Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS' GAZETTE WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD Thursday, August 30, 1900

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XI, Issue 527, 30 August 1900, Page 10

Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS' GAZETTE WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD Thursday, August 30, 1900

Dub ing the current season THE the Auckland Racing Club A.R.C. will give away in stake money PROGRAMMES. £20,000. Last year the stake money was ostensibly £17,960, but, reduced by the 5 per cent, the real figures were £17,062, so that the actual increase for the coming season over the money given to winning owners last season is £2938. The £20,000 is to be allocated to the four meetings as follows :— Spring Meeting £3520, Summer Meeting £8075, Autumn Meeting £4705, Winter Meeting £3700. The Great Northern Guineas this season is worth 500 sovs, the recommendation of a previous committee coming into practice this year. The Steeplechase at the Spring Meeting has had its stake raised 50 sovs, and is now worth 150 sovs, and 50 sovs has been added to the Ascot Handicap, which now has a value of 250 sovs. The

Prince of Wales’ Handicap, which has lately been run on the second day of the Spring Meeting, will this year be contested on the flrat day, and the City Handicap will be put back to the second day. The Summer Meeting programme this year is much on the same lines as last year, save that the Auckland Plate has been endowed with an extra 100 sovs. The stake for this race is now 400 sovs. The Sylvia Handicap at the same meeting has had sObovb added, and this race is now worth 150sovs. At the Autumn Meeting the principal alterations are the increasing the value of the St George’s Handicap from 200sovs to 300sov8, and the Grandstand Handicap from lOOsovs to 150sovs. The Grand. National Meeting has a third day thia season. The order of running at this meeting has also been altered, for the Great Northern Steeplechasewill be run on the first day, and the Grand National Hurdles on the second day, The value of. either race has not been. altered. For the additional day the chief races are the WinterSteeplechase of 250a0v8, and a Hurdle Race with 200130 VS stake money. There can be little doubt that a third day’s racing at the National Meeting will be highly popular with both owners and the public. The season’s prograu mes of the Auckland Racing Club will show the advance of th© sport in the North Island generally and theAuckland district in particular. For the future the Auckland Club has also made provision. The Great Northern Derby of 1902-3 will be worth 75050v8 instead of 500aovs as heretofore, of which the second and third horses will receive 75sovsand 50sovs respectively. Then for the futurethe place moneys in the Great Northern Champagne Stakes, Great Northern Foal Stakes and. Great Northern Guineas will be 75sovs for th©, second and 50sovs for the third horse. There is only one alteration proposed by the Committee to which we take exception. That is the reduction in the distance of the Century Stakes. Happily, it has been resolved that this race in 1902 shall remain at a mile and a-half.

The following is the decision of THE the Taranaki Metropolitan Com. MINERVA II- . . ... c . , . APPEAL- mittee in this case, heard at New Plymouth on Friday, August 24th: —“lt appears that the mare Minerva II was foaled out of New Zealand* and ran in pony races in New South Wales under the Kensington Park rules, and was therefore not eligible to race under the rules of the Australian Jockey Club. Before buying the mare Mr Beckett stated these facts to Mr Percival, the secretary of the Auckland Racing Club (the Metropolitan Club for theAuckland District), and asked him if, should he buy her, she could race in New Zealand. Mr Percival replied that if she had not been disqualified for some malpractice she would ba eligible to race in New Zealand, and that her being debarred from racing merely because she had taken part in pony races was not,* in hi* opinion, a disqualification within the meaning of the N ew Zealand Rules of Racing. Mr Percival has repeated this in person to this Committee, and adheres to this opinion even now, and states that he does not consider the mare to be disqualified. Mr Beckett bought the mare, and subsequently brought the question before the Com* mittee of the Auckland Racing Club who, on the 19th December last, passed the following resolution : ‘ That any disqualification which may exist through Minerva having run at an unregistered race meeting in Australia be removed, and that the mare is eligible to start in any races she may be entered for at the Club’s Summer Meeting. Afterwards Mr Beckett raced the mare in the Auckland district, where she won some races, and no protests were lodged. Mr Beckett and Mr MeAuliffe nominated her for the Hawera races, which were held in February, 1900, and were called on by the stewards, under Rule 185, to make the deslarations there specified. Th© whole matter was fully discussed at the time and a full disclosure of the facts was made to the stewards, who, however, insisted upon the declarations being made before they would permit the mare 1 j start. Under the circumstances the declarations were made and the mare started but did not win. Subsequently a reference was made to the Australian Jockey Club, and upon a reply being received that the mare was disqualified under the rules of that Club for racing at a Pony Meeting, the Committee of the Egmont Racing Club passed the following resolution on the 4th inst: That James Beckett and Michael McAuliffe be disqualified for two years from the 15th day of February, 1900, for making fraudulent entry and false declarations in connection with the mare, Minerva 11. This Committee is now asked by the Committee of the Egmont Club to endorse the disqualifications and at the same time Mr Beckett appeals against their decision. It was not (this Committee thinks) com-

petent for the Committee of the Auckland Racing Club to remove a disqualification which was incurred in another colony. But this Committee is satisfied that there was no concealment and no attempt to deceive the stewards or the Committee of the Egmont Racing Club either in the making of the entry or of the declarations. This Committee is of the opinion that Beckett and McAuliffe were mistaken in thinking that the mare was not disqualified, but that they really did think so. Being of this opinion this Committee is satisfied that the entry was not ‘ fraudulent’ and that the declarations were not ‘ wilfully false ’; and this Committee therefore decides not to endorse the disqualifications.” This decision, which was proposed by the Chairman (Mr Samuel), and seconded by Mr Paul, was adopted unanimously.

As our readers are aware, we THE i aß t season devoted a considerTROUBLE- able amount of B P ace fc ° bowling reports, as we recognised that the game was rapidly becoming one of the most popular of all our outdoor games. There is n 0 doubt the game has made wonderful strides during the last few years, andwe have no doubt that it will continue to prosper. There is a popular, but erroneous, idea that bowls is good enough for anyone who cannot, by reason of advancing age or otherwise, engage in any other form of manly sport or pastime This is quite wrong, for to be a good bowler requires most of the qualifications which go toward making a good man. It is therefore with considerable regret that we see that the Auckland Bowling Club in-

tend next season to play the championship of their* club in the following manner. If there are, say 30 entries, it is intended to “grade,” or as one young bowler rather wittily put it, to degrade” the would-be champions into three classes, duffers, moderates and good ones, we presume. This, to start with, is an idea, which so far as our experience of sport is concerned, is absolutely unique. We should almost be inclined to think some of the aspirants to championship honour 8 would ob>ct to being relegated to the rank of a third-class would-be champion. Having, however, “graded” their men, the Auckland Club Club will perpetuate, on a smaller scale, the evils of the American system, or a bad attempt at it, which they followed last year, and which renders it possible for a player, by purposely losing to an opponent, to give him the championship, to the detriment of another player. Such a state of things should not be tolerated by any sensible body of men calling themselves sportsmen, for the system is not a system for men. The idea of grading champion entrants, and leaving it in the power of one man to lose his match to his opponent, to the disadvantage of a third, is, in the •yes of sportsmen, simply laughable—or worse— If bowls is to be considered a man’s game it •hould be played'on such lines that a young man suddenly leaving golf or tennis, for example, to join the bowlers’ ranks wou’d not find in their manner of conducting their matches food for endless mirth and ridicule. They do not want it to be thought that bowls is such a game that they must have a special set of rules entirely unlike anything else in the region of sport to regulate the manner in which they shall play their matches. In nearly every branch of sport men are satisfied with “ sudden death.” If bowlers are not, then by all means let them take the“ next best thing, and that is the system advocated by Mr P. A. Vaile, viz., best two out os three. It seemt to us that to ask for more if almost to brand bowls as something apart altogether from any other sport or pastime, and to take less is admittedly even in other sports rather fluky. Mr Vaile is well-known as an enthusiast in connection with outdoor sports, and we think his scheme is worthy the attention of the Auckland bowlers. We understand that it is almost a certainty that the Bemuera Bowling Club will adopt the system, and we should be pleased to see it generally tried, as we believe it would prove satisfactory. We are informed that leading members of both the Bemuera and Auckland Bowling Clubs heartily approve of it. Another matter which should be referred to in connection with this grading scheme is that it is almost a certainty the championship final will not be fought out between the two best men in the club as it ought to be. I tmight quite

easily happen that a “third-class would-be > champion ” might win the final tie; but this g would be small satisfaction to him if he were a genuine sportsman, for he would know that there were many others in the competition who could 3 beat him handsomely.

i Select the winners of three races by the exercise ' of your knowledge of racing and you will handle | ?hegold. Just turn to page 24.