OLD-TIME RACING

PORIRUA MEETINGS AND THE

PROSSER STABLE

(IT "BIR LANCELOT.^)

Race meetings -were,' held on the Porirua Beach nearly forty; years ago. As far back as 1883 they'had-a totalisator permit, and; manned to cram eleven events —including a trot—into the day's sport held on Boxing Day of that year. Messrs. Whitehouse, R. Jillett, and J. H. Prosse-r assisted at these gatherings. The late Mr.. W. Jillett was subsequently secretary. Mr. John Rod, the treasurer, collected the money on the road leading from the township, and Mr. Fred Death, acted as- handicapper. They •were very enjoyable gatherings, and sometimes amusing- incidents occurred. The hurdle race generally found! a place early in the programme, and as the tide was sometimes not out, the local horses usually had the best ,of it, and were sometimes the only ones to get round -safely. Towards the end of the day candles would have to be requisitioned to enable the numbers on the machine to be seen. "Sir Lancelot" paid a visit to J. H. Prosser's stable on Saturday last and had an interesting i chat over old-time racing. Mr. Prosser informed' me ' that a llbrse called Rifleman was one of the first he ■ raced. Dynamite, Ngatitoa, Potaka, Buccaneer, and Gladstone were other ' old-timers that raced on the beach. At one of the Queen's Birthday Meetings Mr. Prosser won the Hurdles, two miles, on' Germaine. The daughter of The Painter came out and' won the next race, the Cup, also two miles, and ran second in a mile and a-half event later in the day. Germaine, was the dam of The Miser, Gobo-, Gaspard, The Bailee, and other , horses that did good .service for the Porirua .';trainer. Later on Mr. Pxosser set up as a public trainer, and on the' beach, prepared some of the b«st horses that have competed in the, Dominion. The late Mr. J. R. M'Donald was one of the oldest patrons of tho stable, and the local owners who raced as Douglas Gordon and J. Monk were among the principal patrons, who also included several South Island owners. The late Mr. John Buckley was one, and Mr. J. B. Reid, Mr. J. Brett, Mr. Acton Adams (Dunedin), and Mr. 0. de V. Teschemaker-Shute (Blenheim), and others from the South. The-North Island patrons included Messrs. H. Good (Hawera.), A. L. D. Fraser (Napier), Captain Bingham, Captain Braithwaite, Major-General Babingion, Captain Campbell, Messrs. J. Goodwin (Hawera), P. Soames, the fete Hon. W. W. Johnston, N. Wilson (Bulls), .0. F. Variance, Dwan= Bros., A.- Rutherford(Pahiatua), R. T. Tumbull, P. Desmond (Feilding), G. F. Moore: (Wa.nga.nui), P. B. Baldwin, the late Mr. H. Gaisford,. LMessrs^ Hi'J. Palmer, A.J. Toxward, Mr. "Marton," and others. Maniapoto was at Porirua prior to going to Sydney to win'the Metropolitan. Kilboy was also working on' the beach long enough to throw off the soreness from which he suffered. "Simplexl was another horse that went oil? there to get the benefit of the salt water, and soon recovered and won races. , Achilles .held the .record's on the beach for fivei and six furlongs and a mile. He ran,six,furlongs in lmin 15sec,..after giving Ostdak three seconds start, and beat him. Ghoorka held the mile record for the beach—lmin 45sec— for about two.years.', When Achilles put up a anile record he went with Marguerite, who had a week previously won the Rangitikei Cup in record time." Achilles ran the ' .distance' in lmin 44sec. H«l never galloped more than a mile on 1 the .beach. . Before -winning the' Wellington" Oup with 10.4, Advance ran a mile in; lmin 46sec, both first and second halfmiles baking 53sec. At the old Hutt course Advance and Achilles ran a mile the day before the race.in lmin 44see. That was the longest gallop Advance had had. Siege Gun, who had a few weeks previously won the Auckland Cup with. 8.6, ;was in-with 8.9. The late Mr. G. G; Stead expressed; the opinion that the work Advance had done was too light, but he won all right., C. Jenkins .was long the stable's first horseman in' the flat race riding, while A. Hall was associated with The Guard and Gobo and other jumpers. J. W. Lowe was for some time head lad at Porirua, and for a while he had charge of Gobo. W. Mole looked after AH Red during his (career, and J. Farmer had charge of Advance as a two-year-old. A. Oliver served his apprenticeship at Porirua stable. Hurdle horsemen associated with tho stable since Alick Hall's time were A. M'Connon, EL Telford, J. Hughes, H. Thompson, L. Traill, H^ M'Sw'eeney, and H. B.iirt. Lady Medallist used to thrive on trotting work on the beach, arid an occasional walk over the hills to Titahi Bay. Boreas, on_ the other' hand, would require galloping three or four mornings a week, being a thick- winded horse. Tauha recently joined The Guard, Pawa and others pensioned off at Mataiwhetu. Gold Helmet (the full brother to Gold Soult) did not come up to expectations and has boon turned out for a spell, also Stream of Gold (thefull brother to Gold Stream). The latter has only been taken up a few weeks after a spell, and is rough in the coat at present. Gold Soult has beenkept going and. will be racing at the early Spring Meetings. There axe two full brothers rising three and two years, in training. Consuelo is in foal to Bezonian. Quiet Girl (Hym'ettus-Chaiit-ress) has a two-year-old colt by St. Felix, a yearling colt by Bezonian, and is in foal to the Waikanae sire. Lisp (Demos-thenes-Savannah), Stirrup Cup (RokebyTea Clip), Desmine (an'imported fijly by Radium), Talitha (Martian-Hebrew Maid), Restful (Birkenhead-Peaco), Blighty (Kil-broney-Airmilla), Nocturnal (All BlackLa Notte), and tho jumper Gwynne, are other members of the team working under the supervision of Mr. Prosser, junr. Parky is being persevered with for jumping races. Torbelle, who raced in hunter's steeplechase events a. few seasons back, has been broken to harness and: is used for utility purposes on the farm.