SPORTING.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 362, 12 March 1902, Page 4

SPORTING.

Under the heading of “ The Gisborne 'j'-.t s',, 1 a I, v, u'U of the Gisborne Raci;.* Goto tra-.s as follows to the Spotting

Sir, —With reference to a parugtapii appearing in your issue of the 20th hist., relative to a protest entered, hut not sustained, as against The Miner by the owner of Tauliei, it would be interesting to know, not how the information was received—that, of cour-c, being patent, tiie enquiry being open to the press —but as to the cause for the comments appended. Let it be known that the stev/aios of the Gisborne liacing Club acted with a Kitov. .e ! -ge of what they were doing, and it is difficult to understand why such a remark sliouiu have been written as, " It is evident that it should be difficult to cause the Gisborne stewards to give effect to the rule relating to inconsistent running.” There are many instances of a horse snowing u*lferent foim even in a day, and yet ms races hating been trim run ones, and on more than one occasion the Rewinds of the Gisborne Racing Club have taken action, and, further, they have invariably shown that whilst wrong doers must- be punished, yet they will, and do, acceptevidence brought before them, and of which, after all, they are the best judges. I am, etc., „ „ A Steward, G.lt.C.

lit was the tone of the discussion at the meeting held by the stewards, and particularly the remark of Mr Newman a jt was impossible to got a horse to run two races alike,” that provoked the sentence to which our correspondent takes exception. —Ld. S.R. | |"We do not see how the writer in the Sporting Review could reasonably take exception to the remark made by Mr Newman. We do not pose as experts in the matter, but we are prepared to back Mr Newman up in his statement that “ it is impossible to get a horse to run two races alike.” In support of this we have only to mention the running of Geologist on the first and second day’s racing at the Poverty Bay meeting. On the first day in a five-furlong run the son of Pounamu fairly buried his field, and won easily in 1.8 4-5 secs, whilst on the following day with slb loss in the saddle, he finished last in a field of five, the race being run in exactly the same time. There is also the caso of Materoa, who, being badly beaten one clay completely turned the tables on her opponents on the next occasion they met. We could cite several other cases at the same meeting to support Mr Newman in the statement that he made. Mr Newman has for many years owned horses, and like the owners of the horses previously mentioned races them entirely for sport. At the inquiry referred to he gave it as his experience that it is impossible to get a horse to run two races alike. “ Horses are not machines,” ho adds, “ and one might take them out in the morning and get a good trial, and in the afternoon thoy would not repeat it. His own horse had run a race badly and the same day had won easily, and he was certainly a trier in both cases.’ We are inclined to think that his opinion on the question referred to is entitled to greater weight than that of the writer in the Sporting Review.]