HERE AND THERE

Next Week's Races. Meetings'next week will be held by the Masterton, Ashburton, and To Kuiti Racing Clubs. The Masterton Meeting is on Friday and Saturday,' tho Ashbiirtpn Meeting on Saturday, and the Te Kuiti Meeting 'on Saturday and tho following lionday...- •■' .■. ;•'. • - ■.'■ ■■; .-■' ■:'■■■..- ;;* .:■ :;' Addition to Team. * The latest addition to J. L. Gray's grpwing team at Takanini is the two-year-old' Lady Vane (Weathervahe—Panama). This filly started the season promisingly by running Becond in the Avondale Stakes and thild in tho A.X.C. Welcome Stakes, but.her form nubscquently fell away and sho finishes the season still a, maiden, i Entered at Masterton. stables figure conspicuously in-tjire" entries for Masterton, the following :*K'6rseß having been nominated for races:—Acis, Actaeon, Black Mint, Courageous, Eminent, Ephialtes, Fairwiiid, Foghorn, Granado, Hinewehi, Historic, Hymgreat, Joio de Val, Lady Pam, Lady Rene, Malayan, Master of Arts, Royal Game,-, Shootist, Spear Lad, Staghunter, The: Sun, Waratah, Winloch, and Zephyl'US. .■" ,; ■..:.: • ...-/.., • • Preparing for Otaki. . Trentham representation at Otaki will be; even fuller than at Masterton, as the following list indicates:—Acis, Arrowzone, Black / Mint;' Courageous, •, Eminent, Epliialtes,. Fairwind, ' Foghorn, Granado,. Henry of Navarre, Hine.wehi, Hymjrreat, Joie de Val, Lady. Noel, Lady Rene, Malayan, Martian Chief* Master of Arts, Royal Game,- Shootist, Spear;- Lad, ■ Staghunter, Tea Queen, /The Sun, JTobaceoland, and Zephyrus. ; ~' ... Richards. Starts Well. Gordon Richards is setting a warm pace for Fred Fox (last, year's premier horse-man)-and others,who might.have designs on England's jockey ' championship . this year. In the first nine days' flat racing (to 2nd: April)' Richards' rode eight win.-, ners, having made a:'start when-the seasonWas barely half an houV old. • Fox did not leave the: mark with such a .rush, but he' brought home a good wimjer when he scored-on Knight. Error in the .'Lincoln* shire Handicap, the, first important handicap of the season, '. ..';.' Still a Great Rider. : The ex-champion jockey, of England, Steve Donoghue, was showing form, in .the saddle shortly after the commencement of tho flat racing season. He had three wins in the first nine days, and each for an American owner. One wfts: for Mr. Boist- j wick,-and. the others for Mr. and Mrs, V. E, Emamiol respectively. One reason why veterans..shine in England is-, that"most" races are, run on ,st»aight . coni'Ses; but Do'rioghue is still good on a circular track. Aintree's Highest Jump. '"■'.■

The measurements .of-.the'Grand National fences at. Aintreo this year were exactly the same as those .of.Jast year. The highest obstacle was .the;', "open, ditch," the fifteenth jump on the course— a thorn fence Gft-,2in high'and 3ft-'Bin wide, with a ditch .6ft wide on'the take-off side. It' was not the 'hardest . obstacle, for; Becher'n Brook and' -Valontme's- Brook were both more difficult, and-, this year ! only one horse - (South Hill) - came dowa at. the. point. . It ■'• is interesting to make a comparison:. with tho" highest .fence in tho New Zealand Grand National circuit. This is Cutts's fence, a ' solid . brush obstacle 4ft lOin high, and'2ft'Bin through. The highest fence at Ellerslie^is a "live" hedge only 4ft Oin high behind a brush wattle fence 3ft lOin high. ' Bad. for "Books." Bookmakers throughout England were badly hit when Grakle won the Grand National Steeplechase, for the horse had been widely coupled with Knight Error, winner of the Lincolnshire Handicap. Both horses were also well backed in singles. A representative of a leading firm is reported as haying-stated:—"lt has been a bad race for. us. Grakle had been supported almost to the same extent as Easter Hero, and had been coupled with the Lincolnshire Handicap winner several times. Only Easter Hero stood to lose us more money than Grakle over the double." Easter Hero's Last Race? ' Twenty-four hours after his hard race in tho Grand National Steeplechase Easter Hero, who had ruled ultimate -favuuritc for the blue ribband event, but was

brought down tho second time over Bccher's Brook when Solanum faulted, was produced in the Champion Steeplechase, two miles .seven i'urJongs and a half, and, after a mistake at the last fence that cost him sole honours, got up on the post to divide the spoils with the Frenchbred Coup do Chapeau. Easter Hero and Coup de Chapeau are both owned. by Americans, and both carried 12st. The occasion was probably the first on record on which a steeplechase at Aintree :had resulted in a dead-heat. After this race, Owen Anthony, who wiis looking after the interests of Jack Anthony's stable during the illness of his brother, informed a representative of the "Sporting Life" that it was not likely that Easter Hero would race again, although nothing definite had actually been decided.' Arikira Returns. An interesting nomination for the principal handicaps at Otaki is that of Arikira, the three-year-old half-brother by Limond to Maui. Arikira sprang very suddenly into the limelight this season by winning at his first start at Waipukurau on Boxing Day, and he worked his way out of hack ranks within six weeks. The last race he had wus when he unsuccessfully contested the Rangitikei Cup, but between Boxing Day and that date he won four races in ten outings, his successes, besides the Maiden Race at Waipukurau, including the Christmas Hack Handicap (seyen furlongs) at Awapuni, the Melrose Handicap (seven furlongs) at Trentham, and the Nolan Gold Cup (eight and a half furlongs) at Hawera. His three starts subsequent to his \ Hawera effort were not remunerative, but his career liad been so meteoric that it is no wonder he had a temporary lapse of form. The spell since March has. given him a chance of building up again, and he should bo worth following once he starts on another winning vein. . ' Inbred to No. I Family. . Mullaboden; the' Irish-bred rising three-year-old colt (New Zealand time) being trained at Trentham by H. Pritchard for Mr. W. A. Fuller, continues . to (make steady progress in his work, and already many are predicting a very : successful career for him. He has a remarkably easy style of moving, and he strides along without the least apparent effort. He has muscled up_ with recent exercise, and he gives the impression that he will be a capital weight-carrier in spite of the fact that he may never be of big proportions. In appearance he is typically English, with the smallhead, short neck and back, and powerful quarters that have so often been tlie mark of a first-class galloper. His lines suggest that he might develop into something above the average, for he is persistently inbred to the' No. 1 family, the best galloping family in the English Stud Book. His sire, Torlonia, is of the No. 1 family, by the. No. 1 sire Phalaris, and Torlonia's dam (Tortona) is also by a N6. 1 horse, Swynford. Torlonia's most potent blood is undoubtedly the No* 1 (although he also has four lines of the valuable: No. 3 sire blood inr-his first four removes), and he obtain^a return of No. 1 blood through tho matmg with Templeboden (dam of Mullaboden), who is by. the No. 1 horse Bushey Park (son of Hampton). Templeboden herself is a descendant of the No. 22 family, .which has earned lasting fame in , the Dominion through the! progeny of that first-class mare, Eulogy, who : was imported , from England in 1911 by Mr. G. M. Currie, and has already given us two Derby winners (Commendation and Honour) and one Oaks Winner (Praise). It is worth noting that the inbreeding to the No. 1 family in Mullaboden is not confined to the top removes, for in the sixth remove of both sire and dam there is again close inbreeding to the line, with fourteen strains as well of the No. 3 blood, six on the sire's side and eight on the dam's side of the pedigree. • Odds and Ends. . Acceptances for the first day of the Masterton Racing Club's Autumn Meeting are due at 9 o'clock on Monday evening. The telegraph office ( ~at Masterton closes at 8 o'clock., ■*■'''.- Handicaps for the first day of the'Otaki Maori Racing Club's Winter Meeting are due to make their appearance on Tuesday. Acceptances for the Great Northern» Hurdles, Great Northern Steeplechase, Cornwall Handicap, and minor first-day events at the Auckland Racing Club's Winter Meeting close at 5 o'clock next Friday evening. ~ '.'.!., ,: ■ : If Gharmaline has her crigageme'.nt; .in (he Mastortdir: Cup continuedy she- '-will havo lots of friends. At her last_ start she finished second to Lady Pam in the Hawkes Bay Cup at Trentham, and her performance was a very attractive one from every angle at which it is viewed.

Marausio, whoso name appears among the Masterton entries, is v three-year-old brown filly by Arausio from the Martian mare Maropa (a daughter of Grand Opera, the dam also of the Derby winners Cherubini and Rossini). She descends through one of the best branches of the Mermaid family, and even if she fails on the race truck she will have considerable value as a brood mare.

Mount Shannon, who has been schooled on several occasions recently at Awapuni, has been entered for hurdle_ events at Masterton and Otaki, but as his name also appears among the nominations for the principal handicaps at both meetings, it is evident that his connections have not yet relegated him exclusively to tho ranks of the jumpers. He handles soft going well, and further attempts may be made to win with him on the flat during the winter.-

Actaeon, whom Mr. W..-K. Kemball purchased for 300 guineas at the recent Jefferd dispersal sale, will have his first race in the Novice Stakes at Masterton. This,two-year-old brother to False Scent has made steady, progress since entering Gk Jones's stable, and lie is likely to prove one of; the best three-year-olds in the team next season. In the race at Masterton Mi1. Kemball has two other representatives; Foghorn and Fairwind.