RACECOURSE “RAMPS.”

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1932, Page 6

RACECOURSE “RAMPS.”

JOCKEY’S ADMISSIONS

SCANDAL IN AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY, Feb. 4

Startling confirmation of the oftrepeated statement that the racing game in Australia, and particularly the pony courses in New South Wales, are the scene of regular “ramps,” has been provided in two instances this week..

At the Central Police Court, during the hearing of an application for an eviction order against a jockey, J. T. Atkin, for the non-payment of rent, the jockey made the brazen admission that he had “pulled up” a likely winner at the Gos ford pony races a fortnight before. The incident referred to concern the mare Gypsy Fate, and as a result of her poor run Atkins, the owner-trainer, Mr Bruce Dick and the mare were disqualified for 12 months. Dick has appealed. Atkins was under cross-examination on the question of means and he told counsel for the owner of the house that he had “pulled up” the mare. “I did not deny it at the inquiry,” he said, “and I did not make any arrangement with the owner.” He denied that ft was common knowledge that owners often arranged with the jockeys to “pull up them mounts, or that, in the event of disqualification, those owners paid the jockeys £5 a week for the period of disqualification. Atkins’ excuse for “pulling up” Gypsy Fate was that a friend had put £SO on another runner in the race on Atkins’ behalf. The horse lost, and he got nothing.

Although he told the Court that his only assets at present were £2 and a dog, he was ordered to vacate the premises by April 1, and to pay £1 a week occupation money in the meantime.

“I’VE DONE EVERYTHING”

Even more serious in their implications were the confessions of another jockey, William Donaldson, who was disqualified for life last week for using a battery at Roseberry pony racecourse.

In an interwiev with a Sydney newspaper he openly' admitted that he had offended in every respect. “I’ve used batteries, pulled horses up, rung myself in as another rider, and done everything that a successful jockey does nowadays,” he said. He said that he had been “on the inside” of every racecourse “joke” in the past two years, and that a jockey must resort to improper practices if he wanted to make ends meet. He said that on the pony courses in particular there were so many entries, and so few owners had a competency-, that jockeys had to rely on their own wits to keep off the dole. Every jockey Jigd ,to have a punter of his. own, and lie (Donaldson) fbund it was better to tell his punter when to bet, and then use the battery’, without telling anyone an.vthing about methods. After recalling many instances when he had used the battery under the very eye of the stewards, and several occasions when he had a battery in his possession when called before the stewards for minor breaches, Donaldson, in his “confession,” named several runners on which he had used batteries and which had been inordinately sucessful while he rode them, but had failed since, He recalled that during one 12 months’ period of suspension he went to the country, and by “ringing himself in” under another name rode in many races and “kept something in the pantry.”

He corroborated the suspicion that there is a jockey’s “ring” at the pony courses, and that often there is only one real “trier” in a race. The jockeys tell their punters to bet on it, and nothing else has a chance. He added that many of the riders at the ponies used batteries from time to time, throwing them away before the race was over.

“What chance has the ordinary punter got of picking a winner?” lie concluded. And then, naively, “1 pity them.”