THE ROVER CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1090, 5 September 1912, Page 2

THE ROVER CASE.

lessee disqualified for

TWO YEARS,

Christchurch, September 4. The adjourned meeting of the stewards of the Canterbury Jockey Club to inquire into the facts surrounding the scratching of The Rover in the Grand National Hurdle Race was held to-day. The finding was as follows ; “The stewards find that The Rover was entered and fully paid up for the New Zealand Grand National Hurdle Race, 1912. The horse was fit and well on the day of the race and was backed heavily by the public and was laid against in an unwarrantable manner. The horse was scratched at 11.45 on the day that the Grand National Hurdle Race was to be run, by Mr T. Harle, acting on an undated authority signed by Mr Wright, lessee of the horse. No notice or intimation was received that the horse was to be scratched by either Price (the man in charge of the horse), or the secretary of the club. The lessee having raced the horse without success on the flat during the greater part of his lease on one year, induced the lessor, about June last, to waive the condition in the lease that the horse was not to be raced over hurdles and then entered him for the Grand National Hurdles, and schooled and prepared him to run in it, and according to the evidence of Price, acting on instruction from Mr Wright, the horse jumped over hurdles on the morning of the day the race was to be run. On the running of The Rover in the Jumpers’ Flat Race on the first day of the meeeting, the horse seemed to have an excellent chance of winning the Grand National Hurdles. Questioned by the stewards as to why The Rover was scratched for the race at 11.45 on the day it was to be run, Mr Wright (lessee), gave as his reasons that he was afraid of injuring the horse. He hoped to get a lurther lease of him from September 30, 1912. The reasons given for scratching The Rover, taken in conjunction with the state of the betting market, satisfied the stewards that Mr Wright, the lessee, was guilty of corrupt practice within the meaning of the Rules of Racing in so scratching the horse. They disqualified him for a term of two years.” The stewards add ; “In coming to this decision we recognise that if the betting public would adhere to the law by not betting with bookmakers the case would not have arisen, because no betting would take place until the totalisator opened.”