HE WAS QUITE CORRECT

NZ Truth, Issue 1212, 21 February 1929, Page 13

HE WAS QUITE CORRECT

Jockey Does Job Properly

(Prom "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Eepresentative). When any horse happens to come home unbacked, there is much wailing and explanations have to be made. .

SO it was over a horse which won at a northern country meeting- and returned a double-figui-e 'dividend. Unfortunately, the owner, who is noted as being one not afraid to put it on when he thinks them good enough, was 'absent from the course. He was, not there to see for himself how it all happened. If he had been, the safe arrival of the unbacked gee-gee would have been better understood, and there would have been less "cackle" going on. regarding the incident. To "N.Z. Truth" it seemed that the horse was carrying just a shade too much condition on the' day to be regarded as a safe betting proposition. In short, it looked as if m want of a rage or two before coming to its best. Probably that is how the trainer viewed the matter and was the reason why the owner was otherwise engaged. However, the horse was fit for the task and home he came. Then the talk started, and the "cackling" has been going on ever since, to such extent that if it does not come to a full stop soon there is the chance

that it will rebound on to the connections. Humors are "afloat to the effect that the jockey took the trainer and owner on. These are absolutely ridiculous. Fact ia, the jockey was correct m „ winning if he could, and though the right people would naturally feel upset when they realised they had missed a golden opportunity of partaking of a handsome dividend, it is hard to believe that the rumor regarding the jockey coming home on them emanated from the owner or the trainer. To jockeys, trainers and owners.concerned m all such incidents as the foregoing, it Bhould be well to remember that the least said is easiest | mended, and that the still tongue policy is best to adopt. There has certainly been too much "cackling" going on over nothing more than a victory which came just a bit too early and which caught the con- • nections off guard. The story of the- jpckey having reaped a rich harvest over the result is treated as bosh by "Truth." . He would be more than pleased to steer the winner, and would be a mug to himself if he did not win when the opportunity was presented.