PICKING WINNERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 911, 4 November 1933, Page 9

PICKING WINNERS.

How It Can be Done at Riccarton. A WORD TO THE WISE. (Written for the “ Star.”) There is only one way to pick winners. If you don’t know the system, then you have not met a benign old gentleman with white hair, a walking stick and a grey suit. If you happen to meet him ask him. He is not one of those who guard their secret jealously. It has nothing to do with form, or times or appearances. Just a matter of associations. If you had been on one Riccarton-bound tram this morning he. would have told you, too. It goes something like this: He had a brother, name of Henry, and there was a horse called Henry of Navarre. It was obvious. The thing to do was to back Henry of Navarre. The old man was not sure but he thought he had learnt something about the worthy Henry of Navarre while he was at school. Simplicity itself. There was not another horse in the race whose name he could associate even in the vaguest detail with anything that had happened in his not inconsiderable span of years. His Second Leg.

Therefore he had to revise his ideas. Excellent, there was a horse named Revisiofi, for what a punter would call a second leg. Only on the place machine, he was careful to explain, “ I can’t guarantee that.” How pitifully simple. And many people have been going tQ the races for years and years and losing fabulous amounts of money just because they didn’t know how. The venerable old gentleman genuinely considered that the dividend was as good as in his pocket. A shocked silence descended over a young man sitting close by. So that’s how it was done. It was after the first race, however, that the same young man could have been seen chasing frantically over the length and breadth of the Riccarton course, looking for an old gentleman with white hair and a walking stick, dressed in a grey suit, who could guarantee to pick winners. Henry of* Navarre was first and Revision second. A lot of that young man’s past, and there is plenty of it despite his inconsiderable years, is due to be dragged up next week when he runs his eye over the horses. His only regret was that he could not stop to-day to experiment a little. In any event he had no money. Reasoning It Out. He is singularly lacking in brothers and there is certainly no Henry in the family and he would never have thought of revising his ideas about anything, but he is going to try it. That old gentleman was probably the only one on the course who had reasoned things out properly. Others were not so successful but they were not terribly discouraged and the talk round about had drifted to the next race. “ That thing xv'as here at National time.” came a voice from the crowd. “ He went like a hairy goat and was so fat he could hardly waddle.” This apparently had reference to a friend’s choice. They do speak like that on a racecourse. “ That’s all very well,” came the reply. “ Bill told me that if I went home without backing it, he’d -cut my throat.” That is another way to pick them.