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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IV, Issue 199, 17 May 1894, Page 4

It is rather astonishing how some New Zealand jockeys lose their weight when riding in a race. It ddes not appear to be an exceptional circumstance now, for at almost every other meeting there are cases of winners being disqualified through insufficiency of weight, when the rider returns to the weighing-rpom How it happens so often is inexplicable, and what becomes of the missing weight or “ missing link ” is an absolute mystery. It is not so very long ago that a trainer was detected placing his foot on the scales on which a winning jockey was standing and drawing the right weight. This happened down South and the clerk of scales pronounced the word right,” so the boy cleared out. Having once gone to his own room the stewards could do nothing in the matter when it was reported to them by two other trainers. Thfen we all remember the case near Gisborne not so very long ago, when an official pressed the jockey (who was short of weight) on the shoulder, and when he was declared right shoved him out of the room, despite the remonstrances of those who noticed the occurrence. Then there was Pinrose two pounds short at Hastings, Kai Iwi Lady one pound short at Wanganui ; Timothy, who only ran third, four pounds short at the Hutt the other day; and now we have Waiuku, whose owner actually declared three pounds overweight, not being able to meet the declaration when his jockey returned to the clerk’s room, and he lost the race and his backers lost their money. The div., although he was favourite, was nearly £4, which is accounted for by the fact that there were sixteen starters and the majority of them were well backed. This short weight business is a funny one. We never hear of a jockey coming in overweight, unless probably he is soaked through and has a flower-pot of mud on his jacket.