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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2400, 25 November 1880, Page 2

Mu 11. H. Vai.i, am i;, the owner of Mata, writes a lengthy letter to the Melbourne “ Argus” in defence of his horse and jockey in connection with the recent

V.R.C. Meeting. Ills defence is an excessively tame one, as the following extract from Ids letter will show :—“ Ho “ far as the Cup running is concerned, “ surely nobody imagines for a moment " that Mata could give a colt like Grand “ Flaneur 201 b, or another like Progress “ 341 b. If he could do so, he would be as good a horse as First King. The “ horse ran well to the turn ; and I “ could hardly expect him to win the “ Koval Park Stakes, at weight for age, with such a colt as Progress in it.” Now what arc the facts ? Had the horses been handicapped weight forage they would have ran-as follows Mata, dvrs ... ••• Sst. 2lh Grand Flaneur, 3yrs 7st (lib Progress, oyrs ... 7st (lib Instead of this, in the Cup race they ran as follows ; Mata Bst 21b Grand Flaneur ... dst 101 b Progress ... ... -Ist 101 b It will thus be perceived that Mata was most fairly handicapped, and Mr Vallancc has really nothing to complain of. If he desires to explain away the extraordinary and inexplicable performances of Ids horse and jockey he must adopt some other line of defence.