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TURF SQUABBLE ACROSS THE WATER Singular Action of the Irish Turf Club in Regard to English Horses in Irish Racing Some recent action of the Irish Turf Club which governs racing in Ireland has fussed up English racing folks and led to the following indignant comment in London Sportsman of July 1 1It It was never imagined in this country whatever absurdities politicians or priests might work up into socalled injustices to Ireland that Irish sports ¬ men would show the white feather ami refuse to take on all comers at racing or any other sport However the Irish Turf Club has seconded the ef ¬ forts of those who have so grievously curtailed rac ¬ ing iii England by contemporaneously ruling that no animals shall be eligible to run in Ireland unless trained there on and after Jniie 21 this year An exception is made in regard to races of CP00 lint such an exception is negligible It is difficult at first to realize that such an obviously unfriendly action should have been perpetrated but the fact that it has been with the fullest intention is proved in the case of a twoyearold filly whose lease to race in Ireland was signed in England on June 20 and forwarded to the Irish Registry office The filly herself was detained two or three days for tlie necessary permit and shipping arrangements and it is held that she will therefore be ineligible to run except for 300 races This means taking off the gloves and most people in this country will be sorry that it is so but what can we possibly do when even the Irish Turf Club acts on the traitorous maxim that Englands neces ¬ sity is Irelands opportunity and assists the spoil ¬ sports who have stopped our horses from racing here by stopping them simultaneously from racing in Ireland We have the whiphand and there will be no harm in showing that it can be used by excluding Irishbred stock from being sold or raced in England unless this most unfriendly ruling against English race horses is at once rescinded AN EVIL INFLUENCE HINTED AT ATThere There can be no reason for any such ruling having been adopted except in deference to Sinn Fein terrorism for no Irishman will admit that his nativebred stock is so bad that it has to be pro ¬ tected from English competition The liatpd Saxon has always taken on all comers from every part of the world without demur There is no English owner or trainer who would willingly adopt a policy of exclusion of any bloodstock wherever it may come from but it seems beyond question that this will have to be done as regards Irishbred stock now that the Irish Turf Club have thrown down the gauntlet It may be that negotiations are still possible and that the Sinn Fein powers have brought these hitherto good sportsmen to a condi ¬ tion no longer normal but they are up against something pretty strong when they embark on op ¬ position to Britishbred and trained bloodstock Their own market for selling and racing in England can easily be shut down and the preliminaries to that end are now being gone into We all thought we had friends in Ireland among the sportsmen and that the horrible Irish question was merely a political phantom but now we find that even the Irish Turf Club has betrayed us for they can hard ¬ ly have passed their rule merely to protect Irish horses from being beaten by English
