"WHERE’S MY WHIP?”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 341, 30 April 1928, Page 12

"WHERE’S MY WHIP?”

A GOOD many trainers and owners wish that riders of their horses would leave their whip at home, for as often as not the flourishing of the stick, especially in the case of apprentices, impedes a horse rather than impels it to greater effort. This was particularly noticeable at Te Rapa on Saturday. In one race a horse was prominent at the home turn in a big field, and then he began to look for his whip. Could he find it? Not he! Perhaps the boy even thought that he had left it at home on the hat rack. ’Twas a pity he hadn’t. Then, by some sleight of hand, a la Cinquevalli, the rider produced the whip from somewhere round his back, and began to make up for lost time. But during the time this hide* and-seek game had been going on the horse had wandered off the course, and at the outside enclosure was nearer the fence there than the rails. With the flail in use, rider and horse returned to the centre of the course, but the weilder of the whip “ceased fire” 50 yards from the judge, and did not push his mount any more, for pursuit was hopeless. The horse was fifth at the finish, and but for its meanderings in the straight might have run into a place. Some of these boys require a cavalry-man’s accoutrements; a sword scabbard for the gentle repose of the whip would be an excellent idea.