To the Editor of the "Normu-Cuiva Day News"
Sin—The International Recreation Club are to be congratulated on their decision to arrange a race for "2" lass ponies at Kiangwan on the 15th March, and It Is to be hoped that owners will accord them full support, fand that the conditions of such races: will be standardised as soon as pos sible During the last few years racing in Shanghai has become unconscionably dull both as a sport and a3 a spectacle, and has been ruined by a jpoliey of trying to make it cheap, which has succeeded in more ways than one.
'Some years ago there was a discussion in Hongkong as to whether the best pony in the Colony, Local 'Option, should be sent to Shanghai for a match; now, and for several years past, Shanghai has had no pony! that could' hope to compete with such {champlons as Liberty Bay and Cyclamen Bay, or oven with Diana Bay. 'At one time there were in Shanghai some ponies good enough in their way such as Warrenfeld, Apollo, Het~ man and Sadko—who was only al-Towed to race once a year—but they' were all incontinently driven out, on. the grounds that one or two of them. were becoming outstanding! Is it possible to imagine a more retrograde Step than this? The obvious solution was to encourage the supply of similar ponies so as to raise the rank and file up to the level of the leaders, Instead of excommunicating the cham-discomfort of going to where there is no longer any spectacle to attract them. 'The fetish of eliminating all outstanding ponies in order to provide (a) close frushes, trid (b) an adequate volume of betting has resulted in the actual races degenerating into a dreary procession of inferior ponies pedalling slowly' Found the course, to burst forth into 2 mad dash over the last quarter, to the accompaniment of wildly waving! arms and legs, when several ponies are hit over the head and lose all chance of winning (and how often action taken against a jockey for: careless use of the whip?) ind the race is eventually won by a beast that is the least unbalanced by its over forceful jockey.
'A great deal has been heard about keeping racing amateur, but s0 soon las a real amateur with some apprecia-lon of horseflesh suggests that real racing be encouraged by running the' best ponies that the country can produce he is told that the volume of betting will suffer if outstanding ponies are permitted to be raced! Anything less amateur thin this line! lof reasoning I cannot conceive.
If racing 1s to remain amateur tt} must appeal as a spectacle and provide events for ponies that are worth coming to see; if betting is to be the' paramount consideration the amateur had much better drop out altogether: dog racing will provide quite as good 'a medium for gambling.
If bolting is becoming so important to the local race club why do they. continue to retain their extremely expensive headquarters in the centre of the town? Since over eighty per cent, of the members must live much further out in a westerly direction, many of them in Great Western Road or Hungjao Road, the convenience of having a race course in the centre of the town can no longer be malnfained. Tt would be far better sell up and move out where land is cheaper and racing could be conclu: ted among country surroundings, without the menace of finance and betting continually affecting the sport.
Racing, polo and _paper-hunting [must go hand in hand in Shanghai; the average race pony of 13.1 hands, it he 1s no use for racing, is also use less for any other purpose to aman weighing over 145 Ibs, as most men do. A great deal of" nonsense has been talked about the China pony being such a wonderful weight carrier, and the poor little brute has' been half killed to try and jjustity his reputation, In point of fact the 131. China pony is not a patch on the 140 hand so-called "2" Pony in this respect, as statistics prove, No "Y™ class' pony wins a hunt outright these days carrying 15 most of the "Z" ponies seldom carry Jess than 190 Ibs, and win with case (witness Sadko, who won carrying over 210 Ibs.), in spite of the 25 Ib. onalty. Actually, except in the case of one or two exceptional individuals. 'a.ten pound penalty is the most the "ye can manage.
There are plenty of first class ponies the country up to, 142 hands and even more that are really worth the Jconsideration of a horseman, and that will provide racing worthy of the name. Mongolia Is an enormous territory, in which horse breeding hus been carried on for centuries in the most haphazard manner. The race clubs in China have done nothing, to Improve the breed of Mongoliat: ponies (which is generally considered the prime reason for racing in othe: parts of the world), and the Shanghai Face clubs have ' done everything possible to stop the supply of better ponies by refusing to accept any 14.0 hand ponies, and by rejecting hundreds of hotier performers under this hhelght on the grounds that they are Actually the stock of the Mongolian pony varies considerably, the best Known breeds being the Ti horse and, in Russia, the Paviov horses. Apart from this, the condition and perform~ ance of the ponies varies according to the stallions and mares from which they were bred; usually the Mongols. let any mare go with any stallion, and the offspring of undersized stock bred from broken down stallions and aged mares is snapped up locally as a desirable racing product: When a good stallion and a young mare do get together to produce something better, our local worthies hasten to reject [as a cross bred! As proof that many ponies racing locally are out of old mares T would cite the number of instances in which they break down after one or two seasons, which Is 2 characteristic of the offspring of old stock. If you want the best foals you must breed from mares at the height lof their powers, and walt until they are {oo old for useful work, although I am not suggesting this is how it works out in Mongolia, where horses are little worked and'mares seldom ridden. The various race clubs in China might easily have sent reprosentatives to Mongolia to start 9 system of premium stallions and to ensure that only young mares wore sent for service; it would have been cheaper than subsidizing dealers, and provided really good ponies for their jubseription races, Racing should be open to every pony of whatever size or breed that anyone likes to produce, and anything that will improve the brand of racing and the breed of pony should be en-/couraged; classify ponies according to ize and capabilities in order to evel racing, If you like, but don't arbitrarily refuse a single one on account of his size, breeding, performance, or for any other reason. There is no harm in a few imported ponies being permitted, for the: csult bad countrybred racing is that the whole lot are imported, witness the racing of Australians in Hongkong. If a rich man obtains the monopoly" of good ponies one day, somebody else sure to arise and surpass him; such the law of progress, whether or not We ike it; Life cancels itself out, There are plenty of 13.0 hand ponies in India, but nobody has suggested that racing should be confined entirely to them. Racing is a rich man's game, and the poor man has no business in It, especially if he cannot guard his own interests, but must be protected by retrograde legislation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.