SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1915, Page 7

SPORTING.

I'CRF TOPICS. (By "Motuioa.") To-day's meeting■—Maimwatit Hunt at Awapm.i. Harbour Licht is reported to be under a cloud. . Aorth Taranaki acceptances close on Friday night. Melodist, and Tarero threaten to run well at Awapuni. The Aueklamlcr Santa Rosa has been sent to Wangauui to take up stud | duties. The resignation of ''Stipe" 11. 0, Duncan leaves a line, fat billet vacant, and won't there be a fight for it! The scratching of Chortle and ,'il Gallo for the Nationals will rob those events of considerable interest. Uad they held their ground they would have been heavily supported, 'despite their owners' squeal about harsh treatment. Sir (ieo. Clill'ord, who raced as many "outlaws" as anyone in the past, moved at the Conference that: "Horses over the age of two years reported as vicious at the starting post, may, on the recommendation of a stipendiary steward, be debarred from entry." Unfortunately the motion was lost. Why, it is hard to say. Starters have not time on race days to educate fractious horses in the art of starting, and well behaved horses deserve some protection from interference by brutes noted for circus antics. Summed up, the doings at the Conference, were not very startling. The ehier alterations to the rules of racing were: (1) the prohibition of any race for tlir-rc-ycar-olds and upwards being run over a less distance than live furlongs, (2| (he compulsory preliminary as directed by the stewards, and (:i) the eompellinof jockeys to ride their horses out if they have a reasonable chance of saining a place. Little fault can be foun 1 with the above alterations. They are only minor matters, and the questions of more importance were all defeated. The much debated question of "fact" was again to the fore, and ended up in a regrettable scene, the Hon. J. D. Orinoml leaving the room in high dudgeon. The Hon 0. Samuel moved 1,, alter the rules so that the ],■- jnsion of the stewards should not be final on the matter of "a cross or jostle," mid on the matter of "uv obvious pull." Mr. W. T. Hazlett secondj ed the motion, and the Hon, ,7. D. Ormond spoke in support, urging the Conference to do away with the present miBritish method. The motion was lest for want of a three-fourths majority;. As an alternative Mr. Samuel moved that the decision of the stewards should be . final only "if a majority of all the stew- ! anls present when the 'race was run sig- , nifics to the secretary in writing witliI in an hour after the race was run, that they are satisfied, from what they saw themselves, that the cross, jostle or pull I (as the case may be) was caused with the intention of preventing a horse from winning." This also received a cold reception, jnd the Hon. J. Ormond stated that, in view of the attitude of the conference lie could not see his way to continue with them, and he resigned Some hot words were then used, and the conference for a moment looked like developing into a minor Dardanelles engagement. The question of "fact" re-1 mains as it was for the time, being. Some years ago a wave of wowserisni [ swept the country, and one of its "reforms" was the prohibition of publica- , tion of totalisator dividends. This was j supposed to discourage stay-at-home j betting. How it failed is * common knowledge. Nowadays the volume of illegal betting is as great as, if not greater than, it was six years ago, and j the Bar Von pays what dividends he likes now—that is when ho does actually pay. Sporting scribes are put to endless trouble working out the order of favoritism, and this system is absolutely farcical. And then, after all, one ; can pick np a Sydney paper and sec i what the New Zealand Chip winner paid ! —and that's the end of the farce.