HISTORY OF RACING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 8, 21 March 1947, Page 6

HISTORY OF RACING

DATES BACK TO ANCIENT GREEKS

Some interesting historical matter on racing going back to B.C. was put before the Gaming Commission in the statement of the New Zealand Racing Conference submitted by its senior counsel, Mr A. T. Donnelly.

It was said that the first existing description of a horse race is over 2000 years old, being found in the 33rd Book of the Iliad, where it describes the chariot race at the funeral games at Patroklos. Among those who entered was the son of Nestor, and Nestor gave his son advice which records probably the first racing orders in recorded history. This advice, in modern language, would be summarised as:— “To take it easy at first and let him settle down, get on the rails and keep there, and do not run out at the bend into the straight.”

It was said that Athene “put spirit into the steeds of Diomedes” which enabled them to win, and was undoubtedly the first instance of doping.

The Romans introduced chariot racing to England, where York had probably the longest continuous racing history of any place in the world.

The first recorded horse races in England were staged by the Norman knights in the 12th century.

It was believed that the first horses in New Zealand were three landed by the Rev. Samuel Marsden at Rangihoua, Bay of Islands, on December 23, 1814. When Marsden mounted one the Maoris thought he was more than mortal.

Probably the first meetings were held by the military garrison in Auckland in the early 1840 ? s. On January 5, 1841, a meeting was held at Epsom, Auckland, on March 2, 1840, the first horses had arrived in Wellington, and in 1842 some brood mares from the best New South Wales blood. Wanganui held a meeting on December 28, 1848, and Dunedin on March 26, 1850. There was also early racing on the West Coast and at Nelson. On the first anniversary of the settlement of Canterbury, December 16, 1851, there were three races.

The Canterbury Jockey Club was formed on November 4, 1854, and its first two-days meeting was held in March, 1855, near the Riccarton course.

National Control

Reviewing the history of the Conference, the statement traced the growth from individual to club and then metropolitan control within districts, culminating in a move towards national control in 1886, the formation of the New Zealand Jockey Club in 1891, and finally firm establishment of the present control of racing by 1900.

.The Conference was not a creature of contract or statute. It resulted from voluntary agreement of clubs and individuals who could and did change its rules and constitution in a democratic way any time they wished.

Like any other human institution, racing and its control might need improvement and drafts of new ideas, but, it was submitted, no case could be made for any change in the principle of control or the government of facing in New Zealand. Evidence would establish that the present system had the general support of those who lived b3 r racing'. There was neither use nor need for intervention by the State or any new authority.