CONDUCT OF RACING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 15

CONDUCT OF RACING

HIGH STANDARD SHOWN REPORT TO CONFERENCE CRITICISM OF STARTING (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, thi day. The annual meeting to-day of delegates to the Racing Conference was presided over by Mr. J. S. McLeod, presidest. A remit was carried in connection with permission to race ponies debarred under Rule 66 in England, providing such pony was not subject to any other disqualification and its identity was established under Rule 3 of the New Zealand Rules of Racing.

The report of the chairman of stipendiary stewards, Mr. C. Gomer, was that the management and control of race meetings had been maintained at the usual high standard. In some instances, starting barriers had proved inefficient. He advocated that standing starts should be compulsory. Starters were still too much prone to give too much latitude to horses that were unruly at the barrier. “It appears to me that the only satisfactory way of getting uniformity in this respect would be for the conference to take over the control of all starters.”

During the season all clubs abided by the recommendation that the minimum weight in all handicap flat events should be 7.7. He was firmly of the opinion that it had defeated the objects for which it was brought forward.

He mentions the laxity of control of the birdcage and jockeys’ rooms by some country clubs. The time had arrived when the top rail of a uniform hurdle should be mandatorily covered by canvag or other suitable material as a protection to horses.