RACING IN WAIKATO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2774, 24 April 1890, Page 2

RACING IN WAIKATO.

TO THE KDITOIt. Sin, —In your issue of Saturday last, a correspondent signing himself " Settler" bewails the fact of the principal prizes at the meetings of the South Auckland Racing Club being carried otf by non-district horses. This club h<is, by the liberality of its programmes, inside it worth the while of owners in other districts to enter their horses, and —the local cattle opposed t'.i them being of an inferior stamp—they have carried off what " Settler" calls " the plums." To remedy this, and to retain " the plums" in this district, "Settler" suggests that a "judicious" system of handicapping should be introduced, whereby the local horses might be let in softly, and thereby enabled to scoop the pool. To adopt such a course, all true sportsmen will admit, would be most " injudicious" and unsportsmanlike. ! Sportsmen worthy of the name have always been credited with a spirit of fairness in questions of sporting interest, and this suggestion is not likely to meet with much sympathy from our local horse owners; the committee of the club, we may rest assured, are not likely to take much notice of it. It is somewhat wounding to our pride, perhaps, to see what have been looked upon as " local cracks" go down so easily before the outsiders ; but any other result was hardly to have been expected. The same thing is likely to happen again and again until our breeders awake to the fact that they must improve the quality of their blood stock, and make an effort to do so. ' I ain pleased to think that the operations of the South Auckland Racing Club are likely to act as an incentive in this direction. The most important function of a racing club is to exert an influence in improving the quality of our blood stosk, and if the efforts •f the South Auckland Racing Club have this effect, as they bid well to do, they will have amply justified the club's inauguration. I think the majority of our local horse-owners are gifted with sufficient perception to recognise the fact that their horses are not fit company for horses of anything like quality, and believe they have sufficient grit and determination in them to niter this condition in a true sportsmanlike manner, namely, by procuring animals of a better stamp, and not, as "Settler" suggests, by rigging the handicaps. "Settler's" fears that unless his system of "judicious" handicapping is adopted by the local clubs racing will die out amongst us are quite unfounded. He is barking up the wrong tree. It is not the support received from local horseowners that keep our clubs floating; it is thi patronage bestowed upon them by the general public. It is the popularity of the South Auckland Racing Club with the public that has placed it in its present healthy condition. The public will attend meetings where horses of a good stamp are engaged, whilst they will take but little interest in those where the horses running do not rise above the level of ordinary hacks. "Settler," too, puts the intelligence of the townspeople upon a higher level than that of country folks—a mistake, however, that more than he have made, so perhaps we may excuse him for this, seeing that as he dates his letter from a country town he is himself probably a bumpkin.—Yours, &c., ANOTHKR CI.ODHOI'PEIt. Hamilton, April 21, 1890.

Sharpshooters—Rheumatics.