THE WORK OF TOUTING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1159, 27 June 1912, Page 7

THE WORK OF TOUTING.

Anyone who has visited one of the Metropolitan racecourses just prior to the commencement of a meetingwill be well acquainted with the happenings on a busy morning, but those who only put in an appearance on race days can have little idea of the work attached to touting, and for the benefit of these I will try and give a few interesting particulars. To a stranger watching the horses galloping at work for the first time the business of touting apears very difficult, and rightly so, as it is by no means easy to learn. Taking Ellerslie for an example, there are, omitting the course proper, four training tracks, viz., the sand, middle grass, tan and inside grass, the furlongs on

each being marked by large white discs. When these discs have been committed to memory—not such an easy matter as would be imagined—the task of knowing the horses then presents itself. This is the most difficult part of the business, and it is only the regular tout who can really keep in touch with the animals. The make and shape of each animal is carried in-the mind. Each year the various teams in the town are strengthened by the arrival of a fresh lot of yearlings. No sooner do these begin to gallop than the touts get their names and markings, and after seeing them ’gallop three or four times they could recognise each individual animal almost anywhere. Some horses are easily distinguished by their markings, but when a trainer has two horses in his string as nearly as possible identical in make, shape and colour, then there is difficulty in discriminating one from the other. This is where the practised eye of the tout scores, for he can tell a horse by his action or carriage of the head just as easy as one man knows another by his walk. Between trainers and touts there is generally a good understanding, and it is often only by the help of the former that the whole of the work registered on a busy morning is recorded in the papers. Of course there will always exist the trainer who will try to deceive the touts as to the capabilities of his horses, but, fortunately, this