THE IRISH SWEEPSTAKE

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1930, Page 14

THE IRISH SWEEPSTAKE

FIERCE CONTROVERSY ROUSED. HARMFUL INFLUENCE .ON.. SPORT 7 London, November 24. . The ■ enormous success of «the Irish sweepstake on the Manchester. November Handicap, organised in /Dublin for the benefit of Irish hospitals, has aroused. a fierce controversy in England.- ' > ,/ • People who wish to invest . in/big sweepstakes, but. are prevented by).the English law on- the subject, demand that the law be relaxed, or, at least; that English -residents be allowed " tor. send money to Ireland, which at - present is prohibited. ' •'7 On the other hand there are -people connected .with racing- itself who fear that the effect on racing as a-spor-t vriight be harmful. Already - suggestions are being made to counteract the Warm whichthe Irish sweepstake is alleged to be doing to English racing. . Sir Hugo Hirst, whose horse, Coaster, was scratched from the .Manchester November Handicap, says he gave the trainer full liberty. to decide whether the horse should run. It would be a bad thing for racing if the liberty of trainers were interfered with by owners who wanted to make money out of the holders of sweep tickets. Lord Luke, who was.-honorary secretary of the King Edward Hospital Fund, and is connected with many hospitals, writes. to the Daily Mail that the hospitals should benefit from sweepstakes. He has.often received proposals from bookmakers to organise Continental sweepstakes,' but he considered there were grave objections to them.' - - ' 1 : -' / “There is a very big danger, from the racing point of view, in these enormous sweepstakes,” writes the racing correspondent of the Times. “I can picture 100 horses going to the post for the-Grand National Steeplechase unless the conditions are altered. ■ This would be a terrible tragedy. - There is nothing •in the rules of racing to prevent the acceptance of a-bribe or a present to run a horse. If .such a rule were passed proof would be very difficult. . “It is clearly to the advantage of the holder of a ticket for a prospective nonstarter- to offer the'owner a considerable sum to run it. He could-afford to give £lOOO. Even if no extra.money were paid to the holders of starters, the difficulty is not overcome, because the holders of tickets might offer the owner payment to run the horse on the remotest chance of whining.” Viscount Cecil also suggests-that.there may be 100 starters, for the Grand National -and'that it would be easy for owners of “dud” horses to approach ticket-holders, or vice-versa.. Other commentators suggest that the minimum- weight be raised to 1 Ost.-71b.,. and the entries be restricted to horses placed in- steeplechases of three miles and upwards. It is/also suggested that the race .'be'. run in two sections, the first three horses, in each section to be run off., ’ ' The Yorkshire Observer suggests that horses which have never jumped /a fence may be starters for the next Grand" National. .