HEWITT AT HOME.

Otago Witness, Issue 2784, 24 July 1907, Page 54

HEWITT AT HOME.

Those who have been following the fortunes of the popular New Zealand rider, L. H. Hewitt, will be pleased to learn that success now seeme assured for the erstwhile Yaidburst horseman. 'When he first arrived in England there was a little too much of the poff preliminary business about, and some of the critics (perhaps because they were robbed of * chance of "discovering" a, good rider) looked at his horsemanship in a fault-finding spirit. It is no doubt difficult for a rider to make hie mark at Home, but a certain amount of hostility displayed by some of the sporting writers evidently did Hewitt some harm, and he is indeed fortunate in the faot that he was allied to a fairly good stable. That Hewitt would have had a great deal of difficulty to make hds way as a freelance is evidenced by the fact that lie has had very few mounts outside of the stable to which he holds & retainer. For the beginning of the leason — March 18 to June 13— Hewitt had only 37 . mounts, despite the all-important fact that he can go to scale at a very handy weight. By way of comparison, it may be .pointed out that ir- the same period quoted above Higgs, who was at the head of the winning list on June 7, had received 236 mounts, and two other riders in M'Gall arid Trigg had each over 200 rides. Eight others had from 100 to close on 200 l-ides, «.nd about seven others had received from about 40 rides to 100. No doubt many other riders, who, like Hewitt, are not in the winning list owning U> having won less than 10 races, have h*d as many mounts as the ex-New Zealander. and this will give some idea of the fact that he has not been rushed with mounts. Still, however, he is keeping his place, and the last mail bearing issues of the Sportsman from June 8 to 14show that his services are being more in general request, whilst the fact that he possibly rode Lallv in the Eclipse Stakes (of 10,000sovs) would give him a boost, in addition to bringing some grist to the mill. On Oaks Day at the Epsom meeting H*»witt rode for Air Spencer Gollan in the final event on the card, and his mount was a filly by Bill o' Portland out of the New Zealand-bred mare Freda, the daughter of Maxim and Fair Nell. The filly was not mentioned in the betting, and was beaten by- half a length. On the same day he had the bad luok to be on the wrong one in the Acorn Stakes (930sovs), as he was on Mr J. Buchanan's Flying Thought (8.6). and the race was won by the same gentleman's Pretty Quick, who carried 8.9. At Lingfield on June 10 he rode a third and was twice unplaced, but on the second day of the same meeting 'he won on a filly named I«uc3 - Ashton, owned by Mr J. Buchanan. He is reported to have won easily by a slicrt head, and was chid^d for I cutting it needlessly fine. At the Lewes meeting on June 12 Hewitt rode a 10 to 1 chance named Claretoi for Major Edwardes, and "won cleverly by a length." Later ia the day he was second, but beaten easily in a two-year-old race, and also had an unplaced mount ; and op the following day had two unsuccessful rides. His win on Claretoi was thus commented gja. hx the

Sportsman: — "Claretai was the only outsider to score during the a-fternoon, and when the -bookmakers saw a. long way from the winning-post that he had the verdict in safe keeping they must have been well pleased. Claretoi was ridden by Hewitt, whose services, it is safe to predict, will before long be in general demand, because not only does the Australian* record of nine winners out of 37 mounts show that he can ride, but since i his -sojourn in this country he has given evidence that he is the sort of jockey that we like to welcome here. The fact is we have during the -last 10 years had many American and colonial jrckeye over trho have -come with much flourishing of trumpets, and have quickly shewn not alone that they were novices in art of race-riding, bnt that their personal characteristics were sometimes the reverse of Aatistactoiy, and so things have been made rather hard for a stranger, as -owners have become chary of employing a jockey before he has shown what .sort of man he is, not only in the saddle, but out of it. For this reason Hewitt, who has for years held a leading position among the jockeys in Australia, has had a comparatively idle time since arrival, but owners and trainers are beginning to know and like him, -and the more they know him the better they will like him, a #ood many people think."