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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 150, 8 June 1893, Page 5

Simultaneously with the proposed amendments of certain New Zealand Rules of Racing, and the publication of a new code by the Victoria Racing Club when the present racing shall have winged its flight, come particulars from America of the new racing rules adopted by the Turf Congress. The first of these embodies the principle that horses must be ridden out for second and third place under the same rules that govern first place, /.<?., he must ride a horse out as long as it has a reasonable chance of winning, a breach of which will now entail a penalty of disqualification in America. The next regulation, “No one interested in the result of a race can act in any official capacity” may be very useful in America, but we fear that it would not work here. We are painfully aware that owners of horses are in several instances stewards of racing bodies, but in a limited racing community like that of New Zealand it would at times be a bit difficult to find gentlemen that were not horseowners who were competent to fulfil the positions of racing stewards. We should hope that there are few, if any, stewards in New Zealand who, as owners of horses, would sit in judgment upon a protest over any race in which horses belonging to them were competitors. As committeemen, too,, horseowners are generalry the most valuable men that can be found. While appreciating the spirit and intention of the new American rule, we cannot see how it would work in a comparatively limited community like ours. Amongst the other suggestions made by this Turf Congress are rules for the licensing of jockeys (which is already partly in force in New Zealand, and which, before next season, we hope to see in operation throughout the whole colony) ; a rule that owners and horses shall be suspended for non-payment of forfeits —which is another we have in operation here ; and one that “ no horse’s name shall be changed after he once runs under a certain name.”