rely on my own judgment, and to hold myself at liberty to expressan independent opinion on the whole subject. What that opinion is may be declared in a very few, words. I think that there was o^e pretty clear" case of pulling, and that there were two orthree cases in which there was reason for grave suspicion, but that, speaking generally, the trotting was not worse than at most of our; meetings; I may be wr6ng, but that is myj opinion. It is all very well for a man to say,| « I don't believe that that horse was om the job;" or "How could that one be try-, ing when' it did such-and-such time at ( such-and-such a meeting;" but you cannot, proceed on such evidence as that, and it, seems to me that it is highly unfair toi pillory an owner or rider until he ia proved, 1 guilty on testimony that would be sufficient to', oonviot him in a court of justice — that is, it must, be dear ia its character and subscribed to by im-j partial witnesses. If we are to assume that' Jaok White, the rider, has pulled a horse simply \ because Joe Robinson, the banker, thinks so, no man's character would be safe. What proof, have we that Joe Robinson knows of what he; is talking ? He may not know a trotter from a> rocking horse when he sees them apart, and his judgment as to what constitutes good riding; may be nil.

* # * It seems to me that it would be opposed to a common-sense standard of rightdoing to lay it down as a fundamental doctrine! that ah owner or a rider must be convicted of, swindling simply because his horse's performances are inconsistent. We should first have to, assume as facts what we know to be opposed to; every-day experience: we should have to say 1 that a horse when fit always trots at the same speed, and that if he on one occasion trots with-, out a break he will always trot steadily in subsequent races. Judged according to such principles as these, we should very soon have all the owners and riders in the country disqualified ; and if we tested the owners of gallop- < ing horses by the same rule they too would to a' man 1 stand convicted of fraud. Those who have < an experimental acquaintance with racehorses > know that it is a common occurrence for an' owner to be " slewed " by varying form, and in regard to trotting it is notorious that a horse which) one day goes as steadily as possible will break as! badly as the worst of them when next asked tot try. The proof of this is to be found in the fact that very few men grow rich out of the profits; of the most consistent trotter. The truth is itj comes to this in the long run, and if people will divest themselves of prejudice begotten perchance of chagrin at having backed the wrong horse, they will acknowledge it themselves : that. in trotting races it is a most difficult thing to prove whether a horse is or is not ridden to win ; and the only test that can be eafely applied is that of a close supervision by practical men of every horse's performance during a race. %* The present system of inspection is undoubtedly imperfect. The stewards, perched^ upon their stand above the weighing-room, cancot be supposed to be able to form an opinion 1 as to what each of perhaps 20 riders is doing, while going along the back stretch — it is as much as most of the stewards can do, I'll be bound, to distinguish one horse from another and mark the changes off position. Being thus unable to see for themselves, it is no wonder that the stewards fail to originate inquiries into, suspicious ' performances. They wouli be very much more to blame than they are at present if they were to call for an explanation atiihe instigation of anyone who chose to say that this or that horse was not a trier. We should be having an inqniry over every trotting race, and the club in its judicial capacity would, be brought into 'contempt ; and, what is a far' more serious affair, we should pretty soon have nearly all the owners branded \iith the stigma attaching to an accusation which sticks to a* man whether the charge be sustained or not. Having some respeot for the powers that be, and a regard for men's characters, and an affection, born of tradition, for the maxim that it is better thai; nine rogues should go unpunished than that one man should be unjustly condemned, I think it would be better to continue as we are than to commence the upheaval that is apparently being clamoured for. * # * Do I desire, then, it will be asked, to see the swindlers escape and our racecourse made a hunting ground for knaves? By no means. I firmly believe that it is the exception for a trotting race to be run in which all the tfarters are going on their merits ; and, so far from desiring to soreen the 1 workers of dodgers from- the consequence* of fjhe.ir misdeeds, I