HECTOR GRAY SUCCEEDS

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1933, Page 9

HECTOR GRAY SUCCEEDS

DISQUALIFICATION REMOVED HIS APPEAL ALLOWED BY JUDGES. DARGAVILLE RACING INCIDENTS. ALL OTHER. SENTENCES STAND. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The appeal of Hector Gray against the life disqualification imposed upon him as a trainer in connection with incidents at the Dargaville race meeting has succeeded. The other disqualifications in connection with the same incidents remain. The judgments were delivered to-day by Sir Walter Stringer and Messrs H. E. O’Leary, K.C., and C. W. Tringham, the three appeal judges appointed by the president of the New Zealand Racing Conference. The judgments are:—

“At the hearing of these appeals we had before us the whole of the evidence given before the judicial committee of the Dargaville Racing Club and the Auckland District Committee, and we also had presented to us on behalf of each appellant a considerable amount of fresh evidence,” stated the judgment. “We are satisfied from the evidence of those who observed the race and from other 1 evidence adduced that there was a conspiracy to allow the horse Tetrachate to win the President’s Handicap at Dargaville on December 3, 1932. “Having arrived at this conclusion it remains for us to be satisfied as to. which of the appellants were parties to that conspiracy. In the cases of R. A. Powell and C. R. Powell the District Committee was in our opinion quite justified in concluding that the offence had been satisfactorily proved, and further evidence adduced on their behalf before us did not in any way displace in our minds the conclusion arrived at by the committee. ’

“In the case of H. E. Gray the evidence against him on which the District Committee acted was- met before us by considerable additional evidence which threw substantial doubt upon the main evidence previously tendered, and upon which his conviction was founded. Whilst we consider Gray’s conduct is open to the gravest suspicion we feel the case against him is not so dearly established as is reasonably required in so grave a charge, and therefore his appeal should be allowed. “We have therefore decided:— “That the appeal of R. A. Powell be dismissed and his deposit forfeited. “That the appeal of C. R. Powell be dismissed and his deposit forfeited. “That the appeal of H. E. Gray be allowed and his deposit returned. Mrs. M. W. Powell has appealed to us to remove the disqualification of her horses, which by virtu j of rule 116 automatically follows the disqualification of her husband, C. R. Powell. This rule was obviously framed for the purpose of preventing the wife of a disqualified person from racing in her own name horses which whether her own property or not would probably be under the control and management of her husband. While the rules empower us to remove or modify the disqualification so far as it affects Mrs. Powell, we feel that our proper course is to leave her to avail herself of the right conferred by rule 387 to apply for a relaxation of the disqualification by the Racing Conference, which has power to grant relaxation subject to such conditions as it may deem to be just and desirable in the circumstances of the case. We therefore dismiss the appeal and order the deposit to be refunded. “Regarding the horse Biform, which was leased by C. R. Powell, the disqualification is removed.”