SPORTING NEWS. DUNEDIN HANDICAPPING. THE PROTEST OF NORTHERN OWNERS. Dunedin, Dec. 10.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 428, 14 December 1889, Page 4

SPORTING NEWS. DUNEDIN HANDICAPPING. THE PROTEST OF NORTHERN OWNERS. Dunedin, Dec. 10.

The Exhibition Race meeting resulted in a ci:dit balance to the Ulub of over £500, which will go a long way towards paying foi' the improvements recently made. A protost with respect to the handicapping, from Northern racehorse owners, was last week handed in to the Dunedin Club, with an intimation that unless the protest was entertained a majority of the Dunedin Cup candidates would at once be withdrawn from the race. The letter was considered by the Stewards of the Dunedin Jockey Club at a special meeting held on Friday evoning, and a reply was forwarded yesterday to each of the individual owners in queation. The correspondence speaks for itself. The communication received from and on behalf of the Northern owners runs thus : —Dunedin, December 2nd, 1889. Sir, — The owners of the following horses, Cynisca, Alsace, Sb. Malo, Scots Grey, Rose Argent, Tiralliour, Jet d'Eau, Princess Helen, Chainshot, Wakatipu, Leopold, Fabulous, .Corunna, Peerswick, Springston, Enchantress, and Lisbon, engaged in the Dunedin Cup of 1890 respectfully complain of the handicapping at the recent Exhibition Meeting. They feel that unless a change is made in the handicapping it will be useless to send their horees to the Dunedin Cup meeting, and although fully conscious that they are adopting an unusual course, they are compelled to request that another handicapper be appointed, as owners must make their final arrangements at an early date for the autumn racing season. They respectfully beg your committee to take this matter into immediate consideration, and to favour thorn with a definite reply before noon on Monday, 9th inst. Will you kindly address Messrs Stead and Clifford Chriatchurch ?—? — Signed, on behalf of the owners of the horses above mentioned, Geoeoe G. Stead, G. H. Clifford (per 6. G. Stead). To the Secretary Dunedin Jockey Club." To that the following reply was sent : — Dunedin, December 7th, ISB9. Messrs G. G. Stead and G. H. Clifford, Christchurch : Dear sirs,— l have the honour to inform you that your letter of the 2nd inst. has been duly considered ab a special meeting of the Committee of this Club, when it; was unanimously resolved that the interests of all concerned would be better and more conveniently served by making reply in the form of a circular letter addressed to each of the owners of horses, including jour good eelves. This course will render it unnecessary to trouble you further in the matter. —l am, etc., Sydney James, Secretary D. J. Club. The circular was separately forwarded to Messrs G. G. Stead, Christchurch ; G. F. Clifford, Christchurch ; S. H. Gollan, Napier ; D, Rutherford, Albury ; R. Ray, Riccarton ; Hon. E. Mitchel&on, Wellington ; W. C. Webb, Riccarton, a»d M. Sherwin, Waimate. It is to the following effect :— " Dunedin, December 7th, 1889. Sir,— Messrs G. G. Stead and G. H. Gilford have addressed a ltbter (on behalf of yourselves and several owners re&iding North of Obago) to the Committee of the Club, complaining of the handicapping at the Exhibition Meeting, and intimating that you will decline to send horses to the Club's Autumn Meeting unlees a change be made in the handicapper, Although the tenor of thi3 communication is admitted by the writeis to be unusual (and my Committeo think un precedented), it has, out of courtesy, had consideration at a special meeting of my Committee, and I am instructed to address you personally in reply thereto, as follows : When authorising your name to bo thus used, it seems impossible that you could have seriously considered the result ot such a demand, viz., that a body of gentlemen who have for many years successfully managed tine affairs of the Dunedin Jockey Club, with no other object to serve but the promotion of legitimate and honest racing, are called upon by a section of owners to dismiss* the Club's handicapper, or suffer the consequences of the withdrawal of their* horses from all engagements at their Autumn Meeting, which, in plainer words, can only mean that these gentlemen are either incapable of judging as to the competency of their handicapper, or knowingly employ one unfit for the position, my Committee must respectfully decline to accept any dictation or discussion as to whether their present handicapper has in the past, or in likely in the future, to give satisfaction, but will in the usual course (as heretofore), carefully consider the fitness of all its officials when the annual appointments are made. My Committee are hopeful that after more mature consideration you will recognise fche impossibility of acceding to your request without the loss of all personal self respect — a position they feel sure you do nob desire to force them to— and will hesitate before taking the course indicated. In connection with this subject it may be interesting to you to know (although it ha« no bearing on the question at issue) that since the appointment of the present handicapper in 1885, the mm of £15,518 10s has been won in handicap races (only) ab the club'i Autumn Meetings, and of this sum £11,702178, or fully three-fourths of the whole amount has been won by owners residing north of Otago. In conclusion, lamrequested to convey to you the sincere regret of the Committee that you should have thought it necessary to take the course proposed, with the, hope that you will accept the assurance above mentioned. — Youre, etc., Sydney James, Secretary, Dunedin Jockey Club. , The "Star," in publishing the correspondence, says : — " Without wishing to comment on the above correspondence, we cannot help expressing the opinion that the . Club'a reply is altogether weak, and , bhab, a preferable course would have' been to simply uphold the Club's officials, leaving the 'malcontents to take what action they might deem' fit, Wo

are quite aware that Mr Stead had in his pocket authority to scratch the horses : names, and that if he had chosen to exercise it the withdrawing of seventeen of the thirty-three horses engaged in the Dunedin Gup would have been a most serious matfcer, and would have robbed our autumn meeting of a good deal of ibs interest. Probably a desire to tomporariao and to allay rather than increase the ill-feeling: which has already been engendered was the reason that so mild a reply was approved of by our stewards ; but, on the other hand, we would ask what action would have been taken by, say the V.R.C. Committee, had the conduct of their handicapper been impugned by a combination of New South Wales'a racehorse-owners, and a letter couched in similar language beon for warded to that body ? Again, without wishing to gloss over Mr Dowses mistakes (for undoubtedly the handicapping of Occident in the Exhibition , Cup was a serious blunder) we would speedily direct attention, in justice to that official, to the last paragraph but one in the Club's reply, and ask how it comes about, if our Northern friends have been unjustly treated, that co largo a percentage of Btakes at the Dunedin Autumn Meeting have gone north of the Waitaki ? In order that both sides of the question of the late handicapping might be fully ventilated, a member of our staff this morning interviewed Occident's jockey, and got from Mr P. White, or Billy While, as he is popularly known among Riccartonites, the version of the race for the Presidents Handicap. White, as most of our readers know, is a quiet, well-behaved man, who has recently ridden for Mr Stead and others signing the round-robin above re ferred to ; and to-day occupies a place in tho front rank of New Zealand jockeys. Interrogated as to his experience in tho race, Mr White said that tnough Occident held a fair position throughout, he had to sit down and ride the Cup winner in real earnest from the mile and a-quarter or a quarter of a mile from home. From that out, to use White* own words, " I had to ride him all I knew with my heels (muffled spurs were worn), and though I pulled my whip out to him I did not use it. If I had not got up on the inside I could never have won." Pressed on tho point as to whether a less experienced jockey would have managed to squeeze Occident home, White (with some reservation and with an evident desire not to say anything hurtful to the feelings of the lad who rode St. James) said : " If Walter Buddicombe had had his eyes open I would not have got up. There was not room for me to get through, and earlier in the race I had been jammed when trying to get up at the back of the course ; but, seeing an opening, I was not slow to take advantage of it, and hence Occident's win. Before entering the straight, St. James kept with me, and so he did right up the straight, and two hundred yards from home I thought he would win. You may confidently say that Occident would never have won if St. James' ridor had not let me get up on the inside, that is the biggest moral in the world." As to the third day's race White is of opinion that Occident was harshly treated, and says that ho remarked to Mr Dowse beforo the event was run that in a true-run race, on the previous daye form, St. James must win. He adds that he based his opinion on tho way in which St. James ran the mile and a quarter in the President's Handicap. In confirmation of White's statement we may add that more than one owner who closely followed the race has given it as his opinion that St. James must have won the President's Handicap but for an error of judgment on Buddicombe's part in letting Occident up.''