RACE MEETINGS ON THE PENINSULA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 344, 4 November 1879, Page 2

RACE MEETINGS ON THE PENINSULA.

To the Editor of.'the j^lcaroaMxiU

' Sib,—l see in your, last paper that" a committee is called for the Head of the Bay races. In so small aplace as this, surely it would be far better to have two or three really good races than these-nu-merous small things which are callec} races here. For mstance,jto,-call that miserable race at Little River- a steeplechase or a hurdle race, with leapß no higher than a walking-stick is ludicrous, for a, schoolboy would negotiate putting his pony, over them.' Most people enter their horses for fun, nothing more, and a few to prevent them falling through. For the small stakes that are mustered here do not even pay the winners for thctiainin'g , . • If these races aie for encouraging breeders and dealers to improve the stock on tho Peninsula, something different ought to be done. If an outsider may be allowed*to suggest that it would be far better to make a bteeplechasc with half the unitedjstakes foi winners of heats, and the'remainder as a consolation. This would make two rac6s worth training ia horae for, and at a-little more expense a course, might bo Xound iar belter than the present one, which is, as all know, over wet sand and hard stones. Yours, &c, LEATHER PLATER.