TALK OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 45

TALK OF THE DAY.

RACING IRREGULARITIES.

The stewards of the Palmerston Racing Club have certainly dealt now in a sufficiently salutary manner with the persons whom they believe to have been guilty of corrupt or suspicious practices in connection with the running of the Novel Handicap at the New \ ear's Day meeting. It will be remembered that, as the result of the inquiry originally held by them, the stewards inflicted certain punishment on two of the jockeys who took part in the race, but no action was taken in regard to the owners ; and when the decisions were communicated to the metropolitan club for its endorsement that body very properly expressed the opinion that the stewards had not gone far enoixgh, and hinted that until punishment was extended to the. owners concerned in what looked suspiciously like a conspiracy to secure that a race should be decided according to a prearranged plan the ends of justice had not been adequately met. As the outcome of this the Palmerston stewards reopened the inquiry, with the resultthat was reported in our issue yesterday morning. It is not likely to be suggested, we think, that there is any lack of adequacy about the disqualifications they have now imposed. The persons chiefly affected will, indeed, be disposed probably to regard the decisions of the stewards as startliugly severe, but the public, which desires to see its sport preserved from the taint of corruption and, as far as possible, to maintain the purity of the turf, will hail with extreme satisfaction the evidence the Palmerstoa Racing Club has afforded of its firm determination to administer a fitting punishment to those whom it adjudges to be guilty of practices of a questionable order. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that more light could not have been thrown upon the circumstances connected with the rapid changes that occurred in the ownership of the horse Saladin, which, in the space of a month or so, seems to have passed out of the possession of Sheehy into that of John O'Connell, and subsequently to have been turned over to Coghill and Leslie in succession, and then to have once more become the property of one of the O'Connells ; but we imagine that the railway authorities may yet have something to say upon this matter. And even as it is, although the disqualification of one of the horses that was engaged in the race at Palmerston which was the subject of inquiry came too late to prevent him from competing in and winning two races at Naseby on Thursday, the result of the stewards' inquiry is distinctly satisfying. Besides the jockeys who have suffered, two of the owners have been placed beyond the pale for five years, and the rider of the third horse for 10 years, while ths three horses have been disqualified for five years. The thanks of the turf authorities throughout the colony are really due to the Palmerston Hacing Club for its action in this case.