TALK OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 49

TALK OF THE DAY.

By Sentinel.

FIXED PENALTIES,

In an endeavour to eradicate the evils of the turf, it is not much use snipping the foliage from a tree of trouble whilst the roots are allowed to grow with undisturbed vigour. Remedies of a -merely superficial nature never bestow a permanent cure to a deep-seated trouble, (treat cures are frequently made by drastic methods or an important change of treatment, which gets clean away from the old stereotyped, east iron ideas. So it is with racing. Continual end avour is being made to improve the tone of the sport, but whilst a source of evil is allowed to remain it is obvious that fresh trouble will be always cropping up. There is not much doubt that fixed penalties for important races are a prolific cause of fraudulent running. One has only to recall the form displayed by some winners of important races prior to their groat success to have suspicion thrust prominently into the mind, because by no stretch of imagination could previous running bo said to indicate a great triumph in the near future. This is no now thing. It has been fairly prominent season after season, and yet there is no indication of a'change being made which will bring about a much-to-bc-desirod improvement in its train. Such a race as the New Zealand Cup stands for both good and evil. It arouses the ambition of every owner of § good horse, but

some owners, if they have something that can be classed as a likely winner, are not above allowing the desire to win have a slumber whilst the declaration of a handicap or the risk of penalties are in the -air. The bugbear of a penalty causes owners to nin Cup horses in races which are not the most prominent on a programme. They desire to give their horses a race, but they do not want a penalty, hence it is fairly obvious that they do not always -want a win. There is solid ground for saying that the penalty conditions attached to our most important races want remodelling, and until something is done the atmosphere surrounding the running of a far too largo percentage of horses with big engagements ahead will be unhealthy, because it tends to hide rather than reveal their real form. Some of our loading clubs should follow the example set by the Australian Jockey Club, and do away with penalties for their big events. If horses claiming engagement in the Now Zealand Cup escaped penalties unless they won over a greater distance than a mile and a-quaiter irrespective of the value of a race, it would do a great amount of good towards purifying the running which takes place' prior to the big event at Riccarton. There is a vast difference between a race over eight or 10 furlongs and one over 16 furlongs, and there does not seem much reason for penalising a winner over a comparative sprint for a lace over a journey that but few can accomplish. In addition to helping to , improve the tone of the running, the alteration of the penalty conditions in the direction indicated would lend -material assistance towards the progress of minor clubs, as many horses that arc kept in their boxes under present conditions would appear and obtain the race or two which some think is so essential towards bringing them into perfect condition for an important engagement. THE BONUS TO BREEDERS. The Rules of Racing do not supply a definition as to what constitutes a breeder in the eyes of racing law, possibly because it is deemed 'unnecessary and superfluous, but as some clubs in the conditions of races now attacli a bonus to the breeder of the winner, it may become necessary to give an official ruling owing to the fact that opinions are at variance on the point. There was a bonus attached to the conditions of the last Avondale Stakes, and the club has decided that it shall go to the person who mated sire and dam; but Mr F. Hall, who owned the dam at the time of foaling the winner, claims that he is the breeder, and consequently entitled to the money. Mr Hall has a precedent, such, for instance, as that attached to the A.J.C. Derby, which specifically states ‘‘that tho owner of the da.rn of the winner at the date of fouling shall bo deemed to be tho breeder of the winner,” and thus to some extent has justification for hie claim. The A.J.C. custom is similar to that adopted by keepers of- stud books, and hence we have, for instance, Mr J. F. Buchananfiguring in the Stud Book as tho breeder of Soldiers’ Chorus, whereas Mr L. C. Hazlett owned Grand Opera at the tune she was sent on a visit to Martian. Tho fact, however, that a club makes a rule to suit itself docs not necessarily bind any other club—to have it so would create impossible ■positions,-—and any club which docs net specify who is doomed the breeder of a winner must,- of course, stand to a sane interpretation as to tho meaning of tho word. Racing clubs may make rules that accept the owner of the dam of the winner at the’ time of the latter’s birth as the breeder of the winner, but that is simply a matter of expediency in order to avoid possible trouble in tracing the actual breeder, and not a sound and logical conclusion a.s to who, in fact, may bo the breeder Logically, the breeder of a. thoroughbred is the person who owns a mare and selects tho stallion to which she_ *s bred. A breeder is a creator—the mind which conceives the union of two animals in order to obtain a particular result such as may link, blend, or get: away from certain strains of blood, so that an animal of preordained pedigree may bo produced. This is what constitutes thev science of breeding, and is a happy hobby-horse upon which studmasters take many a mental ride. A breeder is one who conceives a pedigree and pictures the result a possible Carbine. No breeder deliberately breed's a squib. It is merely a misfortune that occurs despite the fact that long hours of study are undergone in order to avert, if possible, such a catastrophe. One mav ask when is a breeder not a breeder? When he se'ls a brood inure carrying a foal, and the purchaser in course of time nominates the progeny and thus becomes rho breeder. If a brood inarc carried twins, and she was acquired by purchase or heritage by Messrs Box and Cox. and tho foals were subsequently chared by them, each of these personages would be each and severally the “breeder” of their respective horses, even though they had nothing whatever to do with the mating which created the animals. Viewed in this light it seems ridiculous to class a person who aeanires a mare subsequent to a mating as the breeder of tlie resulting foal. One mav as well class a person who purchases a plant as a botanist Uni ply because lie owns the flowers which subsequently appear. IN THE ADMIRAL'S DAY. The members of the sporting press must have been on much bettor terms with tho turf powers that were 50 years ago than their successors 'are at the present time. Fancy the chairman (savs “ Milroy ) of tho Australian Jockey Club or the chairman of the Victoria Racing Club popping into a nress room with a speech like that given below bv Admiral Rouse, the dictator, head and front of English racing. Here is the story chronicled bv Mr John Corlett in Sporting Times; ‘‘There used to bo races in w.hieh horses that had been beaten a certain number of times were allowed weight, and at Brighton a horse, to the indignation of Admiral Rouse, was started, and a public declaration made that it was not intended to win with him, but In' was started merely so that ho might chum a 71b allowance in some other race for horses that had been beaten three times. The stewards’ stand at the time was a small red brick tower in which a hole had been knocked. It was exactly opposite the winning post, and immediately below it was a small platform for the reporters, who were not so numerous then as they are now. ij.Vhcn tho race was over the Admiral put his head out, and, addressing the halfdozen reporters who were present, and of whom we wore onO, * T wish you gentlemen of tho press to notice the scandalous conduct of Mr in running horse without the intention of winning with him. I wish you to say that his conduct is scandalous and brutal, and that ho is a disgrace

to the turf.’ Though we were a junior it was left to us to reply, and we said, ‘Yes, Admiral, wo will say all that, if you will ■ promise to come and see us when wo are in prison.’ He laughed, and said that perhaps his language was too strong.”