COLOURS OF THE RIDERS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1469, 20 June 1918, Page 3

COLOURS OF THE RIDERS.

_ “Mujik,” in the Sydney “Bulletin,” thus deals with the oft-discussed question of racing colours: Has anyone ever reckoned that the time was. ripe to make a change in the system under which colours are worn by jockeys in Australia? It is a confusing system, anyway. When comparatively few owners were racing there was no doubt a certain convenience in allowing each one to select a livery and stick to it. With multitudinous owners in the game there is nothing to be said for the system, which results in a few men monopolising the most distinctive millinery and the others having to adopt all sorts of queer combinations —having even to get down to the armband, which at a distance or in a crowded finish is about as distinctive as a postage stamp on the animal’s tail. The whole business should be up-ended and the colours to be worn in every race allotted by the club in the same way as the weight or the place at the barrier. There are six striking colours —white, black, red, blue, yellow and green. Without going into any of the variations. it is possible by using these half dozen straight out or in combinations, of contrasting hoops and stripes for jackets, and by fixing the incidental caps in sharp contrast, to make provision for the largest fields capable of being started at Randwick or Flemington. The colours could be allotted by ballot. Owners would lose nothing. The public would gain immensely by the greater ease with which the race could be followed. Some of the colours now sported — weird yells in gamboge, orange, lilac, puce and mauve —are horribly confusing even when inspected through a powerful field glass. Most people watch the riot of colour in complete ignorance of what is happening. If there is any objection to simplifying the spectacle I want to know what it is.