RACING NEWS

(BY "VEDETTE.")

KACDJG; FIXTURES.

July 2—Ashburton County RC. July 12, IS, 16-^Wellington K.C. July* 21—Waimate District Hunt Club. July 28—South Canterbury Hunt Club. July 28. 30—GIsborne B.C.

' ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"XTZ," Wellington.—(l) You are on Othon. (2) Sent by post. . '

: Nominations * for ' the major events at the Canterbury Jockey Club's Grand .National Meeting are due to-night at 8 O'dOCkJ ■:■ : . :.:>.■. Acceptances for-the handicap events on the. first iday of the Wellington Meeting and also for the Winter Hurdle Race are dve 1- on 1 Monday at 9 p.m. Entries for the Trial Plate:close at the same time. = ;R. ;J., Mason, goes to Sydney next Friday by the Marama with Agrion and Philippic.' Count Cayour and Front Rank are ' among the recently recbmmissioned brigade at Riccarton. J: Beale is receiving from Auckland the four-year-old filly Rina Mangu, by King lupin from Semolina.. Her form in Auckland has been moderate and "she is still eligible for maiden-plates. _ Gv Murray Aynsley has Starmist moving along in useful tasks, and she may be ready to slum some form at the Grand National Meetii>gV;Scoff>arid Amor are also' working, along steadily, and they also may _be,raced at the Riccarton Winter Ca'rriiyi),.,,at, which, there are -, now two races .available for three-year-olds. ' Mri'^A. G. Hill, of Dunedinj recently received a cable. message frdm a Sydney firm asking him to put a price on the imported stallion Last Dart. Mr. Hill, however, is not anxious to sell. ■ Last' Dart did : a good stud season last year, and amongst those mated with him was Mantua. * , There' has been some misunderstanding regarding the naming of two rising two-year-olds trained at' Trentham, for both have been entered for the classic races as/I Concentrate. One is the Kilbroriey—Oratress colt in H. B. Lorigan's stable, and the other the Australian-bred, Claro—Eugenycolt in J. Lowe's charge. So far: aB can be seen, neither has been registered with the Racing Conference in that the name does not appear in the list of names claimed. ; A Yesterday morning at Trentham J. Lowe sprinted. his Magpie and Saltash colts a farlorig down the back, which they jan jniWsec, both hitting out very well. The Magpie colt, who will race as Jet Black, is "an attractive youngster. The Saltash, a sturdy chestnut, is perhaps just a little too. cobby, but he can gallop. He is to race as Salt Petrel. The Claro colt in the! same' stable \is not so forward. H. Tislford has Irish Lad, Priceless, and the Catmint—Lady Una rising three-year--1 old, ; doing. easy pacework, and they sh6uld . be in good-order for the spring meetings. Telford/is: using' Kilbronsyth as' a .hack, arid this good galloper, is building up. Bis.Nd'leg is not a thing of beauty, but ne. Sj'pears sound enough on it. , : ATter the two English fillies, Black SyeO Sue arid- Sky Bird 11., had galloped »t..Tientham'.yesterday, they were exeieiaed at the barrier with the colours up. Both shaped well enough, but Sky Bird H. appears more tractable than her mate, and stood, quietly. H. B. LoriganiaJso exercised the Tea .Tray—Persis coltl Royal Duke and -the Kilbroney—Ora tress colt at the barrier. The former is very forward, and looks ready to race now. Trentham stables promise to be unusually strong in two-year-olds* n<;xt season. The Paper Money-r-Epitaph filly Endorse, who, as her breeding would suggest, is a l»ady-niade galloper, may do her early racing,;in v i_fiydnejr v , UJ ,,; rl -, d , „ ,',,.„,;, 1...:,,;, i ' r.JPrbmVwtiakjs, being written in the Sjauth it would; appear.'that Scamp is .a'certain visitor-^to -Trentham.',., A great dcit.l of interest is centred in this horsei for it appears possible that .he is a 'chaser of more than average * promise, He had to miss the Dunedin Winter .Meeting, but previous to that he had won at his last four starts. He won a hack steeplechase at the Clifden Meeting in February, and then went'on to InvercargiH and with 9.9 beat Tuki 11.1? by ten lengths in the Southland Steeplec/iase. His next appearance was at Riverton at Easter time, whe^i with 10.7 he won the Great Western Steeplechase (three miles) by two lengths, with Tuki, 12 stone, in fourth place. On the second day,, ; with 11.6, he is reported to have won easily over two miles and a half.: -Although the^ opposition was not st.rong, this form is good enough \to make' his presence at-Wellington add decided in- "\ ter«sj<;; He 1 is a six-year-old/chestnut gelding- by. Kilrain from the" Finland mare Helianthes. E, Mackie, who haß ridden Scamp in his successes, will ,be in the saddle at Trentham. ' '■■ Details to hand by mail in regard to the disqualification of J. Miinro and Songift at the Canterbury Meeting show that that horse was well backed. "Pilot's^ comment was: "Songift, who ran an erratic race, was'third.: He,is a good sort of horse, by. Trillion from Irish Kate, and, in my opin-ion,-would be better suited by a bigger course than Canterbury Park." Another writer goes 'into more detail to explain lipSr Songift.ran his race in patches. ,He concludes: "What; puzzles racegoers, and what is probably exercising the. minds of the stewards, too, is why Songift sudden-ly-dropped out of the -race yet still had sufficient reserve to make the run that he did at the end. ,Of course it is quite possible that Miinro has. a satisfactory ex-1, planation. The track was wet, and he might have fallen into a bad patch of turf which threw him out of his stride for a furlong or/-more, or interference might have been responsible^ though there was no suggestion of it viewed Jroni the stands." The Boniform ' gelding Beau Geste, a brother to the New Zealand and Auckland Cup winner. Scion, is training on well, and he may be seen to advantage in engagements'near at hand. He is due to race at Trentham whers he won last meeting, and afterwards he will be seen at the Grand National Meeting. : . J H. Nurse has a couple of novices T>y Greyspear.in his team at Riccarton, one from the imported mare Addra arid;the other from the San Francisco mare, Sweet Smile (half sister to Winning Hit). They shape like being useful later on. Passionate was schooled over a couple of hurdles at Ellerslie on Tuesday, and according to report he-jumped satisfactorily. , , ■-.. ■ ;.■ ,■ . .... A two-year-old brother to Riifa and half-brother to Day Bell is amongst the active-brigade at Ellerslie. The relationship to Day Bell is all to the good, but the less said about the other the better. The speedy Gold Acre has been standing up to the tasks allotted him by M. Ryan i and is rounding into shape nicely, writes "Archer." The Linacre gelding has s been off the scene a long time, but a continuation of his present rate of progress should fin 3 him in good trim for the spring meetings. It should only be a matter of Gold Acre going on the right way to, win sprint events next season. ';.-.. The Marble Arch gelding Sleepy Sol is back in work again after a spell and looks to'have benefited considerably by his holiday. Although he has not been a big winner, Sleepy Sol has managed to pay his way and in the new season he should - attain further success when'the; class is not strong. J Owing to a none too robust constitution he has never been an easy horse* to train, but W. Gall understands him thoroughly and should produce him,.in good order in the spring. The Te.Awamutu trainer, G. Paul, will have a nice little string to commence the new season with and with ordinary luck he should win his fair share of races. In addition to Aussie, Papatu and Awarere, who have performed- very creditably through the season now rapidly drawing to a close, and between them won eight races, he will have Sir Kay and a filly by Limond'from Tivoli. Ausaie, Papatu, arid Awarere have had a rest since the autumn but they have been taken in? hand again with a view to being prepared for spring racing. The Limorid Jilly, who was purchased by Mr. P. A. Swiney for 350 guineas, at the Trentham sales, has just, been broken in and she is reported, to be a very docile youngster. . ."■'. The three-year-old King Emerald, whose successes in the autumn put him out of the hack class, is a regular attendant at Ellerslie and he should be ready for the early spring meetings. The Nassau gelding has good speed, and. properly placed he should achieve more success in,-the new.season,

NOTES AND COMMENTS

even though he failed to make any sort of showing when competing among the open sprinters at iiis last start. From every side opinions agree that the innovation in regard to to'taKsator betting in Sydney-is a rank failure. Briefly, the idea is to ensure that backers of horses in minor places—tHe machine'pays 1, 2, and 3 in New South Wales—shall not lose money: Thus, if a hot favourite is beaten into second place, sufficient money is taken off the first 'dividend to return original stakes on the beaten favourite. An idea similar to this has been mooted in New Zealand, but it is not likely to come to anything. Writing of the recent Canterbury Park Meeting "Pilot" has the following on this matter: "I have always been a totalisator advocate, but I must admit that returns like those of Canterbury Park on first horses are st.^cient to put anyone off machine betting, 'x^e time taken in the collection of dividends, owing to cheeseparing in the employment of pay-out clerks, has always adversely affected the totalisator at Sydney's suburban registered meetings. Now with the new scheme of dividends.also to contend against, a decrease in investments seems more probable than an increase. Furthermore, the fiasco at Gosford proved that in certain circumstances the,new scheme is unworkable." There have been 135 races decided at Randwick'this season, of which 39 were won by first favourites. Of these five 1 shared favpuritism with a beaten runner, and one with two beaten horses. In all 40 winners at :■ Randwick started at over double figure quotes. In England, the Jockey Club believes in occasionally giving its deputy officials a try-out. At the meeting at Newmarket in May, the regular starter, judge, and clerk of the" scales stood down, and the three deputies took their places; The idea is an excellent one. .Picaroon (Beppo-Ciceronetta), who was unbeaten in England at two years, and of whom so ihuch was expected at three, had to be destroyed a little while back consequent on some disease of the joints swelling them to ; three times their original size. After all other veterinary skill;was exhausted he was sent to the Royal Veterinary College in London, but his case was hopeless. As a three-year-old Picaroon won th» Craven Stakes, the first race in which he ran at thiit age, and then became a strong tip for the Derby. He was unable to start, and (fid not appear again until the autumn, winning- the last four races in which he ran in the 1925 season. Naturally he; was expected to be one of the champions, of last year, bat he was unable to be trained. ' A little while back I said it would be safe to bet against R. J. Mason expressing optimism regarding the prospects of any of his team, and, according to a cable in a contemporary, he recently remarked that, though Agrion was to run in the A.J.C. Derby, he did not; think him a typical Derby colt, comments "Pilot." Nor can anyone recall" that, at an early stage, he expressed himself very favourably concerning Biplane, Gloaming, or Cupidon but each won the A.J.C. Derby.