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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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incurred. At the same time a whole year is a long time to have to keep horses solely for racing purpores, and I don't think there are many owners who are prepared to go to such an amount of trouble and expense. But could not this objection be remedied in some way? If owners knew for certain that there was going to be some sort of a meeting, if only a one-day meeting, within six mouths instead of a year such an inducement might possibly make the owner of the "unlucky one keep his pony instead of selling him at any price he will fetch at auction. Or again if the stewards of the Jockey Club would institute some sort of periodical Saturday afternoon meeting, that would probably help to keep up the interest, and owners would be encouraged to keep their ponies. As things are at present one can hardly wonder that most people elect to sell their ponies after the meeting. I have been told that the stewards never have regarded their duties as lasting beyond the annual race meeting and that when that is safely over they are free for another twelve months, Personally I think that if this is the case it is a most dep'orable condition of affairs, and that the light in which the stewards 1egard their | duties is err: neous. What form of inducement or encouragement is the best in order to keep up all interest between the long interval from February to February is, of course, a matter for discussion, but that something should be done seems to me to be the only way to carry out "Veteran's" ideas.-Yours, etc..
AN OWNER.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS."
Bongkong, 29th July. SIB. I have read the letter signed Veteran," which appeared in your issue of the 26th inst., with much interest, also the letter signed "An Owner," which appeared in your issue of this morning. More than one gentleman asked me on Saturday last if I Was "Veteran." I have on previous occasions also been asked if I was "Old Oar. I may say with one single exception, some ten years ago, I have never written a letter to the Public Press except over my own signature. I am neither " Veteran nor" Old Oar" and I do not know who the gentleman are who so sign themselves. However, I fully endorse Veteran's" and “An Owner's " viewsas expressed in their letters. I will go further and say that I believe that, if more encouragement is not given in the future to résident members of our Jockey Club to keep ponies over from one meeting to another for the purpose of racing, racing in Hongkong will gradually “dzzle" out.
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Now what encouragment have the Stewards of the Jockey Club as a body given to resident members to keep ponies in the Colony from meeting to meeting for the purposes of racing? Please notice, I say the Stewards as a body, for there are and have been individual exceptions. Take the programme for the February meeting of 1902 es an example; study it and tee how members of the Jockey Club who own waler ponies which had been imported for the race meeting of 1901 were treated when the pro- gramme at last appeared about the 16th to 20th December, 1901. For these unfortunate owners the following bill of fare was provided:-
First day 2nd Race: The Valley Stakes, three quarters of a mile. 9th Race: The Foo- chow Cup, from the two mile post once round
and in.
Second day 1st Race: The Flyaway Stakes, three quarters of a mile. 9th Race: The Professional (up, one mile and a quarter. Third day 2nd Race: The Waler Handicap, one mile and a half.
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from one meeting to the next? In four of the five races open to such ponis the unfortunate owners had to meet the pick of the Shanghai subscription waler griffins. I use the term "pick for it was scarcely likely hat anyone would take the trouble to send er import an anin al from Shanghai unless such animal was considered to be pretty good. The conditions of such four races imposed no limit as to height. Amongst the Shanghai waleis entered in such four races were two "hoires," viz., Golden Bell | aid Black Snake, cach mensuring 15 hands and one quarter inch. In the fifth race, which was the Flyaway Stakes and in which Ehanghai waleis could not un, the subscription griffics of 1966-1901 had to carry a penalty of 12 lbs extra. The following are the results of such five races:-The Valley Stakes, won by Mayfly (Golden Bell and Black Snake did not start in this race). The Foochow Cup, won by Black Snake. The Flyaway Stakes, won by Ichiban. The Professional Cup, won by Golden Bell, The Waler Handicap, wu by Golden Bell. o that Golden Bell and Black Snake, each measuring 15 Lands and one quarter inch, divided between them the only three races in which they, started and Mayfly was the only subscription waler of 1900-1901 which won a race at the meeting and the only pony of his class at all in the hun in any of the other races. Truly encouraging results for future owners of kept over walers!
Now I should scarcely feel justified in quoting chapter and verse had I never drawn attention to these matters before, but I would beg to remind you, Sir, that on the 16th December, 1901, before the programme for the 1902 meeting was published. I addressed a letter to the Stewards of the Jockey Club on the same subject as "Veteran's" and "An Owner's letters, of which letter I never even received a bare acknowledgment and which-letter you kindly published in your issue of the 23rd December, 1901 (the China Mail and Hongkong Telegraph kindly publishing such letter in their issues of the 21st December, 1901),
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[August 2, 1902,
to be an incorrect scale and that another should be adopted, when it will, I submit, be a question to be discussed by you with the owners of ponies.
Surely it must be apparent to you that a penalty of only 3 lbs. per inch must give an undue advantage to animals ranging from 14.3 to perhaps 157 over ponies of 14.2 and under. So far as the sole itself goes it is unknown outside Hongkong. . . . I as you before you adhere to the programme yon have drawn up to give the owners of ponies an opportuni y of meeting you and discus ing the question.
My letter then went on to make certain sug gestions to the Stewards. As I have said I received no acknowledgment even of its receipt.
Up to the 17th June last the old rules and regulations of the Jockey Club were in force, but on that date a meeting of members was duly held at which the new rules and regulations passed on the 3rd Jure last were confirmed and thenceforth became and are now the rules of the Club. Under the old rules and regulations I do not find one which states that the pro- gramme of the various races to be run at the annual race meetings should be settled by the Stewards alone. However, to the best of my recollection this has always been the practice, members not being in any way consulted. To this practice there was no objection whilst China ponies were the only specimens of horse- flesh raced, as the programme had long ago become a fixed one, at least so fixed that owners and would-be purchasers of China ponies for racing could with reasonable certainty say what races would be found on the programme for the follow- ing annual meeting. But with the introduction of the waler in 1900 new conditions bad to be framed. I was not in the Colony during 1900. and did not returu until after the 1901 meeting so cannot say to what extent members were consulted by the Stewards and asked to assist them in framing conditions as to the weight. for-inches scale and the penalties and allowances for winners and beaten ponies for the 1091 meet- ing, but I can say that as regards the 1902 meet- ing the Stewards, so far as I am aware, consulted no one but themselves. Owners had previously taken the law into their own hands as regarded the weight for-inches scale for that season's subscription griffins and from that the Suwaida could not depart, but they departed from that scale wherever they could, the explanation afforded to me being to the effect that the decision of the subscribers as to the weight for inches scale for 1901-1902 griffins was not binding on the Stewards as regarded other races.
That may have been a correct decision but the Hongkong Jockey Club is after all a members' club and not an institution run for the benefit of the Stewards, and unless the "I would ask you, gentlemen, before publishing Stewards were prefectly sure that they were the programme to ask yourselves if you are not right and all other owners wrong as regarded according to the programme as at present the more correct weight-for-inches scale it framed treating ovners of Hongkong sub-would, I suggest, have been more in accordance scription ponies of last season with a great want of consideration, and whether this want of consideration is not likely to prove very detrimental to racing in the future in Hong- kong by holding out to owners no inducement to keep over for the next year's race meeting penies which have shown fair form. Surely owners of last year's subscription ponies who have kept them for many months at consider- able expense are entitled to be able to enter their ponies in more than cne race per diem and not to have to always meet the pick of the Shanghai subscription griffins which I believe originally numbered from 70 to 80, 41 of which were entered and whose height ranges up to 15 hands.
The letter was a somewhat lengthy one, so I dare not ask you to reproduce it at length, but I feel I must take the following extracts from it. After stating that I had heard on the previous Friday that a draft programme had been drawn up in which seven races were to be reserved for walers on each of the first and second days of the meeting and six on the third day, and that of such twenty races only three would be open to Hongkong sub- scriptin ponies of the previous season, in two of which they would have to meet Shanghai subscription ponies at a difference of only 3 lbs per inch, the third race being a handicap, I' continued as follows:-
with the fitness of things had they consulted Owners of walers and learnt their views, more especially on account of the previous decisions of such owners that a 2 lb per quarter-inch scale was the better sca'e to adopt for the 1901-1902 subscription griffins and that the 1 lb per quarter-inch scale might not be viewed with favour for 1900-1901 griffins and might be looked upon as unduly favouring horses of 15 hands.
It is with the view of preventing a repetition of what occurred over the programme of the last race meeting that I suggest that the present Stewards should during the month of August convene an extracrdinary meeting of members of the Club under rule 30 of the Again as to the conditions of weight for new rules for the purpose of submitting to the such races you propose an allowance of only meeting a report and the treasurer's state- Bye-law 12 made by the Stewards decreed 3 lbs per inch. Why so? You are aware of ment of accounts up to April last and for the an increase or allowance of-1lb for every quar- the weight-for-inch scale in force in India and further purpose of submitting a programme ter of an inch, equal to 4 lbs per inch, whilst the the Malay Peninsula, viz., 3 lbs for each quarter for the rext February race meeting, and subscription waler griffins of 1901-1902 reason of an inch, and you are also aware of the lastly considering the advisability of holding a race meeting during were racing amongst themselves at an increase unanimous decision arrived at by the owners single afternoon's or allowance of just double that decreed by of this years subscription ponies (to which November next. The new rules did not as Bye-law 12. This last increeso and I presume you attach some weight), viz., bave said come into operation until 17th June allowance - was the outcome of a meeting that to bring waler ponies of different last, consequently no half-yearly April meeting of the owrers of the 1901-1902 subscription heights together the scale should be 2 lbs. such as indicated by rules 27 and 8 could be waler griffins held before Bye-Law 12 was for each quarter of an inch and not 3 lbs. per held and owners are still in a state of uncertain- If the ever made.
What encouragement was held inh. That decision as regards the weight-for-ty in the mater of 110gramme. out to cwners of Hongkong subscription waler inches to bring waler [onies of different heights Stewards do not respond to my suggestion then griffins of 1900-1901 season kept over for the together must, I submit, apply with equal force I would suggest that all owners who fall in with
47 66 An Owner;' 1902 meeting by the programme of the 1902 | to all waler ponies whether imported this year the views expressed by Veteran,' meeting to induce owners to keep over ponies or last year or any year until it has been found and myself should communicate with me with
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