Ban On Foreigners In Pakistan

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 4

Ban On Foreigners In Pakistan

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright)

A chapter in the turf history of Pakistan will be closed at the end of this year when foreign jockeys and trainers are forbidden to work on the country’s racecourses. A little band of men like 70-year-old James “Tiny” Tymon, an Englishman who has ridden and trained in the sub-continent for 46 years, 37 of them in what is now Pakistan, will then have to pack up their bags and leave. Racing here is being “Pakistanis ed.”

The five foreign trainers and three jockeys now working here have been asked to apply for work permits to enable them to stay on. But Mr Tymon said that the Jockey Club of Pakistan has warned them that there is little chance of their licences being renewed after January 1, 1967.

The chairman of the club’s stewards is the Finance Minister, Mr Mohammad Shoaib, who is himself a keen horseowner and for whom Mr Tymon once trained horses. Pressure Group

The Jockey Club has been pressing for the exclusion of foreigners to give the 40 to 50

Pakistani riders who travel about between Karachi, Lahore and now Rawalpindi, where racing has recently restarted after a lapse of 30 years, a better chance of success.

There is also resentment at the foreigners’ earnings. An article in the sporting pages of the Karachi “Leader” stated recently that three jockeys invited here from England by the Jockey Club itself last year "only served to rob the Pakistani riders of their legitimate rights. “The money which should have gone to the Pakistani lads was taken away by the English boys,’’ it added, “some of it in foreign exchange." „ „ Mr Tymon left the English seaside town of Scarborough in 1912 and landed in Bombay eight years later. He settled in Karachi in the early 1930’5. “Foreigners have put Pakistani trainers and jockeys on the map,” he said. “And now we have to go.” His doubts about any likely improvement in standards after foreigners go were shared by the “Leader’s" sportswriter. “Even if we accept the contention that the participation of foreigners would improve our standards, of what consequence is it?” the article asked. “Pakistani riders and trainers are not going to participate in international races and any rise or decrease in the standard will not be of particular importance." Mr Tymon is not the oldest of the foreign racing fraternity here. Mr Charlie Noyce, a 79-year-old Anglo-Burmese, is still in business as an ownertrainer. , He and Mr Tymon, who trains 19 horses and owns two himself, and Mr Freddie Mars, an Australian, will have to submit their horses for training by Pakistanis oe quit The jockeys include Charlie Gaston who came here four years ago from the Midlands of England, and Tony Shrive, an Englishman with eight years’ experience in Pakistan. Owners Not Affected Foreign owners will not be affected—and they are not likely to be so, according to Mr Tymon, because imported English and Arab stock is still the mainstay of the country’s stud farms. There are five top stud

farms spread in West Pakistan. One of them has Sir Winston Churchill’s stallion, Le

Pretendent brought from England eight years ago.

But when the Pakistan Derby, the season’s premier nee, is run at Lahore next spring, there will be no foreigners in the saddle. 4