Official Review of English Racing, Daily Racing Form, 1915-11-13

article


view raw text

OFFICIAL REVIEW OF ENGLISH RACING. At a iweting of the Jockey Club on October 25. ». in ■ review f the year* racing, Presiding Steward Captain Greer said that members would no doubt Ik- anxious to have some account of the racing which ■ liad taken olace at Newmarket during lue season since the regular racing season lad been suspended, and perhaps to obtain some idea of the impression ii of Hie stewards as to the general effect which it it had had. The stewards had endeavored to so ar-tauge racing at the extra meetings that all classes •s of horses should Ik- provided with races in which I thev could run with some chance of success. Although they thought that Mr. Weatherby had shown n iimcn skill ami ingenuity in so framing those races. -. they doubted whether the object aimed at had been n entirety achieved. The great number of horses competing* l- in the necessarily small number of race-available — had made it exceedingly difficult for any y but the very ls-st horses to win sufficient stakes to o justify their continuance iu training. tinier those .e circumstances the stewards felt that both tin n and d in the future the turf would owe a heavy debt of if gratitude to those many owners who had so gcucr r usly prevented the complete collapse of racing by y keeping iu training so many of their horses at a a time when it was obvious that they could win back k such a small proportion of their expenses. To them n ami to their unselfish suppott they owed the success — which, as he thought, on the whole had attended *1 the extra meetings at Newmarket. Those meetings had fulfilled m.:st of the condi i tions for which they were instituted: they had made it |* ssible to form a just appreciation of the ie merits of the classic horses and of the crack two-year-olds: i. they had provided a market, though he feared a very poor one. for the breeders of race •!• I.orses. whose losses could ! o gauged by the fact :t that the yearlings sold by public auction during the l ast season had realized just one-fourth of those " sold iu the year preceding the war: they had prevented 1" the complete ruin of the training industry, • though without doubt trainers had suffered very •N severely from the inevitable reduction of the number J of horses in training. . Owing to the generous assistance that they had " received from outside sources some 0.000 pounds in 111 ali. as tie had previously stated i they had been " enabled to carry on those extra meetings and to distribute 2V** pounds in added money that .vas " at the extra meetings and not at the usual Newmarket •Z fixture-, i withut calling on the resources of the Jockey Club, or utilizing any ixirrion of the 5 5.H0 pounds guaranteed by the Race Course Owuei s" Association. The latter body being amongst the " most severe losers by the existing circumstance-of - racing, it MM p.irtintlarly gratifying that rh.y 7 had not found it necessary to further deplete their " res..uries. He was glad to l«e able to state that the fear :.f hardship through unemployment of stable men and 1,1 , helpers in racing stables had proved unfounded. *■ Some 1.3i*» of these men having joined the army 01 .. the remount department, the residue, chiefly old Id men aud Ixiys. were not. as a matter of fact, sufficient [l for tin- care even of tin- very reduced number of horses remaining in tin- training stables. From the knowledge at their disiiosal, the steward- i-- lielioved that the ciirtailuiont of racing owing ig to t !*•- ciroiiuistanecs of the war was inevitable. •. At the same time they will kCMf and deeply deplored the losses and hardship it had caused so many y im-opIc directly and indirectly connected with racing. ;. The steward- felt sure that the memliers of the i Jockey Club would join them in that expression of f svmpathy. Hear, heart. Mr Chaplin said that there was a matter to which h he wanted to direct the attention r the club, and d ■i- to which he wi-ln-d t . a-k tt» stewards ir it it wis i.»— ible that anvthiiig could be ih to obtain ii fuller information, and that was with regard to o the wholly abnormal number of horses, both old and , 1 1 t s i ■ young, yearlings and horses in training, whicn "had lieoii castrated since racing had been stopped, in order to avoid the expense of keeping them U stallions. If any information could be obtained by the means at the disjKisal of the Jockey Club he thought it would lie very useful, Capt. Greer replied that they would be only too glad to give Mr. Chaplin every possible assistance in their power.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1915111301/drf1915111301_1_3
Local Identifier: drf1915111301_1_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800