The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1913. THE RACES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 227, 13 February 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1913. THE RACES.

if -i'lino heathen Lazarus, resurrected from the Stone Age, full of years and propriety, could have paraded' the lawn at the Racecourse yesterday, he could not hut have been impressed with the outward cleanliness of a sport which has earned for itself the title of the '-Sport of Kings.- Kverything pertaining to U "' '•'Uirse and its equipments was as spirk and -pan ;,, it m . w su jt f roln t]le nearest ready-made tailor's shop, the people were present in their finest bibs and pinnies, the sun shone brightly, the racing itself was keen and interesting, and while the lotalisator bell rang a' little assiduously for prim and proper ears, there were still plenty of people present who were there to enjoy the racing purely as an interesting and ex-' hilarating pastime and not as a medium for gambling. There .are people who,i never having been upon a racecourse ' are prone* to regard il as a worse highway to destruction Ihan the proverbial one that is paved with good intentions. 1 As-a- matter of fact it is nothing of-the suj'^'j/y l ' i|uito .respectable people <4iave kjen'Tfnown to' attend rate gatherings, aid :*h"eii tliey are conducted as yostertytff. fff t 1' n S w^ s plead a very ample' justification for their vicarious wickedness, ft 1 % v 'not"«W.'ybt |

or the fact of racing that livings it into disrepute; it is its unfortunate surroundings. Our one white holiday is too apt to be draggled at the skirts to make it wholly pleasant and wholly desirable. It is the hangers on of the sport who bring it into disrepute—the jackals of the game—men and youth.-; who spend their time intrigueing and swindling and creating opportunities for fraud, and who care just as much about the points of a thoroughbred as they do about the Babylonian Treatise or the Evolution of Thought or the thyroid "land. Their sole motto is "Make money: honestly if we can. but make money.*' Tn pursuit of this noble ideal they will stop at nothing, either on the racecourse or off it. We had an instance of a prominent citizen being robbed in a most audacious manner on Monday night, presumably by one of these hangers-on to the skirts of the game, and this offence was only different in character to many others of its class that hare been committed during the week. This, of course, has nothing to do with racing proper; it is a result and not a cause. But the game seriously requires a very'drastic purge. It should not be that during race days our womenfolk do not care to traverse the length of Devon street on account of the congregation of "sporting" men who stud it in knots that block the thoroughfare, in eager analysis of the chances of Undecided beating Overtime. Probably the offence is, in a majority of cases, a purely thoughtless one, but if those who are engaged professionally in the practice of racing would only realise it they would understand that habits of this sort do more to injure tiie sport in the eyes of .that general public which does not go racing than all the swindles of the course put together. Those particular roughnesses, by the ; way, appear to be getting a good solid i '•deal" from the new stipendiary stew--1 ards, and while several of the "boys" ' have been severely handled by these ofI ficials already, we are waiting for the | time when "the acid" will be adminis- | tered to erring owners. In the mean- ! time it is as well that the professional ' sporting community should realise that it is quite time that they lent a hand to the clubs to see that the pastime is not debased by all sorts of objectionable side issues. There is nothing wrong in that clean racing of which even, the militant Christian Charles Kingsley sawfit to approve, but we must have it shorn of its undesirable hangers-on if it is to retain its public popularity.