TURF ETHICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1465, 23 May 1918, Page 9

TURF ETHICS.

HIGH ALTITUDE SOUGHT. The question whether the Manawatu Racing Club will stand to its decision to refuse further nominations from Greenwood, his trainer (Mason) and of his horse, Biplane, need not lead to much cudgelling of brains (remarks “Hotspur,” in the Sydney “Sportsman”). If a decision such as this was adhered to, and the precedent thereby established was followed by many racing clubs, there would be consternation amongst the horse owning and training fraternity, because it would be superfluous in Australia nowadays. Many men who loomed largely on the turf in days gone by reckoned eleventh hour scratching as quite a masterpiece of strategy, indeed such may be within the memory of the present day generation of racegoers. To remain within the law, according to racing rules, was considered quite a proper thing, and “the public be damned” was recognised as a legitimate attitude for the horse owner to assume towards those punters who may have

had the audacity to anticipate the stable operations with the ring. Some names, more or less famous in turf annals, are those of men who subscribed to this doctrine, and acted upon it when it suited them to do so. Of course, all this has been altered since the war —and the last big meeting. The ethics of the turf, like the language of the turf, has appreciated considerably. The Manawatu stewards are to be commended upon insisting that the ethics of the turf be maintained at a high standard by the horse owning and training section of the community, so that the language of the turf, as given expression to by the punting section of the community, may not reach too high a standard. Both the ethics and the language should be duly balanced, and to so control matters that this should be effected would be indeed praiseworthy. It is one thing to have a mission in life, however, but a different thing to succeed in that mission. The Manawatu Club people may succeed, but we would not care to take too many tickets on them. If they do, we are not afraid that such a precedent will be followed in Australia. Australian horse owners or trainers would never think of indulging in eleventh hour scratching, well — not until the eleventh hour.