PHILOSOPHY OF THE TURF.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 272, 24 January 1929, Page 8

PHILOSOPHY OF THE TURF.

LORD DEWAR’S EPIGRAMS. After dealing at length w.th the subject l of the totalisator in his remarkable speech at the historic Gimcrack dinner at York, England, re cently, Lord Dewar proceeded to philosophise generally cm the joys and sorrows of the turf. “Bloodstock breeding is irresistibly attractive,” said Lord Dewar, I know of no greater joy, no higher human felicity than watching the young foal gambolling by the side of it's dam in the paddock. You anxiously wait to see if, as a yearling, it is growing to the right dimensions, and you endeavour to trace a trait of some forbear in it. Then you will be told your soil is wrong and that you will never breed a winner. Blood will tell; breed is stronger than pasture. “If you have a sire that) has never won classic honours,” he said, “you will be reminded that such sires have ruined more studs than anything else, and the quickest way out of that trouble is to shoot the animal. I have been told that by an expert in the presence cf and with in hearing of my horse Abbot’s Trace. Horses are such agreeable friends that they ask no questions, they pass no criticism. To console the horse I then said, Don’t worry. As Disraeli said in the House of Commons, ‘A day will coane when you will hear me.’ He gave three nods of approval. “My apology for referring to this matter is that I have to thank the son of that horse for the honoured position I find myself in now. “Someone stated recently," he said “that gambling is immoral because it was getting money for nothing. I shall make a confession; confessions may be good for the soul, but bad for the reputation. The last bet! I had was on my own horse in the Derby—in that case I gave money for nothing. An owner could not be classed as a gambler by having a small bet on his own horse in the Derby, because I know he could get absolution from the Elders of the Scottish Presbyterian Kirk. They consider that l no sin. j “A Scotch lady asked her minister, ‘Would it be a sip if I felt pleased if a gentleman called me pretty?’ The minister looked up and down at the somewhat homely-looking example of womanhood, and said, ‘No sin could be imputed to you, but a grave responsibility would rest with the gentleman.’

“In racing you should be born under the astrological sign that indicates great hopefulness. When I first started hope sprang bouyant. The first horse I ever had won for me the first time out, the Hyde Park Plate, over 30 years ago. I then imagined I had the following year’s Derby safely in my pocket), but no; for years my experience Was a record of racing catastrophes. Counsel said to a witness in court, ‘Did you see the catastrophe?’ The witness replied: ‘I am the catastrophe.’ “I never had to go to the expense of engaging detectives to sleep with any of my horses,” said Lord Dewar. “On the turf, to him that hath shall be given the experience of losing. Lucky is the man who does no|t believe in luck; if you wait for a stroks of good fortune, you may wait until you get a stroke of paralysis. “Nothing is certain in racing except its uncertainty, and there is nothing so uncertain as a ‘sure thing.’ When you hear a man say ‘Accidents will happen,’ you may be pretty sure he has been doing something he ought not to have done. Why is it that some husbands tremble when the wife says in a soft voice, ‘I want to say something to you’? No wife can endure a gambling husband unless he is a steady winner. Racing is made up of unlucky happenings. “Cast your bread eta the blood stock sales, and you will be 'pretty lucky if you ever see it again,” he said. “No one really"values a thing till somebody else wants it. * f There is always somebody eagerly Drying to dive into something that somebody else is

frantically striving to scramble otutf of. Cheap blqod stock is much too cheap. “Disappointment,” said Lord Dewar, “is the offspring of expectation. Your two-year-old may be a hero, and as a three-year-old, a zero. On the turf nothing so rapidly recedes as success.

“In racing stables the trainer gives a horse a carrot at the end of the day—that is more than some owners get at the end of the season.

“It is a wise horse that knows its own starting price, and it’s a wise ow&.. IS .t knows more than the racing prophets. Owners,” he said, “like telling their friends all about the chances of their horse in a race, but it is a great responsibility, for when you give a tip it is like lending money; it is better for both parties to arrange some constructive policy of protection against loss of friendship. It is more blessed to give than to lend, and costs about the same. If you want to know the value of money try to borrow some.”