AGGRIEVED BACKERS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17552, 23 April 1919, Page 5

AGGRIEVED BACKERS.

SCENE ON RICCARTON RACE-

COURSE

(Per Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, April 22

! A demonstration that at one time seemed to have ugly possibilities oc 1 curred on Riccarton racecourse after the Autumn Nursery Handicap. There were six starters, whose names were posted separately on the totalisator, and the public assumed that, following ordinary practice, there would be two dividends. A notice was posted on the machine blackboards that Sundance and Kiigour, though ostensibly belonging to idifferent owners, were coupled, Sundance being raced on lease from the owner of Kilgour. This eliminated a second dividend, but for some reason the authorities recorded the investments on the two horses separately. Many of the investors were ignorant of the coupling, and when only one dividend was paid out the backers of Some Kid (second horse) made a demonstration in front of the tote, and subsequently in front of the stewards' stand. Many of them invaded the course just as the next race was about to start, and the police had to take >steps to clear the course. Some of the crowd showed a disposition to be noisy and argumentative, but the police handled the business tactfully and the demonstrators gradually reverted to silence.