RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 13

RANDOM REMINDER

POST MORTEM

This is a “now it may be told” kind of story. The perpetrators of the deed to be described, now older and staider, are well aware that if it happened today it would be put down to playway education, the generation gap, the permissive society, the decline of religion, the lack of parental discipline, the drug menace, broken homes, and the leniency of the Bench. But in retrospect they see its funny side.

The occasion was a firm's picnic at a country racecourse many years ago. The children were happy winning races and chasing lollies while

everybody else was happy drinking beer. The weather was perfect. Only one thing was lacking: whoever heard of a day at the racecourse without a bet on a horse? Even the horses were

laid on, however. Across the road from the course was a paddock with jflve in it. They weren’t racehorses, true: in fact, they couldn’t be much further from racehorses, as* they were full-bred draughts. But they all suffered from the same shape, so could be expected to be a fair match. Since no-one was around to be asked for the loan of the horses, and since the cause was of the very best, they were gratefully borrowed. The horses were lined up with riders no better proportioned for the job than their mounts. As the beer was free there was nothing to impede the flow of cash into the unofficial tote, and the horses moved from the start sluggish under the load of bets: all except one, that is, which immediately leapt clear of the field and was a winner all the way. Like a

human runner coming in from a distance race, she ran a few yards past the tape and then collapsed in a heap. But unlike a human runner she didn’t get up again, as she was dead. There were hurried consultations, resulting in a decision to apply the tote money to try to placate the horse’s owner. Placate him it did, for a visit to die farmhouse tidied up the position (except for the horse, which they had to tidy up later). Possiblv it helped that the subject’of racing was not mentioned.

This omission, however, defeated a plan of a horse-breeder who was present. If he couldn’t mention the matter to the owner, where else was he going to recruit a strain of horses which so unerringly identified the finishing-post?