AN AUSTRALIAN TURF SLANDER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 482, 21 June 1890, Page 6

AN AUSTRALIAN TURF SLANDER.

The Moorebank libel case, in which P‘ Kelly, the trainer, sues Mr J. B. Gill, a Victorian squatter, for £5,000, for alleged slander in connection with that horse’s running in the last Caulfield Cup, was being heard when the last mail left. Gill alleged that Kelly had stuffed the horse, and so prevented him from winning. The case promises to be one of the most sensational of the kind ever heard in the colonies. Evidence was called on Kelly’s behalf to show that on the day of the race he advised his friends to back Moorebank, and he himself stood to winagood round sum if thehorse won. Prom the nature of the case (says the Melbourne “ Sportsman ”) it became important for Kelly to show that he had advised all his friends to back the horse. And this he was able to do, witnesses coming forward to testify that they had taken the odds about Moorebank upon Kelly’s advice. This was a strong point in the plaintiff’s favour, combined with the fact that he stood to win something like £5,000 by the victory of Moorebank. Amongst the plaintiff’s witnesses were Edward Gorry, the wellknown ex-light-weight jockey. His evidence was to the effect that when Moorebank belonged to Mr Long he ran well in training and badly in public, and was sold partly upon his advice. Mr Wood, in his opening ' address to the jury, reminded them that Mr Gill was thoroughly honest in his belief that he had been cheated, and that he had said what he said in an outspoken manner. Even if Moorebank had not been tampered with, he was well known to be such an unreliable animal that the plaintiff would not be justified in advising his friends to back him. It was all very well, remarked Mr Wood, to say that Kelly would benefit largely by the horse’s victory.; but if he knew the animal could not win, it would be better for him to take a large sum of money from bookmakers who were interested in the horse losing, than to stand to bets when there was so little chance of winning them.