CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 114, 17 December 1873, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Our columns are open for free discussion ; but we do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Correspondents.]

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —I am sorry to see that the Stewards of the forthcoming race meeting have determined to handicap the horses for the Turanga stakes, 3 mile*. The old plan is, I beg to say, the fairest; weight for age, top weight say 11 atone. It tries the horses on their merits, and the best horse will win. A horse that can stay a distance of from two to three miles carrying welter weights, and make a race of it is a first-class animal, and he ought to be allowed to run on equal terms at future meets without giving or taking forfeit. If handicapping is adopted in this long race it will amount to an attempt to weight the supposed fast horses to suit the slow ones, and the presumed strong cuttie to suit the staying powers of the weak. A pretty mess. The most experienced and reliable handicapper will find it a tough job to settle the weights of a field of strange mostly untried horses, with anything like fairness. It will turn out at best a mere matter of chance; skill will avail little, in the face of an entire ignorance of the quality either of power or speed of the competitors. A horse’s looks are not at all an unquestionable voucher for his character. He

may look great shakes and all there, but turn out after all, on the day of trial, a regular “ duffer and vice versa. It is not always, by a long chalk, that the likeliest horse shows to the front, when he comes to the test, as many a racing man knows to his cost. Handicapping is but a bad test of the real merits of a horse, even in short races, and is altogether out of place in long ones ; but it is for nil tin t a practice much in vogue. It gives a weedy brt.tc u chance to show well alongside of, and very often s'Ctuully to beat, a very superior animal. And it can be turned to any account in dishonest hands, and may lead to equally disastrous results in ignorant hands. I trust the Stewards will re-consider their present arrangements, if they wish to secure fair sports ; at all events as regards the 3 mile race.—l am, &c,, Old Sportsman.