How Importer Nearly Got Away with the Hunt Cup

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 806, 29 October 1929, Page 12

How Importer Nearly Got Away with the Hunt Cup

The photographers were ready with their cameras focussed to snap the presentation of the Hunt Cup at Cambridge yesterday. , At the same time the secretarial staff was busy unpacking the handsome gold cup front its box. ready to hand over to the owner of the winner of the big jumping race, which had just concluded. But there was no presentation, tor some time at least, and then :t done quietly, after the shouting and tumult had' died down. For the exciting finish o: the race over the big fences, with the crowd, looking right down from the stand on to the tops of the horses and jockeys, was not all that it seemed. There was a flv in the amber, and someone got busy to extricate the insect from the mess. For mess it was. Took It Quietly At the jump situated about live furlongs from home. Importer was lying handv on the inside running, and goin e: well too. The horse seemed to swerve smartly when approaching that fence,, and ran past the obstacle, on the inside, having failed to jump it. He went on. however, and it certainly did not appear as if lus jockeymade anv particular desperate attempt to pull the horse up and send him back to jump this fence. \\ liich is what he should have done under the copvbook rules. He came on, collared the leader, Ponjola. approaching the straight, and with a battle royal all the way up the straight Sharkey landed Importer a winner by a neck. Few Saw It Strange as it may seem, with the jump referred to almost in front of the stand at the back of the course, not manv appeared to see the incident. not even when Marita followed Importer. Even the officials were apparently unaware of it, for no action was taken until a couple of the riders of beaten horses in the race complained. Neither of these boys had a hope oi getting in the money, so that they sliould raise their voice in protest rather suggests that all this talk about jockeys refusing to say anything against a fellow knight of the pigskin is a fallacy. Ha« this not been so, Sharkey and Importer might have retained their doubtful honours—and stirred up a hornets’ nest of criticism, while backers of Ponjola and AYaitaunaha (who was subsequently promoted from third to second place and a dividend) would have been left lamenting'. £4,000 Held Up There was nearly £5.000 invested on

the Hunt Cup, ami this meant the J holding up of £4.000 when the money was impounded pending the r. suit ! of a belated inquiry. For belated it was. for the jockey who rode Importer i had had time to weigh-in and disI appear before the -inquest’’ was I opened. As the decision was not given until just before the second to last race, it j meant that that £4.000 was locked up for two races, a very serious matter for the club—and speculators. 1 How it was left to outside parties to report the fact to the stewards i that Importer had not jumped that i particular fence is the puzzling part of the affair, and incidentally, it was 1 probably due to this fact that the officials themselves did not see what happened that made it peremptory to call outside evidence. Won Well It was very hard luck for the owner of Importer, Mr. X. G. Donald, and trainer W. Ryan (who had the horse | in great order), that after waiting iz j months and setting the English-bred j gelding for this race, to lose it in the ; way they did. Even allowing for the fact that there was only a neck between Importer and Ponjola at the I finish, it appeared as if the former had something in hand, whereas the j Hastings representative appeared ;o J be a tired horse. The decision to disqualify Im* , porter and award the race to Ponjola, with Waitaunaha and Pompeius second and third, saw well-laid plans for a big coup go up in smoke. Importer’s owner is said to have 1 backed his horse heavily, and as he j paid nearly the limit on the totalisator. he would not have had to invest I a great deal to collect a couple uf I thousand. Very few of the general public knew i that there was “something doing” in the way of an inquiry after the Hunt ! Cup. at any rate until the totalisator | refused to pay out. and no doubt by that time the holders of £309 worth | of tickets on the third horse, 'Waitaunaha. had reduced their value sadly by ripping them up. It was ever thus, and shows once again the danger of ; tearing up tickets on third, or even I fourth horses, until after the day's j racing. What of Sharkey? “Suspended for I three months,” was the official inanj date, which means that the Ellerslie j rider will be able to occupy a spectaj tor’s seat until the Takapuna meeting at the end of January, a serious loss ! to him, for he will have to miss the I four hurdle races at Ellerslie at the j summer meeting.