CIRCULAR COURSES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20232, 16 February 1934, Page 4

CIRCULAR COURSES.

Why They Are Not Liked in Racing. ELEMENT OF DANGER. Circular racecourses are not popular with racing men, and inquiries made this morning showed that most of them are in agreement with the opinion expressed by Mr Wyvern Wilson that the Takapuna course is not a good course. At the inquest into the death of George Albert Baker, a jockey, who died as the result of an accident during a race on the Takapuna course, Mr Wilson said the course w T as too circular for a horse to maintain its balance. From the racing point of view a circular course is not a fair course. There is too much of the element of luck between the drawing of a good barrier position and a bad one. In a field of twelve, assuming that all the horses can jump out equally well, the horse that draws a position on the rails has all the advantage in having the shortest way round. A horse on the outside has either to attempt the impossible and hold his position on the outside all the way round, thus covering much more ground, or he has to be steadied to drop in behind on the rails, losing a few lengths in the process Fie then has to make up the ground thus lost, and still run the risk that, if he is able to do so, he still finds it impossible to get through, and is faced with the alternative of still trying to go round the field. A racing authority pointed out that in England, which could be taken as a model for racing, practically every course had a straight mile. In England racing was carried on, not so much as a spectacle foT the public, but with a view to ascertaining which was the best horse, and the straight track certainly provided that test. With a circular course there was the continual struggle for position, with its attendant dangers. With some horses, also, there was a tendency to run in towards the rails. The danger at Takapuna, he said, aro c e from the sharpness of the bends. Nearly all the courses in New Zealand are left-hand courses—the horses run with the left flank to the rail. An exception is Ellerslie in Auckland. So far as the actual racing is concerned it was stated that it matters very little to the horse which way they run. provided thev have be&n trained with a view to the course on which they have to race. There are exceptions where a horse sho’vys a preference for running in a particular direction, but these are rare. It was claimed that from the public point of view many of the courses in New Zealand are better suited to right-hand racing than to left. The reason i' that the stands face north, and. in left-hand running in the late afternoons, the view of the most interesting oart of the race is interfered with to some extent by reason of the that the spectator is looking into the sun. Riccarton provides a good illustration of a safe course, for there the straight is three and a half furlongs long. Tt is quite possible at Riccarton for a horse to remain in behind the field till the straight is reached and still win the race, a thing that is practically impossible on a circular course.