MAN V. WHIPPET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16225, 24 December 1926, Page 8

MAN V. WHIPPET

j THE DOG'S CHANCE Oiie of the events to be conducted at the Ngatapa Sport* Club's .New %&X meeting is & ma,tch betweeh a foot-run-ner and a whippet, and keert discussion has already takeii place on the chances of tliis novel contest. That the dog should win with a good margin is the opinion of meii who have had much to do with the fleet canines., It is recorded that a whippet may attain a speed of from 45 fo 50 miles an hour, in a quarter-mile burst, and that they display great intelligence in. running their races. In the United States the whippet has come into favor as a medium of sporting contests, and dogs are raced iti fields numbering up to 12 or more, on the flat and over bodies. In the Old Country they are even more popular, and are knownm many districts as the "poor man's racehorse." Tales are told of miners' families in the Welsh coal-mining areas stinting themselves of food in order that the household whippet may bo toned up with port wine and* juicy 6teaks in anticipation of a race. A runner meeting a whippet on even terhis must accept the prospect of defeat, it seeihs, for the dogs bit their full stride almost lit the first bound. The best of sprint runners reach a speed of close to 20 miles an hour in .i run of 100 yards, but this rate of travel is child's play to a good dog.