RACES IN HEATS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1922, Page 5

RACES IN HEATS.

BREACH OF GAMING LAW. JUDGE'S IMPORTANT RULING. By Telegraph.—Press Asaociatiou Wellington, Last Night. A judgment of considerable interest to racing clubs and sportsmen was delivered by the registrar (Mr. Hawkins) in the Supreme Court, in the absence of Mr- Justice Reed. The plaintiff in the action was John Bateman Harcourt, of the Wellington Racing Club, and the defendant was the Attorney-General. Plaintiff asked for a declaratory judgment for the de termination of the following question of law: Whether the scheme of running a horse race in heats or divisions, as disclosed in the statement of facts, is contrary to the provisions of the Gaming Act, 1908, or any amendment thereof After dealing very fully with the scheme submitted by the club, the Judge held that in its entirety it could not be carried out. There was, His Honour held, nothing on the statutes to prevent a race being run in heats, but a heat might very easily be converted into a race. If the conclusion of a contest resulted in the winning of a prize, that contest was a race, whatever / name it might pass under. If, on the other hand, it was a preliminary contest to decide as to which horses should be contestants In a further competition, that was a heat. This was the popular distinction between a heat and a race. That construction should be applied in the interpretation of this statute, and it would be a breach of law to run heats and, as proposed by the club, divide the stakes in equal parts between the heat winners.