Scheme to Import Australian Racing Galloways: "Lower Prices for Better Animals Taking them al] round, the International Recreation Club's griffins for the New Year Meeting—and certainly their subscription griffins—are every bit as poor as any that have been seen in Shanghai in recent years. Many, indeed, hold that they are even worse than any of their predecessors. So there is a renewed outbreak of grumbling amongst racing men and they are in just the temper to listen to a scheme which it is understood is to be put up to them.
In the good old days, thoroughly good griffins, untried for pace, but with such points and in such condition that they reasonably could be expected to make a showing in the best company, could be bought for an average of Tls. 300. If tried and showing good pace, possibly another Tls. 100 would be put on and cheerfully paid. If brought to Shanghai, put into real racing condition and timed to do the Derby or Leger distances for anything sensational, it was not unusual to run them up to about Tls. 800 or even Tls. 1,000, but, at the same time, even a Champions winner would not have fetched very much more than the latter figure.
Nowadays, it is quite impossible to estimate what a pony will fetch once it has been proved to have speed. Five thousand taels were paid for a northern Champion which has done nothing since. A Kiangwan pony has been sold for Tls. 8,500. A subscription griffin, costing the lucky owner Tls. 125, changed its stable for Tls. 3,000 on the strength of its training form, though it had never raced. A griffin was put in a paper hunt two months after it reached Shanghai, finished second—which result, in a paper hunt, may well have been due as much to the rider's hunting knowledge as to the pony's speed—and was sold the next week at auction for Tls. 1,000. The latter figure is often bid at Kiangwan for a selling plater, even to buy him in after he has won only $500 and often less, whilst Tls. 1,000 at auction is nothing for a pony that has won three or four very moderate races, frequently under weights and conditions which made the events practically canters for him.
These figures may not worry wealthy men, but, with such prices established, it means that the man of moderate means cannot acquire a good pony, for luck in the draw for subscription griffins counts for -nothing, as the animals are not worth having, whilst the up-country price for griffins is also against him; and again, if he does scrape together the figure, it is a gamble as to what he gets. Once before, the introduction of walers was tried, but they were not a success. Now, however, there is a better idea for breaking down these high prices and also getting a better class of pony.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.