ENGLAND TIRED OF THE “DOGS.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18614, 16 November 1928, Page 11

ENGLAND TIRED OF THE “DOGS.”

LONDON, August 25. For a year England has been indulging in a series of sporting novelties, and each of them has been acclaimed as something that has come to stay. When Lord Lascelles gave greyhound track racing two years to live, nearly everybody thought that he had made the one mistake of his sporting career. But to-day there are many electric hare tracks that are closing down. There are many people, with their savings invested in them, who wish that they had listened more carefully to what Lord Lascelles said. About half the tracks in England at this moment are paying their way. All of them anticipated making fortunes for the investors. The Greyhound Racing Association is considering making reductions all round in the prize money (writes an Australian pressman). The bookmakers are also losing money. So much has become known of the form of the best dogs that nobody can back them at the odds. Several bookmakers have been reporting that their nightly takings have been averaging only a few pounds. Out of this they have to pay their clerks and their ground fees. To try to popularise the tracks again,many promoters are adding novelties. Pony trotting is one of the latest. It is quite new to Londoners. There are generally tw< pony trotting events on the tin hare programme as an added attraction. Nobody would associate rat racing with the vaudeville stage; but at the Coliseum there is a rat race meeting every night. It has been drawing crowds nightly for weeks. It comes on at the end of the programme. There is a full dog racing programme—three flat races and three over hurdles. I have never seen anything quite like it. Of the six races on the night that I was there, three had to be re-run, because the dogs tried to eat the rat. The rat was drawn round on a moving string, like Melbourne’s cable trams are, only faster. Each of the defaulting dogs got about half way in the race, and then decided that the quickest way to catch the rat was to w r ait for him to come round. This is what he did. He pounced upon it as it passed, and was whirled round at a great rate, worrying it as he went. Then all the other dogs joined him. The audience yelled with delight, and the dogs fought and larked, and added to the din. In the intervals, one of the management came to the front of the stage and told the audience what a wonderful thing rat racing was. He said that it advanced fox-terrier breeding, as a dog that did npt live up to its pedigree could be used as a rat racer. I did not see how this helped the breed, but he said it did. I do not think that Australians have seen fox-terrier racing yet. 1 can assure them that they are not missing very much.