WEIRD AND WONDERFUL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3899, 4 December 1928, Page 55

WEIRD AND WONDERFUL.

Of the many weird and wonderful notions cherished about racing by unenlightened people the most common and the most fatuous is that the game is “ money for nothing ” for those intimately connected with it. If it were but true would we find the bookmakers in -the same pitches year after year? How long would they last against even half a dozen backers who “ knew for certain what would win”? I quote that expression (says an English authority) because that is precisely how it is put to me very often by people of education who think clearly upon most other subjects. “ Surely.” they say, '• there are some who know beforehand what is going to win. I have always understood that most races are arranged.” I have received letters from readers suggesting that the leading writers upon racing are paid by the bookmakers to “tip” losers, or that they give a proportion of losing selections just to keep the game going. The editor of a great newspaper once 1 complained to his racing contributor that the latter’s “ tips ” were not very successful; an improvement was desired. The reply which he received ran something like this:

“ Dear sir,—Do you think that if I knew one certain winner a week I should be writing for your rotten paper for a living? ”

If people know nothing of racing that should be no reason why they should foster such nonsensical notions about it. Their own common sense should tell them that o .ners keep horses at an approximate cost of £5OO a year each for the pleasure of winning races; that trainers can only make a success of their job by winning races for their employers, and that the jockeys who are in most demand are those who give satisfactory service to those who put them up. I am sure that very few people outside racing realise how difficult it is to win races. Racing would not be the great virile sport that it is if competition were not so deadly keen. I could fill this paper with ‘‘ hard luck ” stories.