SPORTING

Shannon News, 20 November 1923, Page 3

SPORTING

A sniiait pony racing o.n • Sydney metropolitan courses always carries a chain locked to its neck, except when it races. Several who have seen the horse galloping on the training track,, being led or ridden on the roads,' or in ,the stalls at the races, are puzzled why it carries, the chain "and lock. The pony is held on lease 'by its trainer. A clause in this lease states that if the horse is trained by, anyone except the lessee the lease will become null, and void. Some ■ time .ago, the lessee, took ill, and being unable to take the pony to the track, he gave instructions to another trainer; to ,look after it. The'owner of the horse was-inform-ed, and, contending that the action was a breach of the lease, endeavoured to secure the animal. His plan, however,\ was forestalled by the lessee, who put the chain, and lock around-the pony's neck,, intimating that if the owner took the' pony he would also have to take, the chain and lock, which was the lessee's property, thus constituting an act of theft.

Royal Howard, winner of .. the Queensland Cup, was looked upon as ,a joke when he first appeared on the track at Brisbane. His owner, Mr McCormack, of Merino Downs, had used him, for rounding, up stock, and when it was discovered that he had some of the pace of his sire Lord Howard, an 'imported horse, he was started in grass-fed races at country meetings. When Royal Howard first galloped; on the. Brisbane track he was greleted as. the joke of the season, and pressmen asked McCormack where he had the cub. "Don't .worry," said his owner; "tills is a Cup horse." Davis who rode him, was only reinstalled from! suspension, on the course. The largest trotting prize in N.S.W. is £IOOO, given by a proprietary concern (commfants an Australian critic). Thte "controlling body" juVoesii't go near that*, figure. Anyway, . in. New Zealand, £IOOO stakes -for trotting| races are as plentiful almost as blackberries; and the New Zealand Trotting Cup was worth £3OOO. And the Governor-General Was Uhere. • Fancy Lord Forster at Epping!