GIVEN AWAY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21246, 17 October 1940, Page 11

GIVEN AWAY

FATE OF RACEHORSES SOON TOO FEW TO RACE (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, July 20 Owners of racehorses are withdrawing their animals from training in such numbers that very soon there may not be enough horses to fill a programme at even one meeting a week, says Robin Goodfellow in the Daily Mail. The Jockey Club announced in the current Racing Calendar that they hope to resume racing in the autumn, but it is only a hope, so far, and is not definite enough to help owners. Small owners cannot afford to keep their horses in training indefinitely without racing, and the shortage and rising costs of feeding stuffs are hitting the large owners. Trainers are giving horses away just now to anybody who can feed them.

| Many racecourses are ready to re- ! open at any time, and the public, judged by the crowds at greyhound tracks, want racing again. But there cannot be racing without horses. There are only about 200 horses at Newmarket, headquarters of racing, ready to be trained for serious work. Mr W. R. Jarvis, the King’s trainer, has 12 horses in his stable. A year ago he had four times that number. Four of the King’s two-year-olds are I still at Egerton House, Newmarket, 1 ; with the trainer. From 80 to 14 Jack Jarvis had over 80 horses in his charge last year. Now he has 14. Lord Derby’s trainer, W. Earl, is one of those who have given away horses where he was assured they would have good homes. Probably the owner who has the greatest number of horses in training at present is Mr James V. Rank, the millionaire Lancashire miller. 1 He has 30. i A few stables in Wiltshire and | Yorkshire are carrying on with reduced staff—and horses—but they are | just hoping, like the Jockey Club. ! Steeplechasing prospects are just |as doubtful. The season usually bej gins in August, but fixtures have I been postponed indefinitely and it is i not likely that there will be any j jumping before the en dof November. I And the horses are getting fewer I and fewer.