Sporting Review. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1890.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume I, Issue 20, 13 December 1890, Page 3

Sporting Review. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1890.

The Stewards of the Takapuna Jockey Club met last Tuesday evening, and after considerable deliberation decided to dismiss the protest against Ringtail for the Maiden Plate which she won at the late race meeting. The grounds for so doing are not stated. We have heard both sides of the question, and after careful consideration we are of opinion that the Stewards of the Takapuna Jockey Club are in the right. As we understand that an appeal will be made to the Auckland Racing Club Committee, as the Metropolitan Club, we cannot go into the pros and cons of the matter as it is legally speaking sub judice. In a case like this, where there is no rule in the New Zealand Metropolitan Racing Club Rules bearing on the matter, the A.R.C. Club should be guided by the ruling of the Newmarket Jockey Club and take that as a precedent. We, therefore, beg to refer them to the decisions arrived at regarding Mystery at Huntingdon and Tom Moody at Shrewsbury. There are several other similar decisions which are to be found in Messrs. Weatherly’s Official Racing Calendar. The facts of the Mystery case are these : — The mare was entered in a race and was made a great favourite. One or two of the leading bookmakers discovered that her owner was accidently in the forfeit list for some two or three sovereigns, we forget the exact amount, so those in the know overlaid their books some thousands of pounds against her, knowing that she would be objected to. Mystery came in an easy winner, and to the astonishment of the

general public an objection was lodged on account of her owner being in the forfeit list, he being one of the most straight forward men on the turf. If we remember right, Admiral Rous, Lord Falmouth and Mr. George Payne were the Stewards who heard the objection. They ruled that the objection should have been made before the race was run, and that as Mystery had carried her proper weight, run the right course, and there was no attempt at fraud on the part of the owner or any one connected with the mare, and that the public had backed her in good faith, also, that certain bookmakers having knowledge that the mare would be disqualified had overlaid their books, thus robbing the public, they decided that all bets should go to the backers of Mystery, and that the stakes be paid to the second horse. In the case of Tom Moody/ he had been purchased from a farmer in South Wales without a name, but it subsequently turned out after his win at Shrewsbury that he had run at a little meeting not under the Newmarket rules and under another name. In this case the Stewards also decided that as there was no intention of fraud on the part of the owner, and that the public had backed the horse in good faith, that bets should be paid to the horse first past the post, and that the stakes should go to the second horse. It will be seen from the foregoing cases that thev, the Stewards of the Newmarket Jockey Club, do not always decide the disputes by the strict reading of the rules, but also take into consideration the equity of the case.

We have been asked on more than one occasion to interprete the Rule 4 and Rule 50 of the Rules of Racing adopted by the Metropolitan Clubs in New Zeland regarding maidens and their allowances. Many acts have been passed in New Zealand that would puzzle the cleverest lawyers, so would some of the rules passed by the Metropolitan Clubs puzzle the oldest racing men. As our reading of the Rules above mentioned are at variance with the leading authorities in Auckland we have been requested by several stewards to forward them to the Newmarket Jockey Club for interpretation. Therefore, by the next mail we intend to forward a copy of them through Messrs. Weatherly to the Stewards for the time being of the Newmarket Jockey Club asking them to interprete the proper reading of Rules 4 and 50, also some of the others. We feel pretty confident that they will coincide with us as to the interpretation of them though we are at variance with the magnates.