Stipendiary Stewards Awkwardly Placed

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 972, 15 May 1930, Page 14

Stipendiary Stewards Awkwardly Placed

POSITION IN N.S.W. PROTECTION WANTED No level-headed racegoer can deny that the A.J.C. stewards are imbued with a desire to cleanse the racing game. But there has grown in racing circles a feeling that some further step could be taken by higher officials to help the stewards in their campaign against crooked running and foul riding, by granting them protection against outside influences. Thus a writer in the Sydney “Guardian." That could be done by an alteration of the terms under which the stewards are appointed. There is no definite term of office. The A.J.C. committee, if it sees fit, can dispense with their services at a given notice, and it is in that particular that the position is bristling with possibilities. A.J.C. stewards, after all, are in their positions not from any personal desire to deprive people of their racing freedom, but to fulfil the duties imposed upon them by the higher officials when they were put into their jobs. It is their business, their vocation. Penalties on Employers The men who appoint them, however, are for the most part actively engaged in racing—owning horses, patronising the leading trainers and jockeys. \ The position, then, is that the stewards have the power to inflict penalties on their employers or the fellowemployees of their- employers. Disregarding the possibility, however, of an A.J.C. committeeman disallowing his horse to do its best—a position that has not been associated with the Sydney turf—there is nevertheless the ever-present chance of the committeeman’s trainer, or his jockey, or his closest friend incurring the displeasure of the stewards. This Might Occur No member of the present A.J.C. committee could be associated with such practices, but the time may come when an influential official, greatly disgruntled over certain action, would use that influence to create a feeling of dissatisfaction with the stewards which must ultimately affect their positions. Directly, the stewards would certainly refute any inference that their hands were tied in certain cases: but, working below the surface, there is, according to experienced racing men, that fear where some big men are concerned. * “Hidden Shackles" The stewards are blamed for not accomplishing more toward the complete cleansing of racing. They have done much; but, until those hidden shackles of influence are removed, there is the chance that they will be unable fearlessly to take action in some cases. Let the A.J.C. act. Let the A.J.C. guarantee them their position for definite and fairly long period; subject, of course, to their being free from some gross malpractice or injustice.