TURF GOSSIP.

[By Hippos...]

Next Saturday, the Winter Meeting of the Auckland ■ Racing Club takes place at EUerslie. The acceptances received for the Great Northern Steeplechase are satisfactory, but in the Hurdles and the other jumping races there is a lamentable fallin^'ofc in numbers, and the fields will be unusually small. However, the big Steeplechase should produce an excitjnir and close contest, for the ''fcyelve left in are pretty equally matched. On Victory's form in the Takapuna Steeplechase, he must prove hard to beat, and although I have heard it questioned whether lie. will successfully get over the EUerslie course, that remains to be proved; Personally, I think he will, ifflda's he possesses a great deal more pace than the majority engaged, and has a light weight to help him along, I shall certainly expect to see him and Silvio fight out the fini-li. The last-named knows the country ■well,..and--on .that score possesses some advantage over Victory, but it is asking him a good deal to concede the son of Fdve 231b. Of the others, I have a great liking {or Huntsman, who is doing well, and will have the services of George Hope. For the Hurdles my fancy is Coral. The following are the acceptances and entries received last night, but it may be mentioned'that the entries for the two flat races on the pvogranlnie are nob due till Monday night next :— j Gkeat NoitTHEiB. STP.ErLECH.vsE, about ' ' ' ' 3£ miles. St. lb. - sb. lb. Belle ... 12 2 Torpedo ... 912 Silvio ... 11 2 Huntsman ... 9 12 Yakon ... 11 0 Revenge ... 9 7 Omata ... 10 9 Orangeman ... 9 7 _?ot3_b. ... 10 0 Victory ... 9 7 Magnesia ... 10 0 Wat Tyler ... 9 7 Hpedle Race, 2\ miles. St. lb. St. lb. Belle,-*,-.--... 12 2 Coral ... 9 5 Peter Osbeck 12 0 Orangeman ._ 9 0 . Victory ... 9 7 Wat Tyler ... 9 0 -Maiden' Steeplechase. — Revenge, Omata, Tawhiao, Wild Boy, Magnesia. : 'Novel Hurdle Race.—Rob Roy, Fisherman, Mr Play, Pipi. Selling Steeplechase (nominations). — Revenge, 25sovs ; Torpedo, nil ; Fair Play, nit;. Whalebone, nil;' Wildboy, 25sovg ; Larrikin No, 2, nil; Victory, 25sovs; Tawhiao, nil. -Among-those- present-at -the Takapuna Meeting on Saturday was Major George. Ia a conversation I had .with him regarding i-stralian racing, he gave it to me as his opinion that Abercorn is the best Derby colt they have over there, and he gallops like a stayer. During his visit Major Gleorge journeyed to the Hori. J. White's stud farm at Kirkham, and he tells me. that the two youngsters bred to- English time for the purpose of winning, the Epsom Derby are two perfect specimens of the young thoroughbred. It appears that the Hon. J. White and Lord Carrington conjointly have the wager of 110,000 to LIOO that the first named wins the"'Derby' in the period of ten" years *ith an animal of his own breeding. Major George further informed me that Nelson is now enjoying a well-earned spell, and he has hopes of him yet -winning pother good race ere he finally leaves the post for the paddock.

St. lb. 9 5

In connection with tho Napier-owned fees entered for the two leading jumping races of.the A.R.C. Winter Meeting, it is strange to say that Munn paid up by wire for his team" some days ago, but a later telegram came yesterday countermanding the acceptance.

Those who followed "form" at the •Takapuna Meeting on Tuesday had a bad "ffle of it, for in°every race the favourite went dov/n, and good totalisator dividends were the order of the day. The greatest surprise was Victory's win in the Steeplechase, and very few of the general public |ere prepared' to see him triumph over the W that opposed him. This was the ?aiden effort of the son of Fcve at the iwnpinggame, and Kean tells me that he has only been schooling him for about six *eeks past. Victory jumped surprisingly M throughout, and he should have a look to whichever race he is started in at the Auckland Racing Club Meeting next Saturday.

-? rom American papers to hand by the *-f yesterday I learn that there were Iftt starters for the Two Thousand »|jmeas, won by Enterprise, and for the One |uousand, which easily fell to Reve dOr, graced the flap. A London telegram of ?P«1 30th says' the preceding week had »<*n the worst experienced by bookmakers ? ryears. In every race, every day during ™eNewmarket Meeting, they, lost heavily, ?S«B.,in the last event of all, .

, v &°m what 1 hear, it is definitely settled ™at the proposed Jubilee race meeting in section with the Auckland Racing Club ¥*>ot take place. ...The Musket-Pe.roleuse colt, now being "-•Med,by G. Wrio-ht, the local trainer, r* faeen .named Hotchkiss. The name is m happy W h er , it is mentioned that the (fgster is the biggest thoroughbred of S^ge .ye have in Auckland, and the £°t«nkia s gun is * the biggest used or sea. ' •A^ticeby Australian papers that Trenton «a.am in. work at Caulfield. Ajor .George has Harry Harrison en;S=* n break'ing-in liis two youngsters, fcSr IIVe> % Cap-a-pie—Florence, and |%. by Cap-a-pie-Tenambra. Both year-olds.

Two of I\Tew Zealand's most straightgoing sportsmen annexed tho "-plums " of the Dunedin Winter Meeting. In the Provincial Handicap, the Hen. CI. McLean's Mokoia, got by Korari out of Malice (the dam of Mischief and Maligner) got home from-Everton Lad.-and Moana, while on the second day Mr G. G. Stead's Marion secured the Birthday Handicap.

Centaur, who defeated Mitrailleuse"in the Royal Stakes at Randwiekon Queen's Birthday,is a 6-year-old gelding owned by Mr T. Brown. He was well supported for the race some two weeks ago, and I see by late quotations that one metallician laid the winning double Centaur and Willeroo— tor the Royal Park Stakes and Birthday Cup, at 1.000 to 4.

There was one thing demanded the attention of the stewards of tho Takapuna Jockey Club on Tuesday, and that was the tactics adopted by the owner of Friendship and Tamora previous to the start for the Birthday Handicap. T. Taylor weighed out for Friendship, and A. Williams scaled to ride Tamora, but the confiding public who were endeavouring to find out which was . the moot worthy of support found that the horses named were being ridden around the paddock and took their preliminaries with the horsemen changed. Of course a few minutes before the start actually took place matters were righted, but the merest novice at racing could see what the motive meant. There was a deal of just growling at the termination of the race (which Friendship won), and in my opinion the stewards of the Club failed to do their duty towards the public in not asking tho owner of the horses named for an explanation.

I notice by late English files that The Baron, who suffered defeat in the Epsom Derby on Wednesday last, appropriated the Craven Stakes at the Newmarket meeting-. It is also announced that tho stallion Lord Lyon has been destroyed at the Croft Stud; Lord Lyon as a racer, it will be remembered, stands as one of the four victors of what is now known as the " triple crown." Lord Lyon, considering his credentials as a racehorse, was not a great success at tho stud, and he had -been almost erased from-breeders' memories until Minting came out with Hying colours as a two-year-old. Rosette, one of the matrons belonging to the N.Z. Stud Company, claims being sired by Lord Lyon. . ; • •

In the course of the report read by Mr G: G. Stead at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Jockey Club, appears the following : "I may add, in passing, that the new Rules of Racing have been generally ad opted .by every Metropolitan Club iti New Zealand, with the exception of Auckland; but we have reason to hope that our friends in the North will see _their way to accept the same code, so that there may be one general law on racing in use throughout the whole of the colony."

" Sir Launcelot " says that he has heard on authority that he believes to be reliable that Mr A. Drake has been negotiating with .Ray for a partnership with the latter in the team of horses with which Mr Drake purposes shortly making a descent on Australian shores. No permanent arrangements however, have yet been entered into between the parties concerned. ■'•-;

„ Writes " Mazeppa " :—The relative merits of Maxim, Gipsy King, and Sextant are often discussed. One who is in a position to know more than most of us tells me that Mr Stead's colt is head and shoulders over the other pair, but that there is very little difference between Sextant and Gipsy King. Sextant is perhaps the faster of the two, but if they were put together for six furlongs every day of a week right on end Gip°sy King would wear the I-obinson Crusoe colt out.

In the Chrischurch "Weekly Press" " Hermit "is contributing a series of very interesting articles on breeding^ . They contain a vast amount of valuable information about various stallions, and are written in such a simple style that the most ordinary turf reader can peruse them with avidity. In last week's issue •'Hermit" thus refers to Musket and Leolinus :— "Probably the two best performers on the English turf ever imported into New Zealand were Musket and Leolinus, and they were both of the massive type of racehorse. To those who believe in good big ones, each of them must have recommended themselves by their physical conformation alone; while the winning brackets attached to their names show that they both possessed the gift of racing in a remarkable degree. They each of them won in the best of company, and over distances of ground ; and thoy are both in the Studbook ; and yet while one of them has made such a name for himself as to entitle him to take the highest rank amongst the sires of the colonies, the othor has been a comparative failure. Why these horses were allowed to" leave England Musket at all events, a. a very low hVure can hardly be understood by those who fancy that all thoroughbred blood is of equal value. Now, neither. Musket nor Leolinus commended themselves to a student of breeding theories as really likely to be successful racehorse sires. In the- case of Musket, there was an inclination to roaring and a decided disinclination to- travel over a longer course than a mile to be found on the sire's side of the house ;,and in Leolinus we saw the son of a shifty good-looking animal, that (with the exception of perhap_s Braconnief) never sired a really first class nao* whose youngsters though they showed speed, notably in the case of Pace, were all more or less cursed with terribly cowardly dispositions. Yet the Musket young ones have done co much in the colonies as to make the death of their sire acolomal- misfortune, while the young Leolinus horses, thoudi inheriting their sire's size .and substance, have proved bitter disappointment when saddled up for the fray. I have previously noticed that the successes of Musket have been made in nearly every case- by mating him with colonially-bred animals, and that with the exception of Locket, the dam of Thunderbolt, Bangle, &c, very few imported mares have thrown any noticeable stock to the old horse. In the same manner it may_ be noticed, that Tieredia.-who, 1 take it, will be acknowledged the best of Leolinus stock, is also out of a colonial-bred animal. It *s a certainty that if these two sires had remained in England their chance of being visited by thorough bred mares would have heen but email, but the probability is.that they would nave found favour in the eyes of those horse breeders who could afford to pay a fair but not extravagant fee for the services of such stallions, with the chance of obtaining there-

by a big upstanding charger, hunter, or perhaps harness horse. In the case of Leolinus, he should be eminently adapted for this sort of mission, and though when he left England it was with the character of an uncertain foal-getter, yet he has improved in this respect, and has~everyyeav a number of colts and fillies to his credit, who, if they cannot race,, should, be looked out for by breeders of horses, say, for the Indian market. The breeding of the two horses is worth noticing, Musket being the result of Touchstone, through his grandson, Toxophllite, on Melbourno through a daughter of his best son, West Australian ; while Leolinus is the result of the union of a Stockwell on Touchstone --ire, and a Melbourne mare. Thus a quantity of the same blood 'flowed in the veins of each ; but it. was the differeijt way in which the .blood was mingled which made, as the result, ono sire a success and tho other a failure. The writer further remarks'in the course of the article: Pe_ve. is another grandlybred one, but he was such an utter cur when in training, that I-should be frightened to put a good mare to him. His blood is a combination of Touchstone and Lancrcost, supposing that Haricot was by the latter she, of which there is but little doubt. Referring' to Ingomar, he says: — Though a good performor over small jumps,hehas yet to- prove his worth as a sire in this''country; but those of his stock that have appeared in England and Ireland have inherited-the jumping proclivities of Uncas, who was Ingomar s sire. Ingomar will probably prove more successful as a sire of useful ones than his appearance would lead one to expect. His blood is Stockwell on Venison, a rare combination.

Following the custom at Fleraington racemeetings, Mr T. McEwin intends.providing oysters on the shell, etc., at EUerslie next Saturday.