ABOVE BOARD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 13

ABOVE BOARD

REAL REASON OF FORM REVERSALS TILT AT CRITICS Discounting the allegations associated with racecourse and street-corner talk, Mr. L. K. fc>. Mackinnon, chairman of the V.R.C., believes that over-racing, riding short and circular courses are responsible for what seem reversals of form. Ho puts no trust in the stories of Turf crookedness. Forty years’ experience of racing has brought Mr. Mackinnon to the conclusion that there is not a tithe of justification for allegations concerning crooked business that people imagine there is. The chairman believe# that owners, trainers and jockeys are all keen to win races. Over-racing, short stirrup leathers and circular racecourses are, in the chairman’s opinion, the real causes of apparent reversals of form. Always Out to Win Mr. Mackinnon says he has had many trainers, and during the whole time he had never had one who made a suggestion in any way whatever that he should run a horse other than as a decent man would, nor had any jockey made a similar suggestion. Trainers and jockeys would give their souls to win races. There are black sheep in every walk of life, but there is no greater percentage of them in the racing world than in other spheres, Mr. Mackinnon believed. Mr. Mackinnon is a shrewd judge of both men and horses. lie has won no end of races, by no means least of which was the Grand National Hurdles with Kentle. It will be recalled that prior to that win Kentle was hooted one day on winning a reecnt race after having previously run bady In a hurdle.

But there was no justification for assuming that any evil lay behind what seemed a reversal.