Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1907 THE HIERARCH APPEAL CASE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 894, 25 April 1907, Page 5

Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1907 THE HIERARCH APPEAL CASE.

There have been few more notorious cases of recent years than the one which has come to be known as the Hierarch case. The reason of this is purely due, of course, to the sweeping nature of the verdict, but possibly more from the fact that many disclosures were made of a startling nature, and the public, not being informed wnat those disclosures really were, made the most of them, not indeed that any great exaggeration was required to make the affair a particularly black one. It will be remembered that the colt Hierarch contested the Nursery Handicap on the first day of the A.R.C. Summer Meeting. Speakman had the mount, and his riding was such, as to cause instant inquiry of the stewards. The evidence of one’s own sight was all that was required to know that the horse was deliberately pulled; indeed, in “The Judge’s” notes on the race that writer stated at the time that it was one of the most barefaced efforts he had witnessed during an experience extending over a quarter of a century. The upshot of the inquiry was that the owners, or rather reported owners, Messrs. Thorpe and Harris, the jockey Speakman, and the horse were disqualified for six months. It was generally conceded that the A.R.C. stewards were perfectly justified in the course they pursued, the only fault being that many considered the verdict too light. Now comes the amazing part of the whole case. With a full knowledge, as they must have had, of the weakness of their position and the exceedingly thin ice on which they stood, Messrs. Thorpe and Harris committed the folly of appealing to the Racing Conference against the decision. Sir George Clifford set up a court to deal with the matter, but prior to the case being heard the jockey Speakman made a confession, and then “the fat was in the fire” indeed as far as Messrs. Thorpe and Harris were concerned. No doubt they realised when too late the grave nature of the mistake they had made. The text of the finding of the judges, Messrs. Nolan, Goodbehere, and Abrahams, is as follows: — “Judgment in the appeal of Messrs. Harris and Thorpe from the decision of the Auckland Metropolitan Club in the Hierarch case: “The judges are unanimous in accepting the decision of the Auckland Racing Club that Hierarch was ‘pulled’ in the Nursery Handicap, run at Ellerslie on December 26, 1906. As to the complicity of the appellants, Lewis Harris and John Thorpe, the evidence available at the time of the hearing by the Metropolitan Club has been so greatly supported by the subsequent evidence and the whole surroundings of the case as to convince the judges that the appellants were parties to the fraud. The appeal is therefore dismissed and the deposit forfeited, under the power given in Part XXXIV., Rule 6, of the Rules of Racing. The judges decide to increase the sentence on the horse Hierarch, and on Lewis Harris and John Thorpe from disqualification for six months to disqualification for life. With regard to the jockey, Speakman, he was not an appellant, and his case cannot be dealt with, but the judges direct the attention of the Committee of the Auckland and other metropolitan clubs to the question of whether a license to ride should be issued to Speakman after his sentence of disqualification has expired. During the hearing it was admitted by the appellants, and not disputed, that Adolphus Montgomery, of Karangahak e, and Lindsay Cooke, Auckland, were partners in the horses Hierarch and Can-

robert, which partnership had not been - registered, as required by the rules. The judges therefore refer this breach to the president to take such action as he may deem necessary under Part VIII., Rule 6.” One of our best-known proverbs is that which tells that “honesty is the best policy.” It is one well worth the consideration of some of the socalled clever brigade who time after time prefer to try to win dishonestly of they can, only to find that their best laid schemes “gang aft agley,” and that win from the pure business point of view it would have paid them far better to have gone straight. The part taken by Messrs. Lindsay Cooke and Montgomery was, of course, only a technical breach of the rules, punishable by a fine of not less than £1 or more than £2O. There was no suspicion of fraud on their part, and if rumour is to be believed one of them at least lost a lot of money through the horse being pulled. That Hierarch would have won had he been given his head seemed as certain as anything is possible to be in racing. Those responsible for his not doing so will have ample time for reflection upon the folly of crooked running.