OWNER WAS ANGRY

NZ Truth, Issue 1201, 6 December 1928, Page 11

OWNER WAS ANGRY

Trainer's Friends Get Cream Of Market "N.Z. Truth" ran into a very wrathful owner the other day —one who had a real, honest to goodness excuse for kitting the roof.

THE owner is well known In the game, but for obvious, reasons his name cannot enter into this story. At a minor meeting recently a big win was scored off a certain horse, and all the honor and glory of bringing off the coup was being hoisted on to the shoulders of the owner. He was mentioned as having won tremendous sums, but rumor. is often a lying jade, and so it was on this occasion. The owner did win some money over the horse's success, but not by any means the amount that was mentioned on the. street corners. . . Not that he would not have won the money — he would have had he 'could, but he was double-crossed, or checkmated, so to speak. • The owner had been looking . after his horse, and when it went back to work there was little to be done. Winding up gallops were all that were needed. These were given, and the horse taken away to race for the money. But the trainer, m his goodness o£ heart, told a friend what a good thing he had, and the friend, so the story goes, told some more friends. Then the friends got together and decided to label the horse. The commissions were worked and the market all but flooded with money for the particular horse. The owner was m no extraordinary hurry —he was anxious to see how the day was faring before he said the sky was the limit. Just as well the day was not going too well, for had he tried to open her up- he would have ■ f taken th^. knock, ■ ■ - A '

the merchants-would not have stood any more risks with the horse for Mussolini, let alone a mere owner. Instead of the trainer and his friends getting their desserts — as the novelist would have it finish— the horse won and paid a fair price, but nothing- like what it would have returned under ordinary circumstances. But these were extraordinary circumstances. .'There was an extraordinary, bundle of money for the horse, and the books took no chances — they saw to it that it got back on to the machine. A natural sequence was a decided drop m the price. Going: home the owner, still wondering what had happened, was challenged by a bookmaker, but when the odds merchant was told the money was not the owner's both smelt a particularly large rodent. ' Investigations followed, and then was unearthed who was who, and. what was .what. Owner and •trainer met, . and after the trainer had answered -a few pertinent questions, relations were severed — for good anfl . all. And now wandering round is a very thoughtful owner, who now understands all about man's inhumanity to man. "The worst thing that has ever been put oyer me m my racing career, but it has served one purpose — it has taught me a lesson." And it is pretty good odds that he is the only one m the whole business that has been taught a leseon. Some people are too thick-skinned to know when a traction engine is on their toes.