RACING CONFERENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1807, 13 July 1906, Page 2

RACING CONFERENCE.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, yesterday. The Raoing Oonferenoa opened here this morning. Sir Georgs Clifford presiding. In reviewing the work of the year, the chairman eaid the most noteworthy featuri ■ of the season now o’o3ing had been the inoreased interest of the public in the sport of raciDg, and the decision of the leading clubs to refrain from licensing bork-nskere, The conference had been largely instrumental in achieving these results. In >ll essentials they might defy criticism, Twenty years’ participation in the sport bad oonvinoed him that no man pursuing j it within his meaoß and as a pastime, ! safeguarded by their present rules, need 1 blush at bis connection with it. They j must, however, acknowledge the presence of accessories over whioh they had little or no control, and from whioh it was the * duty of the State to lid— them by the enforcement of exisliog laws. JJejDVper----hap?, in the long history of raoing was any country better supplied with the means of severing from raoing every objectionable adjunot. We have sufficient owners of probity in whom the publio have con« fidence, we have means of innocent speculation which oan only barm the stupid and reckles’, we have a board of control ite-ths oonferenoa whose steady a : m is tbfe removal of abuses, we reject bookmakers and professional gamblers from our courses, j and for full.realisation of our ideal of olean sport we only a?k for effective cxeoution . of tbe law, which surely we bad a just o'aim to demand. The usual statislios ! affjrded evidence of the growing popnhi’lty of racing. In oonolusion, he suggested that the time bad come when the conference might set np a committee with power to avail itself of the machinery to deaf with suspected malpractices. There seemed no valid reason why the licensing of owners should not be entrusted to a committee. The chairman also oongratulated tbe conference on the sound elate of the aocident fund.

A discussion took place on a proposal by Mr Stead to exclude entry and. nomination money from " arrears ” in: the forfeit list. These payments, he argued, should be in cash. The motion was lost* by 14 to 26. T A motion to allow pony raoing at agri« cultural shows was lost onrtt»-noinaa. A motion ta make the appointment of judicial committees by clubs oompuleory, instead of optional, was lost by 12 to 28. A motion by Mr Abbott, providing that v no club shaff give less in stakes than the pet' amount derived by tbe club in Uip previous year from the totalisator, WOT agreed to. The conference decided that tbe m'txb mum amount permitted to be won Jty a horse in back company before entering in open company be inoreased from £2OO. to £250, and that tbo minimum , for oriy one raos be £IOO, instead of £BO,. Later. —It was decided that .the programme of every race meeting shall contain at least one fist race of nosless , than one mile on each day; that tbs maximum amount of stakos in hsok reoei * be increased to £IOO in a single Btake and £250 collectively ; that in entering a horse ~tuS~2-219—pf_tbg trainer shall be stated, 1 and that on 6IBeiH cMds"¥rraoa~lfiovt'.ll-J?-tho name of tbe trainer of each horse shall be printed ; that no joekey under 21 ' years of age, unless he is in the reguls employment of an owner or trainer, who has not ridden 20 races in the / • vions year, shall be entiiled to recelvl.’’Vjockey’s license; that the Metropolitan ' Committee moy refuse to approve the ' programme of any club using the total-

ieater which permits bookmakers to bet on its course; that in the event of five or

fewer starters, property of different owners, the dividend shall be paid on the first horse only ; that it be left in the bands ol the president to consider the advisability of tbe conference issuing Us own offioial ■' calendar, a report to be made to the next conference.

A motion in favor of jookeys' feeß being payable at the soales, moved by Mr Stead)

and supported by Sir Gsorge Clifford, was lost by one vote. Mr F. Earle, Auckland, movidt, ntiW""" rule providing that the Metropolitan Council shall have power to appoint at) x advisory steward for any meeting in its -< I district, such steward to have power to demand investigation of any matter oocur. riog at the rape meeting. The tgofion - was withdrawn,