SPORTING NOTES.

Mr "W. C. Whitney ia retiring froni tliu tEnglieh turf. Belah lost a lot of friends by his poor iunjuhs in the Caulfieid Guineas. La Rusae, the sister to Tsaritsa and ifeytilh a view to lacing in the autumn. De la. Bey has injured one of his fore-legs, and will have to be spelkd for a ume. Sylvanite, winner ot the Debutante Stakes, cost 690 guineas as a yearling last- Easter. Postillion and Sojourner are both strongly ianoied candidates for the Melbourne Cup. F.J.A. had a bad <pa»sage in the Toorak Handicap, which emphasises the merit of ius Lavalette is coming into favour for the New Zealand Cup, on account of his good track \ Master Alix has contracted a cold, but it is sooi expected to prevent him from racing next month,) ■ .. St Denis ia in good form at present, and should be worth watching at Riccarton next jnonth. ■, _ The racehorses Master Alix and De la Bey returned from- Wellington by the a.a. Monowai on Friday. The attempt to train Benzoin has been abandoned, and 'ho has gone back to hia cwner'B stud. ... ... Nauiiloid gave two disappointing displays at Oamaru. She does not look like having « Jwilliant turf career. • The oause of Bulawayo's withdrawal from (the- Naw Zealand Cup was- an internal injury, iwhioh vrili necessitate a apelC Jenkins is kid up with scarlatina. In his -absence Hewitt did some riding for the Porirua stable at Wellington last week, trovna, will be put into regular work shortly, ' A profit considerably over £100 is expected over the North Otago Jockey Club's meetr G-tonelg, who won a steeplechase at the Caulfiel«P meeting, is owned by a Victorian bookm*&r, who originally purchased him for about Siikes amounting to £61 will be awarded ftt •&» Waiou Radix* Club's meeting om ffttnSury 9. The programme ia eomdlfr to il rumour has been <ju»ent during the post few Jday«~ that «ll is not right with Machine jGun. Inquiry; however, has failed .to subBtantiwte it. „ . ' The Euroclydon mare Happy Home, one of the few horses in tiwining at Oamaru, ehould twin a good: race shortly, as she is decidedly COIKTSThe *ru»fcee® jof the Christchurcb racecourse hay« given power to the Canterbury Jockey Club to maimbain order on the course during the «pring meeting. Th« •tewexda of -«he Ohok* and Eyreton flecker Cfliub me* on October 20, and decoxied to dismua the protaft against Single Event in (the Hunters? Flat Race. t Auokland writer* «tote that Hewitt i 8 likely ito ride Mara in the New Zealand Cup. If Achilles starts, howwrar, he may be on the back of 'the Pc*iru% crack. . ' Lee-Enfield i» growing into a fine-lootang horsed having filled out a lot lately. There ■herald he a- good race in this gelding before the season is much older. Florodora, the half-siarter to Goldspur, may Ifcurn but a decent mare later on. At present, however, *he d« only a moderate. In appearance «he resembles Goldspur. Lady Lillian has improved a Tot within tne last day or two. and is now able to walk well, whereas a few daye ago she could scarcely put ker injured leg to -the ground. Lewis is expecting an addition to his st-aDie ■hortly in' the shape of Rockleigh, the Stepniak— Sailrock gelding that taoed at Oamaru. He i* endowed wrth a lot of pace. According to Chicago papers, the bookmakers lave had-a most disastrous season there. It ?T estimated -that £100,000 was token out of the betting ring during the Hawthorne meet\?*k«ful'e unplaced performance; in the Caulfield Stakes marked the first time, she had fbufihed out K>f » place since she ran third to Revenue's Melbourne Cup, nearly two yeara Zecchino, the two-year-old' by Musketry— fieouiin, in Lewis's stable, ha« grown into a tot big colt. At present he » very back■ward, but with time he ehould make a good Tsaritsa broke a bloodvessel on the morning, «| *the first day of the Oamaru meeting, and later in *he day had a <reourrence of the -trouble while racing in the North Otago Handicap. . , „ Emir ran- a very game race against Abundance in tho Cauifield Stakes, though he wa3 not quite wound up. If he can be gofc quite •well he is expected to he easily .the champion «f the season. * At an inquiry by ihe Victoria Racing Club s committee into the cause of the accident to 3>uke of Grafton, it was found that tie occurjerce was purely an accident, and that no one ytas to blame. Zetland, the two-year-old' by Obligado— Lady Zetland, is very like his half-sister Lady Lillian, particularly about the ihead. He may

never "be a big one, but when he fills out he should be useiul. Roscommon looks like * being a good perfoinier this season. Though on the email side, he can carry weight, and gallop fast aa well. I He (bad bad luck in nearly falling on the I second day afc Oaiu&ru. According to the ""Witness," -the Dunedin man. who drew Sweet Nell in T&ttorsaU'a Consultation on ,the Cauifield- Cup intends going for a long trip, after which he will start a stud farm in South Africa. Mr A. A. M'Master, tho owner of Tsaritsa, has a> fine yearling brother to that mare that he- expects will turn out well. He has also a yearling filly by Obligado— La. Russe (sister to Tsaritsa.) 'that is very promising. At a meeting of the oornaniHee oi the (Nlapier Park Racing Olitb, on, October 20, the protest again Asteroid in the Rlaoing Club Handicap at the recent meeting, c*i ihe ground of incorrect nomination as to ownerahip, was dismissed. There is a probability of three horses from Scobie's stable starting in the Victoria Derby on Saturday. Sweet Nell and F.J.A. are owned: by Sir Rupert Clark© and Emir by his brother, Mr E. D. Clarke. Koopan is alleged to have had a bad passage in the Debutante Slakes, or he might have beaten Sylvanite. The latter, on the other hand, had bad. 1 luck during the race, in that hi 9 jockey rode part of tho way with one foot out of the tftirrup. The Junior Champion Stakes, a, £3000 race for two-year-olds, was run at Gravesend, New York, on September 14, and was won by a colt named Highball, who carried: 9st lib. The distance is given as about six furlongs,' and the time was lmin 10 2-sseo. Machine Gun ie favourite for the Stewards' Handicap. Coupled with Roseal or Shrapnel he is quoted ; at 20 to 1, -while in conjunction with Achilles, Wairiki, Keliburn and Canteen, he is quoted at 25 to 1. Pefcrovna- is a good eeoond favourite. Coupled with Pampero, in fact, only 20 to 1 can be got. The following is from & Melbourne exchange:—"Fifteen years ago J. Toinlin was fined £5 for being late or disobedient ai the post on the Bolton Green gelding Dividend, in a race at Randwick. That fiver was collected by the Australian, Jockey Club officials when Tomlin was on Kaffir the other day." The American crack, MChesney, was in good farm -. last month, and among the races lie accounted for was -the Twin City Handicap at Sheepshead Bay (New York). He carried 9st 3lb, beating ten others easily in 2min 4 3-ssec for the anile and a quarter. His owner, Smathers, is credited with having won £10,000 in bets. At Dunedin, on October 19, Benjamin Curtis, Lewis Curtis and Peter Grant were committed for trd«il-, on ■» •charge, of keeping a betting slhop. William Alexander was fim«d. £5 and costs for being on. tth« premises without lawful excuse. Charges against H. Goodman and DeWiunty K>f berng" on the premises, were dismissed. ■ .. A writer in the " Ofcago Witness," after noting how Red G-auntlet gallops best, is of opinion that it is a mistake to hang on to the Lochiel horse in his races. I*o- hold him. together without .pulling afc ibis head seems to. suit him, best, and -that is the way he was ridden when he won at Christchurch and in his race in the Electric Handicap last week. According to a northern." writer Royal Fusilier and Melodeon are decidedly useful colts, despite the fact that they were beaten by Quarryman and Treadmill in the Hawke's Bay Guineas. Royal Fusilier, when more seasoned, will hold his own with the best of the three-year-olds seen out so far this season over short courses, and Melodeon will stay well from all accounts. ' A northern writer says 'that Evening is to be 'thrown out of work for a time; indeed, she may not race again until 1904, when iihe big steeplechase meeting takes place at Onkaparinga, in Australia. Mr Armstrong, who owns the handy little mare, ia a; thorough sportsman. He has friends in •the southern State, and intends to 'take a holiday and run his mare for the big stake which is to be offered. A Hobart exchange s?.ys tha* the new Tasmania. ißacing Club secretary *i& determined that it will not be his fault if the law is broken by book betting. At the recent meeting at Elwick he had a whole host of suspected bokcillers removed from the " flat." The totali«ator returns denoted thot tiie volume of bookmaking oould not have been fts extensive as is often the, case. The sum of '£687 more passed, through the machine than, at the corresponding meeting last year. There was some further record-breaking at Sheepshead Bay (New York) last month. A two-year-old named Jocund, with 6st, easily won a mile race in lmin 38 2-ssec, which beats anything done in America by a horse of that age. At the same toack Van Ness ran a i straight six and a half, furlongs in lmin 18sec with-7st 9lb on his back. The Murateman, another two-year-old, ran a mile in lmin 38 4-5 sec, carrying 7st lib, and beating ihe crack fcur-yeax-old, WChesney Bst 101 b. Two-year-old form in 'the Hawked Bay meetiiig was not of the best (says an Auckland writer). Experience recently gained by several may help th«m a little, but if Galahad be really oetter than Sir Percival, which form in the Hastings Stakes did not indicate (stable anticipations being probably upset by the heavy going), then Silkworm, who won, must not be toohighly assessed just now. It would appear ihat no really first-dkss . two-year-old has been seen out so far this Mason. The following are 'the drawers of placed 1 horses in Tatteraall's Consultation on the Demonstration Handicap, run at Warwick Farm, New South Wales;, on October 5, 1903; closed with 45,000 subscribers at ss, drawn pro rata: —First, Little Mary, Thomas Hodges, Evergreen Cottage, Muswellbrook, New South Wales, £3600; second, Westvil, Miss Abbott, Thornbury. George Street, East Melbourne, Victoria, £1125; third, Baruidi, E. Sanders, Fire Station, Manly, New South Wales, £675. There were only five runners for the Donoauter St Leger, and Rock Sand (5 to 2 on), who was aiever really extended, won by four lengths from William Rufus, who beat the second (favourite, Mead (7 to 1), by * length and a half. In addition to Mead. King. Edward was represented by the Persimmon colt Persistence, about whom 200 to 1 w«s on offer. jHe finished a very long last. Although Rock , Sand had matters all his own way, ho rnti the t mile and three-quarters and 132 yards in Bmin 9 2-ssee. The value of the stake .was .-£1775. Powder Puff, a four-year-old gelding by Carbine, won tie Jockey Apnreniices' Plate, of one mile and a hall >at ihe Hamilton Park meeting in England recently, defeating four others. Another Carbine representative was successful in the Portland Pk"te (a, highweight handicap, six ftfrlongs straight) at the Derby meeting last month. CnrTvnrfon. who went 'nv*. at V? to 1. lop-rlir.e * field of ten. Gem Court, who is also by Cari-nfle, ran second in the B°lner P'nte-.s* ihe same meeting, being defeated. by White Webbs, a three-year-old colt by Trenton. The other day (?-»ys a Sydney writer) I saw Etra Weenie's r^nrlinjr colt by Ornftrm. This half-brofher +o Mf-rriwee is a handsome brown,

■with both hind pasterns white, and a u\i. streak down his face. Although not, of ; : size of some of the Graftons, this youngiie. ia -well-grown and full of quality. I noticed that lie showed a particularly amiab.o disposition, for he allowed himßelf to be handled like an old. liorso. "When this colt comes down from Bathurst to the yearling sale 3at Bandwick he will cause some of the buyers of bigpriced ones to open their mouths pretty wide. , . , ■, Mr J. E. Gleadow, the newly-appointed secretary of the Napier Park Racing Club, in succession' to ;M.r A. T. Danvera, is a Napier boy, and probably the youngest lacing club secretary in the colony. He is industrious and energetic, and Bhou'.d do well in the new position. He has behind him and enterprising set ol stewards. The retiring secretary, Mr Danvera, belongs to 'the " old school ' of sportjng men, who grow fewer with the march of years. He is one of the very old residents j of Hawke's Bay, and takes with him into his retirement from active secretarial duties the best wishes of many friends.. Including his St Leger victory, Bock Sand has won eleven races, and lost two, and has earned in stakes 25,899 soys. Of this sum 18,425 sows have been placed to his credit during the present season. The value of the St Leger -was ,4775 eavs, -as against 5275 soys won by Sceptre a year ago, the difference being owing to tho number of 'subscribers being twenty less In the first year of the race only a dozen subscribed and ten ran, and in the following year six entered and five went to the post. . Tko highest number to subscribe I was 274 in 1879. Eayon dOr then winning 6525 .soys, while the field totalled seventeen.