Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1907. THE FOLLY OF CROOKED RUNNING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 878, 3 January 1907, Page 5

Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1907. THE FOLLY OF CROOKED RUNNING.

Hardly a meeting passes by but one is confronted with the fact that there is a very large amount of crooked running going on. Sometimes the stewards take action, but far more often they do not. In this respect they are generally blamed by the public, who are the people who really keep the sport alive, and in doing so it is difficult to avoid agreeing with the same public. The marvel is that there should be so much running of the kind mentioned because it is somewhat of a conundurm to see how it pays. Quite apart from the honesty of the proceeding, where does the benefit come in when brought down to a strictly cash basis? Take for instance the case of Hierarch in the Nursery Handicap on the opening day of the A.R.C. Meeting. Here was a horse who, on paper at all events, looked what is generally known as “a good thing” for the race, and his running quite confirmed the impression. Now, there is an old, but ever-so-true, proverb, which proclaims how a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’. Here was a bird in the hand, but the connections of the horse scorned to win honestly when they could, and preferred some other and what some people are pleased to consider more “clever” way. Just where the cleverness came in is. not too easy to fathom. Speakman’s handling of Hierarch could not have deceived a child, for the horse was simply fighting for his head all the way up the straight, and if appearances were any indication, it took the rider all his time to keep behind the placed horses. The result was inevitable. The stewards took prompt - action and thoroughly sifted the case, the result being that the horse, his rider, and his owners will not be able to race for another six months, which means, of course, that the season will be over by the time the suspension is lifted. No doubt the owners are now ruefully remembering that honesty is the best policy after all. It has been proved so over and over again, yet still the old game of roping goes on. In Australia some years ago there was a very well known case. The horse was a great sprinter, and race after race was seemingly at his mercy, but the owners played a waiting game for nearly two years. Then just prior to the weights appearing for the absolute certainty, the jockey threw over the waiters in the very last race in which the sprinter was supposed to be “dead.’ The said jockey quietly took all the long shots about the horse, and the bookmakers knowing that the owners were not on, laid very liberal odds indeed. It was one of the most remakable races ever seen on a Colonial course, for the horse, for once having the luxury of his head free, simply bolted when the flag fell and nothing got within many lengths of him. Naturally the handicapper piled on the weight for the next race, and the owners were left computing how much they had lost by not trying before. Scores of instances of the same thing might be cited, and all prove up to the hilt the contention that it is not only the more honest course, but that it pays to run straight. The “clever” division will laugh at this, and will go on losing their chances in the same old way, with an occasional reprimand from the stewards, but this does not alter the fact that the contention is true one.

Perhaps a little more assistance from the stewards in proving this might not be amiss. No doubt it is a particularly thankless office having to constantly be enquiring into apparent malpractices, but for the good of the cause it should be fearlessly tackled. The A.R.C. stewards have shown that they are quite alive to

their duties, but it cannot be denied that there is a feeling abroad in the public mind that a little more thoroughness in holding the enquiries would be beneficial. For instance, when an owner is carpeted, it is so easy for him to prove that he has backed his horse when it loses, but not so easy to make him divulge the fact that he has also backed something else in the same race which has won. When owners take on war risks they generally try to insure themselves against a disastrous enquiry by this very method. If only the judicial committee could see the bankbook of some owners a few days after a meeting, what queer tales these would tell. This, of course, is impossible; still, a greater effort should be made to purify the turf. Stern measures when any fraud is sheeted home will do much to prove the folly of crooked running.

LOSS OF FORM.

In days gone by, when race meetings were held not more than four times a year, we heard nothing of in-and-out running (says the “ Town and Country Journal.”) It is a very difficult matter to get the public to believe that horses lose their form, or at times fail to exhibit it. If a certain horse runs forward at one meeting, and does not exhibit a similar performance the next time he appears in public, the majority leave the course with the opinion that he was not allowed to do so. Even if they admit that he was not pulled by the jockey, they will express the opinion that he was not got ready, or fixed up in some way by the trainer. Horses, like human beings, have their good and had days. A glance through the “ Turf Register” will reveal scores of cases in which different horses have put in a first-class performance, or been beaten by animals which upon other occasions they have met and defeated at vastly different weights. Those who have taken notice of this loss of form agree that fillies are most subject to it. When one of that class loses form she rarely recovers it. We have had numerous instances of this in Australia, and the back volumes of the English “Ruff’s Guide” contain no end of cases, mention of which was made some time back by “Vigilant,” of the London “ Sportsman.” In the course of that article mention is made of Keystone 11., who did not show anything like her true form in the last English St. Leger. He then makes mention of Our Lassie, who in 1903 seemed to go right off after her Epsom victory, whilst it is difficult to know what to write about Sceptre (1902). That she was one of the best fillies of all time there can be no reasonable doubt, but over and over again she seemed to suddenly lose her form, only to regain it equally quickly. Cap and Bells 11. (1901) could never be trained after the Oaks, and though La Roche (1900) subsequently cantered away with the Manchester Summer Cup, she did not long retain her form. Nor did Musa (1899) do much more for glory, whilst I cannot recall that Airs and Graces (1898) or Limasol (1897) ever won again. The first-named of the pair has already done splendid service at the stud by producing Jardy to Flying Fox, whilst Canterbury Pilgrim, who afterwards won the Liverpool Summer Cup and Park Hill Stakes, has thrown Chaucer to St. Simon and Glasconbury to Isinglass, and is probably the most valuable brood mare in Lord Derby’s stud. Taking a long stride backwards, Busybody (1884) broke down very shortly after the Oaks, if not in the race itself. She was a filly of the very highest class, for I have good grounds for writing that she was from 101 b to 141 b in front of Harvester, who ran a dead heat with St. Gatien for the Derby in 1884. After running con-. clusively proved that St. Gatien ought to have won easily and I have never heard a satisfactory explanation . of why Mr. Hammond agreed to divide the stakes instead of running off the dead heat. I do not think that Bonny Jean (1883) ever scored again after she did the ring such a good turn in a race for which she was virtually friendless; but Geheimniss (1882) had a long and distinguished career. All her subsequent fame, however, was gained as a sprinter, for, although she won the Oaks easily enough, and finished second in the St. Leger, it was only her exceptional speed which enabled her to accomplish these performances. She did not really stay, six furlongs being quite her best course. Jenny Howlet (1880), another rank outsider of the Bonny Jean

type, did no good subsequently, although at the stud she produced a smart colt in Chittabob, but little Wheel of Fortune (1879), probably the very best of. all the long array of good horses owned by the late Lord Falmouth, carried all before her until she broke down at York in the August of her 3-year-old season, and was beaten by Ruperra. Taking part in this race cost her the St. Leger, in which she must have defeated Rayon d’Or. I cannot remember that Camelia or Enguerrande, who shared the Oaks of 1876, did much good afterwards, and the same thing applies to Games (1870).

The interest connected with Hippia’s (1867) year centres mainly in the doings of Achievement. That remarkable filly beat Hermit in the Woodcote Stakes, with a good 71b in hand, and then won race after race until she went down before Plaudit in the Clearwell Stakes at the Newmarket Second October, his victory in that event being about the only performance by which Major Elwin’s colt is remembered. Though it was apparent that Achievement was not her brilliant self, she started favourite for the Middle Park Plate later in the week, but again finished second, The Rake being her conquerer on this occasion. A winter’s rest seemed to put her all right again, for she beat half a dozen opponents in the One Thousand Guineas in easy fashion. Still, the result of the Oaks showed that she was still far from being herself. It was not so much that she was beaten by Hippia, who was a really good filly, far better than she was generally supposed, but she could only make a dead heat with the moderate Romping Girl for second place. Ascot showed up her loss of form more strongly than ever, for Vauban made a perfect exhibition of her. It was feared that her heavy work as a 2-year-old had left an indelible mark, but a couple of months’ rest brought her to her best again; she took a splendid revenge on Vauban at York, and Doncaster saw her easily dispose of Hermit both in the St. Leger and Cup. Never was a case of more complete recuperation, and it was unfortunate that such a mare should have died before she had any chance of distinguishing herself at the stud.