Turf Notes

(BY "VEDETTE.")

Sixty-two nominations were received for. the New Zealand Cup last evening, and at first glance it appears that all the horses of note in the Dominion have been nominated. The list reveals a number for whose entry in a two-mile race some justification is hard to find, .but that is the case every year. There is a good sprinkling of three-year-olds, but it would be fairly safe to wager that a very small proportion will go to the post. The most prominent of that age nominated aro Count Cavour, Tanadees, Phoenix Park, and Killocra. A surprise entry is that of Dame Straitlace in the nomination of Mr. J. F. Buchanan. Tho good handicap horses entered are Duo, Master Sandstone, Eoseday, Boadicea, AVatchman, Muraahi, Sunart, Arch Salute, Pilliewinkia, Mantua, Gold Light, Cupidon, Deucalion, Bonnie AVinkie, Musketoon, Limelight, Bed Wink, Tarleton, and Scion. Even at this early stage it seems Bafe to say that there is abundant material for an excellent race. Despite tho alteration of the Auckland and Canterbury dates, there is-little Auckland representation, Musketoon and Vaccination being tile only northerners in the list. Thera will be racing at Rosoliill, in Sydney, to-day. The fact that none cf X D. Jones's team \vill be racing will lessen tho interest for New Zealandere, but Falladeen, Charlady, Pavo, Sunny Loch, King Cheops, Sentinolla, and Loyal Irish were accorded nominations. In addition, a large number of horses bred in New Zealand but now owned in Australia will be racing. The Auckland jockey C. Browne, -who has been in ill-health recently, has decided to give up riding.for the present, and will enter the motor,business.'The death is announced from Mr. J F. Reid's, stud, in North Otago, of the brood..mar e Rosalia,.by Stepniak from Rosella, .by Seatbri Delaval from Roie by St. Loger.;or :Captivator' from' Hippona, tho. dam. of' St. Hippo. • Kosalia, who was::eighteen years old, was the dam of Columbus (by Vasco), also Solfanello, Eoseday, and Tione (all by Solferino). • A two-year-old brother to the last-named trio is in T. 11. Gillett's stable at Riccarton, being got ready to carry Mr. J. S. Barrett's colours. _,For the second and third days' racing at Riccarton'last week the stewards of the Canterbury Jockey Club appointed an assistant judge. There are many who urge that such an official should be compulsory on all courses', and there is much in support ol their contention. In the first place, it is much easier to judge a raca from the grandstand than from a box on the edge of the course, for no other official is so advantageously placed in New Zealand as the judge at Irontham. In addition, there is the responsibility which no one realises who ha 3 not been in a judge's' box. But the great point is the strain of the task of picking up four horses and placing them by the correct distances in eight races a day. Very often it is quite, enough to ask one nian to place the first and second, without worrying about the third and fourth, in addition to the distances separating the horses. In athletic sports it is not left to one man to judge the finish- of events, and it is rather unnecessary to' point out that large sums of money do not depend on the result of athletic races nowadays. The Southland owner, Mr. W. T. Hazlett, has named the two-year-olds ha £ as in ™S' i Vaddell' s team in Hawkes tfay. A. he Paper Money—Sprig of Erin colt will race as Father O'Flynn, the Bomform—Simper colt as Beacon Light, and the Solferino—Directoire colt us Pans.. According to reports, they are three good-looking youngsters. Father O Flynn and Paris were bred in Southland, and they are said to be quite as well grown and promising as Beacon Light, who was reared at Waikanae. The sale of Penury Rose has been completed, and the son of Penury and Mer-ne-Rose has gone to J. A. Rowland's • m Invercargill. With the Grand National Meeting disposed o!, Kaccarton trainers are turnnig their > attention to the younger horses, including the two-year-olds. Tho first race for the juveniles in the South is the Dunedin Jockey Club's M'Lean Stakes, run on 9th October.

As a," means'of reducing" the big fields in ■■ Australia and enforcing the rule of the survival of the fittest a not overserious suggestion lias been tlirown out m Australia that the last horse in every races during the next six months be sent to the zoological authorities as' food for the animals. The "Daily Guardian" brought the suggestion under the notice 01 owners and trainers, and that paper reports that Barney Allen stated:—"lt wouldn't worry me. My horses don't run last. Then as an afterthought/ he added, 'They don't rim . first either. 1 here was Gambler's Gold I'd backed "tor £20,000 in the Newmarket, beaten half a head, and everybody near the post said the judge was wrong. And Belove, in the Melbourne Cup in 1913, just beaten, and me with a stake of £40,000 hanging to it"—and Barney would have continued his hard-luck stcry, but everybody had drifted out of hearing. "Horses are not much good when they run last," said Percy Miller, breeder of the Magpies, and owner of an extensive string of horses. "Perhaps," ha added, "it would be just as well for everybody if they killed the last horse in every race. I have never seen a good one run last yet." Frank Marsden, owner and trainer of Shrapnel and a lot of other good horses, chuckled when the suggestion was put to him. "You can almost hear 'those punters ' saying, 'berve him right' when they come to take the favourite away after he has run lost," he declared. "It would be some sort of revenge," said he, "for the punter who has lost his money. Look at Bungarley at Moorefield, favourite and runs last. I'll bet some of those punters would have been at the Zoo on Sunday afternoon to see the obsequies—Bungarley being fed to the lions. After all, life has its compensations, you know." The pros and'cons of dead weight have been often dincussed, and there, is no little difference of opinion. The "Aus.trrdasian" opens up tho question again, and says:—"ln England recently the question of whether the putting up of dead weight is disadvantageous to the horse carrying it has been the subject ot (i controversy in several of the sporting newspapers. Practical racing men in Australia, will readily surmise that most of the evidence adduced went to show that in many cases dead weight is, if anything, an advantage. This was conclusively proved in England years ago, when little "Johnny" Reiff frequently won races on horses carrying three stone or more dead weight. When able 1.0 ride at Cst Iteift" was put up on V.iiodyovski (10.0) in-the Saiido\vn,Foiil Stakes, against Moniy Cannon on 'liarispavency (9.2) anrl Danny' iMahcr on Ouii.loiu.ld (9.0), and A'dodyovski won b\- » hpnrl. Them i F . HlUe 'doubt, lh ; ,(, oil a free going hoi>c rlrad wofslit wl],V|, can In packed well forward is a decidei advantage, for it v.-iil nut move ns L^O^6^JL?£ii!!j!£i.':i!H *JfS}Bj4

that kind a light boy with good hands, who can be trusted to sit.still, will get probably more out of his mount, with dead weight, than a heavier rider would. Doubtless it would be the other way about in tho case of a sluggish galloper who •needed "driving" along. But lazy horses are seldom met with to-day. There is so much St. Simon blood in modern racehorses that most of them are free movers, and do their best with comparatively little, urging. When a small boy Frank Wootton was very successful on horses carrying heavy weights, and many another smart apprentice ako did _well in like circumstances. When Devizes won the Doncaster Cup with 10.0 ho was ridden by' Elliott, then a young apprentice, whoso bodily weight wat well under 7st. A recent instance of dead weight being successfully carried in an important English race was afforded in the-Derby, when Sansovino, ridden by a 6st jockey, won easily. One of the alleged systems believed in by racegoers, that of backing the favourite, was an unprofitable business last year in Sydney. -An industrious individual worked out that in, 621 favour-

last year only 143 justified their position in the bettag. • A flat investment of £1 on each of the 621 favourites would have shown a loss on the year of £161 Thirty of the 621 started at odds-on, but of these "certainties" only 13 materialised. Two-year-old races are acknowledged to be the safest to bet on, vet in 81 of these only 26 were won by the favourite.