ALWAYS TRAVELLING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1020, 10 July 1930, Page 12

ALWAYS TRAVELLING

NEW ZEALAND AND ENGLISH CONDITIONS

One of the bugbears of racing regulars in this Dominion is the amount of travelling necessitated, due to the scattered meetings. From an economic point of view and in every way there is much to be said for an attempt to centralis© racing". Conditions are very similar in the Old Country, but there is more to be said for the travelling there, for the population dwarfs that of New Zealand to insignificance. A Melbourne pressman on holiday in England touches on the travelling phase, an unusual feature for him. He writes: —“With long journeys to the various racecourses, tlje life of a trainer or jockey in England in a vastly different proposition from that in Australia. At this season of the year, with racing taking place every week-day at some centre or other, trainers are seldom at home to supervise the work of their horses. Thus half the battle for a trainer is to have a thoroughly reliable head man. The work is mapped out by the trainer for the days when he will be absent from home, and it must be carried out to the letter. “After the third race at Hurst Park recently I saw Norman Scobie hurrying away from the racecourse. He had in front of him a journey of nearly 100 miles to his home. He took only one horse to the meeting and had travelled that distance just in order to give the horse an outing! The cost attached to this can he readily understood. For instance, for any trainer with quarters away from Newmarket it costs between 4- 30 and 42 40 to take each horse to a meeting by rail, and invariably the horses travel a few days before the meeting and are stabled on the course until the day after the races.”