Sporting Review. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1892.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 120, 10 November 1892, Page 4

Sporting Review. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1892.

The starting difficulty is. engrossing a good deal of attention in Melbourne sporting circles at the present time. It is becoming only too evident that in the case of Mr. George Watson, the starter to the Victoria Amateur Turf Club and the Victoria Racing Club, “ superfluous lags the veteran on the stage,” and there is talk of pensioning him off. This has been occasioned mostly by his wholesale fining of the jockeys that took part in the last Caulfield Cup, for out of the 32 riders in that race only Gainsforth on Bungebah escaped fining by Mr. Watson, who mulcted each of the other 31 lads in a penalty of £lO for disobedience at the post. Mr. “J. B. Clark” and Mr. S. G. Cook interviewed the stewards of the V A.T.C. with a view to a remission or reduction of the fines, but these officials upheld Mr. Watson, and the fines had to be paid. It is quoted against Mr. Watson that in last year’s Melbourne Cup he find each of the competing jockeys £lO, and it is argued that such wholesale fining is only an exhibition of bad temper and excitability on his part. Since the Caulfield Cup fining Mr. Watson has made some shocking bad starts at the Melbourne Cup Meeting, and when our next batch of Australian files reaches us we shall not be surprised to hear that a strongly-worded petition has been forwarded to the Victoria Racing Club asking that the “ prince of starters” be pensioned off. There must be something in the present outcry against Mr. Watson when we find the Australasian, in its comments on the fining of the Caulfield Cup jockeys, saying:—

Wholesale fining tells very heavily on owners, and we are not surprised to hear of Mr. “J. B Clark” and other owners protesting against the course adopted by Mr. Watson. The authorities supported their official, and are to be commended for doing so, but at the same time such indiscriminate fining as Mr. Watson resorted to in the last Melbourne Cup, where all the riders had to each, and this Caulfield Cup, iscalculated to make the men who have to pay the piper say one to the other “Is it possible to devise some means of enforcing obedience which will not tax us so heavily ?” Surely the 31 lads put down in the clerk of the course’s book last Saturday could hardly have been equally guilty ; some must have transgressed more than others. Would it not be better to single out the worst cases and report them to the V.R.C. with a recommendation that suspension should be meted out to them as a punishment for their unruly behaviour? We believe the adoption of this plan would have more effect than the fines, and the jockey who committed the offence would pay the penalty instead of the owner of the horse he happened to be riding.

No sooner, in fact was the V.A.T.C. Meeting over than several owners of horses personally waited on the members of the Committee of the Victoria Racing Club, and as one Melbourne paper puts it, “ aired their grievances against Mr. Watson.” After hearing their arguments —which do not seem to be particularly lucid, in that while ventilating an alleged evil they did not venture to suggest any remedy—and on the Committee laying the matter before Mr. Watson, he agreed to discontinue fining, and in future boys who offend at the post at meetings where Mr. Watson starts under the V.R.C. regime will be sent up to the stewards, who can deal with them as they think fit. Thus does the ‘‘prince of starters” shift the responsibility on to the stewards of the Club, whose master he is. We can only admire his strategy, but we hope his action will not establish a precedent for starters of other racing institutions to follow. The Australasian, following on its previous article on the subject from which we have quoted, says that “the stewards’ office will be no sinecure if after each race they have to meet and sit in judgment on each boy who is reported by the starter.” What a lovely time of it some stewards of Metropolitan Clubs — not to mention smaller Racing Clubs—would have in New Zealand if such a state of things were to become a custom here. As our Melbourne con-

temporary points out, “ the fewer therw are of those inquiries the bettei’ will the stewards be pleased, and it is only natural that, as far as possible, the starter will refrain from inconveniencing them. Once let the boys find that only the most heinous offences are to be punished, and goodbye to the authority of the starter.”

Mention of Mr. George Watson’s name reminds us that his son Mr. Godfrey Watson, who has proved a most capable starter at the Melbourne suburban meetings for some time past, has adopted a plan worthy of imitation. At Moonee Valley—the leading Melbourne suburban race course —on the 22nd ult. he asked one of the stewards, Mr. Richard Grice, to go down to the starting post with him for each race. Mr. Grice did so, and such an action on his part was most beneficial, as evidenced by the fact that in one race a jockey complained to the owner for whom he was riding that Mr. Watson had told him to turn round, and had then dropped his flag. He was ignorant of the presence at the post of Mr. Grice, and that gentleman, when the matter was brought before the stewards, was able to controvert the evidence of the boy and prove that the starter was not in fault. Some stewards of Racing Clubs in New Zealand instead of openly wagering as they do and showing in public gross ignorance of the Rules of Racing it is their duty to administer, might imitate Mr. Grice’s example, and thereby uphold the authority of the starter and protect the dignity of his office.

We mentioned last week, in alluding to the proposals of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club in the direction of licensing jockeys which are to be brought forward at the approaching Conference, that the Auckland Racing Club had for many years past been the only Metropolitan Club in New Zealand that had in its code of rules provisions for the licensing of jockeys. To them, therefore, these proposals—which are a reflex of some their delegate proposed at a previous Conference, but which were not for a moment then entertained — seem particularly happy as strengthening the position they some time ago took up and to which they have always adhered. We have already expressed our sympathy with the proposals now brought forward by the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club. The Auckland Racing Club showed that their authority was no vain matter of form when at their meeting on Friday last their committee cautioned several jockeys who came before them for their licenses, and plainly told them that unless their morals —on the turf and off it—showed an improvement on what they had been, their licenses would be refused after this pending Spring Meeting. The rebuke thus administered cannot but have a salutary effect on some of the local knights of the pigskm, and we trust they will profit thereby ; but at the same time we think that there were some against whom a black mark was for the nonce placed who were undeserving thereof. It is very hard, we are willing to allow, for any committeemen or stewards to discriminate between the good sheep and the bad, but if some of the members of the Auckland Racing Club’s Committee were to explore the inner arcana of sporting circles a bit more than they do, and act up to the old motto of “deeds, not words,” they would in ail probability have their eyes opened a bit If it were in the direction of prohibiting licenses to undeserving, worthless jockeys, whose conduct in the streets of Auckland is a disgrace to their profession, we should heartily endorse their action.

While looking after the licensing of the jockeys riding at their meetings the Auckland Racing Club’s committee have not been unmindful of the boys’ interests. For some time there has been some dissatisfaction in local circles about the terms of employment between jockey boy and employee, with the result that the A.R.C.’s committee has drawu up the appendel agreement, which should set an end to any disputes between master and man : —

This Agreement when signed to be registered at the office of the Auckland Racing Club. An Agreement made the day of one thousand eight hundred and ninety- between of trainer (hereinafter called the employer) of the one part and of (hereinafter called the employee} of the other part whereby it is-mutually agreed as follows :— The said employee shall serve the said employer as for the period of from the date hereof and shall during such term at all times serve the said employer faithfully and obey his lawful commands. At the expiration of the said term the said employer shall give to the said employee a written discharge in accordance with the rules of the Auckland Racing Club and the said employee shall apply for such written discharge and shall not leave without such written discharge except with the permission of the Auckland Racing Club to be signified in such manner as they shall from time to time determine. The said employer shall pay to the said employee for such services the sum of per week to be paid on every day, the first of such payments to be made on the day of one thousand eight hundred and ninetyAs witness the hands of the said parties the day and year first above written. Witness to the signature of Witness to the signature of Registered at the office ot the Auckland Racing Club this day of 189 Secretary. Though we understand that the A.R C. will not be represented at the Conference to be held in Wellington this month, we fancy that the adoption of the abovequoted agreement would be a powerful addendum to the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club’s proposals and would place jockeys and trainers on a more secure footing than they now possess.

The principal feature of the Derby (Eng.) Summer Meeting, held during the first week in September, was the ignominious defeat of the once invincible Minting Queen (8.13) in the Champion Breeders’ Foal Stakes of 1000 sovs. In this valuable two-year-old race Sir J. B. Maple’s filly started at evens in a field of eight, but collapsed a furlong from home, and left Sir R. Jardine’s ch c Fealar (8.5) to win by a neck from the Duke of Westminster’s filly Minera (8.12), with the same distance between the last named and Mr. Houldsworth’s Caserta (8.3). The winner, who was well supported at 7 to 2, had only run once before, and was then beaten. He is by Prism—Queen of the Valley, and is engaged in next year’s Derby and St. Leger.