FOUL RIDING.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2486, 9 March 1881, Page 4

FOUL RIDING.

It is very seldom, says the “ Mark Lane Express,” that august body the Grand National Hunt Committee do anything worthy of much notice, but last week they really came out strong. As a rule they take very good care not to come to any decision upon any matter which will hurt their own interests, but in suspending the Duke of Montrose’s trainer and jockey Moran, for twelve months, on the ground of foul riding, they showed that they were above party interests. It is to be hoped that the senior institution of the kind, the Jockey Club, will act in the same way with similar cases, for it is notorious that while all the fashionable riders get dismissed with severe reprimands, those who are not so well known, and not likely to be needed for months, get suspended for a year or two years. “You must not suspend him,” says one steward to another ; “ he’s got to ride my horse at Ascot next week, and I’ve backed it for a lot of monej r ,” and so suspended he is not. But let some poor friendless provincial be brought in for the same offence, committed in the next race, and away goes his license. Twelve months warned off means ruin to such lads; and not allowed to ride, yet attracted by love of the life to frequent race meetings, they join the army of touts and sharpers, and make a living as best they can, When you send a man to gaol you at least know that he will be provided for, but when you give a lad a twelve months’sentence not to work at the only employment he properly understands, he goes to the dogs. Ido not think this will be the case with Moran, who is a nice quiet lad, and I am rather inclined to think there must be some mistake about the Thirsk business. The complaint of foul riding is a very common one ; but the men who are readiest to make them are those who are the first to break the rules of the race-course. Plenty of the so-called gentlemen riders grossly violate such rules, and it would be well if one or two were treated to sentences something similar to that which has just been passed.