STIPENDIARY STEWARDS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1929, Page 5

STIPENDIARY STEWARDS

THEIR LATITUDE IS TOO CRAMPED. AMATEUR CONTROL HAS ITS FAULTS NEED TO TIGHTEN UP HORSE RACING The present status of stipendary stewards in the Dominion is not satisfactory to the devotees of the sport of kings, and the few men appointed to the position are largely in the hands of honorary racing committees, one of whose aims is to , spend money received from the public on beautifying schemes.

Thera are none so blind as those who will not see. In the efforts soma clubs who control racing are making to produce yearly balance-sheets showing b'ig margins of profits instead of taking more interest in keeping racing clean they are surely killing the golden goose. The A.R.C. spends thousands of pounds yearly on gardens that vie with any horticultural beauties in the Southern Hemisphere. The Wanganui Club concentrates on a host of ducks and vividly coloured waterfowl. > And many other clubs in the Dominion are more cr less engrossed in beautifying schemes. But that money comes out of horseracing and should go back into the game. Would it not be a better plan to curtail the beautifying schemes to necessities, give the racecourses a real appearance and increase and improve the accommodation? Would it not be better to employ more stipendary stewards and give them more power? It is apparent that the public are dissatisfied with the manner in which racing in some places is controlled, and therein lies the secret of the decreasing totalisator receipts. Before every race the punters group round and query whether so and so is “alive.” The stipendary steward places his complaints before the stewards. A few struggling owners and trainers are asked to explain, and an inexperienced apprentice is suspended for a term. But are the big men as vigorously controlled? Another practice which is growing surely and steadily is the racing of

horses into condition. Every meeting sees- a fresh crop of last season’s good performers appearing on the tracks, obviously straight out of the lucerne paddock and absolutely unfit for racing. Their chances of winning are negligible, but the poor punter is beguiled into G following such well performed horses, and it is time those in control of ■ racing took drastic steps in the. matter. At the recent Wanganui meeting a well-known trainer produced a small team, fresh from a spell off the racing track, but his proteges had been sb well trained that although it was their “firstup” for several months they had no difficulty in accounting for good class horses who had been racing at several recent meetings. Surely that was a direct admission that the trainers of many of, the beaten horses were not efficient in their -jobs. * One of the top-notch performers in New Zealand has started three times this season and the aggregate amount invested on his chances has been barely more than £5O. Yes, he is racing into form and, unless the public are «*• blind, that horse will carry a few thousand pounds in his near engagemeu. Amateur control in racing has serious faults. It breeds a tendancy among the influential, class to flaunt the rules and regulations of the game, and the only feasible scheme of wiping out this blight appears to be in giving a much wider scope to the activities of the stipendary stewards.