SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1920, Page 3

SPORTING.

RACING CONTROL. The onlooker sees most of the game. If one wishes for a glfhipse of the innerness of the preser 1 disturbance in the racing world he will analyse a sentence or two In Sir George Clifford's presidential speech to the Racing Conference. "An association of jockeys was organised. . . . president of the conference I refused to recognise thera The existence of racing as a popular institution was at stake, and I did not hesitate to ignore an association whose pretensions were so antagonistic to all the traditions of racing in every part of the Empire. . ." As (matters have turned out. this decisive and peremptory attitude on the part 'of the president of the conference, aided and abetted by the blundering tactics of militant jockeydom and its friends, has resulted in restoring a measure of harmony amongst the owners and riders, but it explains to the average onlooker the resentment of the Labor organisations, who, after butting into the controversy, were left clawing the air when the jockeys bolted for cover. The unions wllli the best intentions in the world were induced to back the wrong horse, and they are feeling sore. It does not console them to realise that the things they were prepared to fight Cor on behalf of the midgets are now hc'wu graciously conceded f>y "the Authorities of the turf." Out iof the evil good has pome for the jockeys, probably not so much through their merits as men as for their deserving as plain human beings. The rank and file of the Tillers have not been generously or oven fairly treated by many owners in thr» past, and some of the conditions of Taring have been to their detriment. This kind of thing is to be rnmi'died. Sir George Clifford's appeal in his In test address is to the snorl:?ni/spirit of the people as a whole To justify that appeal a larre number of things have yet to be adjusted. At pTesent the tendency is to make the control of racing an exclusive, almost, a caste matter. "Cut after all when Tom. Jack and HaTry find! the money they have a right to have an occasional glance at the cards. Tlhb talk of "racing tradition" is apt to leave people cold,' when the/ arc only occasionally permitted to see it operate through the crack of a closelyguarded door.—Manawatu Times.