IN A NUTSHELL.

— Jupiter is having a spell. — .Aquatic is in work again. — Patrol has been placed in George Smith's rtable. — Gold has been bought for £22 by Mr D. O'Brien.

— Our Auckland correspondent tips TIRE for tho Cup. — M'Ginness is now training Kefugee at "Wingatui. —T. Buddicomb ha 3, after all, not gone to Auckland. — The Takapuna Club declines to reopen the Pokomoko case. — Tho Referee states that Dundee may be taken to Auckland. — Tho Wanganui Club has reinstated D. Creamer, the jockey. — Gaulus, winner of the Melbourne Cup, is not to rsce any more. — Frailty's son Lancaster is said to be improving at Melbourne. — Tamaki is scratched for the Auckland Cup, and St. Paul has gone cronk. — St. Paul has gone amiss, and 13 scratched for all engagements at Auckland. — Waiuku's so-called roaring is said by English papers to be getting worse.

— Jack Taggarfc has taken Paladin to race at Palmerstou North and Wairarapa.

— The Cromwell Times says that Captive's death was duo to a kick from another horse.

' — From the Referee I learn that Alf Rainbow has quitted the Hon. J. D. Ormond's employ.

—J. M'Kewoa is hacking Belmont about to see if his legs will stand another spell of training. 1 — Harry Jackson, trainer of Blazer, is about to marry. I wish him. and his bride every prosperity.

— A luoky Melbourne investor in W.A. Tattersall's Consultation drew £1300 in two goes — £900 and JE4OO.

— Loyalty (winner of the C.J.C. Challenge Stakes) and Royal Rose (King Cole — Rosalind) have gone to India. — Busybody has foaled in New South Wales a full brother to Sir Rupert Clarke's well-per-formed hor3e Paul Pry.

— Beatrice, who as a youngster was sold out of the "Black and Red" stable, had a run at "Wahnea Plains last week.

— Tempest has made a good start as a brood maro in producing Whirlwind, a winner at Christchurch last Saturday.

— There is a report that Harry Goodman may settle in Auckland. I have a doubt ■whether that will prove true.

— A3 a result of being carpeted by the A. J.C. stewards, Sam Fielder h»3 given out his intention cf abandoning the turf. — Auckland-bred Cra\at. by Castor — Necklace, has bcon sent to Duckenfield to take the place of the defunct Eiridspord.

— Hippomenes, Black and Red, Edelweiss, St. Ouida. and GVnelg are !\n:on£,st the entries £or the Southland meeting.

—At tho Newmarket (En;;.) sales in October St. Bri3 (the winner of the Cesarewitch in 1536) changed hands for lOfifigs.

— The well-known jockey H. Holmes has left Melbourne to ride in West Australia, wheic important meetings will shortly be held. . —Mr J. W. Freeman has been appointed secretary pro tern, of the Waimate Club, Mr C. E. Cholmondeley having resigned.

— Mr Dowso's handicaps for the Wyndham laces appear in this issue. I look on Edelweiss and Ciinker as likely to mn wall. — Although Merman is seven years" old, his career of usefulness on the English turf is thought probable to extend over another season at least.

— Cocos is snid to have developed a fearful leg, but walks about all right. He will never Ti»ce agsin, but will Lc prepared for nest season at the «iud. - — Some of the newly-claimed names are capital, as, for examnle, Bellwether for a Eon c.f Forerunner, and Keepstep for a colt by Hornpipe out of Keepsake.

—Mr Joseph Thompson, the well-known bookmaker, who has been seriously ill in England with pneumonia, was somewhat better ■when the last mail left.

— In the first race in England in which Multiform and Tiratii d'Eau v.-ere both entered, the former was ossly asked to concede 3lb to the New Zealand Cup winner!

— Children under 10 yer.rs of age are in future to bo excinded from the Auckland Kacing Club's enclosing. Quite right. A racecourse is not the nlaco for babies.

— The Waikousiti Club has very fair nomination o—rood0 — rood quality for the flat races and numerically strong entries for the trots. The handicaps appear after Pa'.merston.

— Mr Francis Foy gave half the stake money ■won by Voyou and April Fool in Victoria to J. Allsop, the trn ; ner, and the other half he divided among the boys in the stable.

— Abercrombie is thjowr out of work, and Mr Ellia tells me that he is foi sale, but not to be given awp-y, nnd if 110 buyer :omes forward. Abcrcrombio will be tried over hurdles.

— Battlcaxe, it is repotted, will be a s-l.irtcr at Auckland. Everybody but 11 lew who <:re making a arcstwry about this horsi knew a ironth ago th.-.t he was to be staited at Eilerslie'.

— The v e can be no question an to Multiform being afieplrd in his wind, says Licensed Victuallers' G-?zette, and, if not pheady a loarr-r, ho is certain to bo a bad one at no distant date.

— V/hilo refusing to rehear the Wedlock case, the Wellington steward? iutimnio that Vtce Holmes may produce evidence in support r{ an application for the removal of the disqualification.

— "Milroy" 6?ys: In England, as in Australia, the maiority of class laceiicrses arc sons and daughters of mares that were uceless for racing purposes or of mares that were never ra^ed at all.

— The 9th I'etiruary Ls fixed on as the date for tho Clutha Hack ,C!ub's next laces. The rares will Be confined to the counties of Clutha, Bruce, and Tuapeka. Bookmakers will be licensed by the club.

— A till by "Teriingi" for the benefit of thofe •who can wait: Should he come to the po.st •thoroughly well next autumn. I fully expect Stand Off to prove himself one of the -fastest horses of recent years. *

— Bimetallist the fancy-coloured one, had to bo pui up to auction recently in order to satisfy tho C.J.C. that "Billy" Brown, the jockey, was not p.irfc owner. Mr J. B. Hill bought the horso at £60.

. — "Reginald" says: Madcap, one of tiio.=c gold mines in the shape of a brood mare, seems t<? havo nicked all right with Pilgrim's Progress, and the result, Vanity Fair, should bo something in tho staying line.

—.Tom Brown. Mr Long's l?t« private trainer, has leased the two-year-olds Autonomea and Ostentation, and tho throe-year-old Leapfrog, brother to Hopscotch. They will t)e prepared, at Handwick. — r.The. Cromwell Club has mado the following appointments: — Mr C. Mitchell, clerk of the course, vico Mr Harris, who is leaving tho district; M.r John "Wrightson, handicappcr; Mr E. il'Nulty, deputy-starter.

— Paramu, son of Puriri, was on Monday of this we;k given a fresh start in life, on the polo of «, drag, and tho old irarrioi started off as if the pulling of a drag had been the one thing he had looked forward to.

— The value of the Australian horse trade Rish India may bo luclged from the fact that

since the commencement of the current year Messrs Krerouse and Madden have sent about 800 horses across to that country. — A lady's description of the hero of the V.R.C. Sprang meeting: — Apart from the small, game head, and shapely neck, Merriwee is, to the ignorant outsider, an ordinary undersized black colt, worn thin with hard work. — Malatua is withdrawn from the Sydney races for which he was entered, and I think he was scratched befoie the weights appeared. — The desire of Ted Hankins, if prices suit, ia to put up a cottage and six boxes at Wingatui. ' — Izal has again changed hands. For some time ho was regarded as a horse that would improve quickly sooner or late; but he has been losing so consistently as to pretty clearly prove that he is not tho makings of a good racer. m j — Korernatuku, if she starts, is my fancy for the President's Handicap at Hawke's Bay. — The North Otago Jockey Club has re- ; solved to go on with the Champion Trot next May. Nominations are extended to the loth January. — The Tapanui Club has decided to arrange with Messrs Mason and Hoberts to work the totalisatoi on the same terms as previous years. | It was resolved to considerably increase the privileges of members, stewards, and officers of the club. I — The chairman of the conference has for- ' lnaliy disappioved of the following names: — Amazon, Madcap, Artillery, Myrtle-, Matchlock, Locket, and Verbena. I should think so. Laertes might have been rejected too, for tho same cause — previously used. ; — Lasi year's New Zealand Cup winner, Tirant d'Eau, is doing good work with [Day's team in Just before the Cambridgeshire, in which Aii3 and Graces ran second, tho Sjpn of Tiraillerio shaped well in a gallop over a mile , with Mr W. T. Jouos's mare. —If Paladin is at hia bast on the day, ho will take a bit of boating i ntho Manawatu Cup, for which the next best, i think, are ' .Borea3 and Kctrsmatuku. Ch.ass.sur has a show in. tho Tolegraph Handicap and Ostiak in the Grand Stand Handicap. \ — Tho Trotting Association having; upheld tho j decision of the disqualification of '.Trio, winner j o£ tho Eloctric Handicap on November 23 at ; ; Petone, the Wellington Club has decided to ! pay out the impounded totalisutor money on f Tarangapai. The dividend is £1 2s. I — Tho spasmodic action of the police authori- ! ties only temporarily checks tho evil of shop - betting and totes (saj's tlis Sydney Town and Country Journal). It is like trying to cope with tho rabbit r.uisanco by going out for an occasior.al day's shooting or trapping. S — In America it is not an unusual thing for [ the fielders to make a book with a prohibitive favourite " barred " or " out " in tho betting. ; j This they do themselves, in order that all j speculation shall not; be killed by the pre- \ : sonce in tho race of some horso who far out- ' ' classes his field. j 1 —At a meeting of the Clutha Hack Eacing 1 Club tha vice-president, Mr Algio, detailed the f proceedings in connection with the acquirement i i of a new track on the Lower Reserve, and stated j ' ihat tho iormatioa of the track was now about \ i half completed, at an expenditure of close on | i £19. The distance would be six furlongs. f : — Jumping races must be in bad odour in < some parts of America. Prior to the steeple- ' i chase at the Saratoga meeting last month the : '. 12 jockeys who were goiug to ride were called } 1 in by the stewards, and reminded that, if the ' : public did not get r square deal, jumping ; 1 events would bo eliminated from future pro- • ; grammes. ' J — Trenton — described (is "the champion Biie of Australasia, and tho most successful Musket j stallion in the world" — is boing well patronised I '. by British stud masters. His list for 1900 13 i full, and subscriptions are now being booked i for 1901. Abercorn and Patron are 111 demand < at 50gs per mare, or COgs including insurance I against barrenness. : — Eager was pulled out again for the Sub- '< scription Stakes, after having run unsuccess- 3 fully in tho Cambridgeshire, because his owner, ] having decided that tho big handicap was to i bo Mb last race, was desirious, if possible, of 1 letting his champion retire to stud aa a winner. 1 However, tho good son of Entlnisiast out of • Greeba was fated to bo beaten. — The " sports " came down with their bit for 7 tho war fuad in good stylo (writes an English 1 journal). That good sportsman, Sir Ernest 1 Ca=Ee!ls, Ins given £5000 to the fund for the • 1 relief of 'he widows and orphans and disabled i soldiers, to bo thus apportioned : — £-2000 for the 1 widows and orphans, and ±1000 for eacli of the ' other three: branches of the fuud. ! ' — West Australian Legislative Council on the 1 motion of Mr Crowded has affirmed that the i piactico of piomoting lotteries on horse-racing 1 had become a social scandal, and it was neces- < nary in the interests of public morality that a ' law prohibiting lotteries should bo rigorously i enforced. It was also decided to transmit the s motion to the Legislative Assembly. . 1 — A curiou coincidence in connection with the ' Cambridgeshire is that Irish Ivy occupied the 1 samo box that Comfrey did two yeara ago, 3 wLeii he wo 1 the race for Sir W. Ingrain, and : w;>s ridden, like this year's winner, by Kempton ! Cannon. In another respect the victory of ] the Irish filly is significant, for Keiidigoj in 1 a field of 25, gained the day for Ireland in 1 ISS3. j 1 — A sportsman with a nice discrimination of < tho distanced over which we raco uow?day3 t wired from Burma.h the other day: "Can you i secure horso beat Polpan from six to one and •■■ a-half miles? Wiro name, price." Tho re- , i ply sent was: "Belter wire to Australia, Eng- £ land, or America,, and get them to breed you 1 one. Have none here can gallop six miles * racing speed." , t —An unusual caae was brought beforo Mr t Northcroft, S.M., at Woodvilie last week, when < A. Sandel sued K. Essex, bookmaker, for the 1 amount of tho dividend on a raco run at Bull*. 1 Plaintilf alleged that he soivt word to put £1 s on a certain horse, which v?on. The magistrr.tc rofuscd to he:>r tho case. Ho said it was ' oul?idc couri matters altogether, and lion- 3 suited the plaintiff. f — "K. H.," in tho Australasian, says: Writ- I ir.£ of judges biings mo to the control of rac- ' < ing, and in that particular Australian clubs a might, well take a lesson from tho Americans, t All their officials aio paid and are. competent, c Therefore,^ they aro observant. Tho judge is i aliiiost absolute, and it does not take any three t days' session of stewards to pronounce upon f a horse's Tunning or a boy's riding. , t — Tho Clutha Club is asking that tha dis- a qualification bo removed from all horses that i competed at tho Clutha Mounts Kiftes' sports, c — Tho Clutha Club has mado tha following a appointments:— Judge, Mr A. Petrie; starter, ■] Mr W. AUcmi ; handicappers— Messrs J. PruLsh c W. H:-«y, J. M'Donnel!, J. S. Deaker, Phil 1 Clent; clerk of course, Mr P. Clent; clerk of scaled, Mi John Gow ; timekeeper, Mr Jam<\s ] Hogg. "- , «, — In -England, remarks Melbourne Sports- ' r man, it is oustomary to chargo owners half a t ciown for every entry they make, and a similar { sum as a "weighing feo" when they start a t horse. Tho "entry feo" is part of, and in many c cases all, tho remuneration obiainod by tho c clerk of tho course. This functionary ia not t the red-coated official with which Australian \ racegoers aro familiar, but is really the secre- -i tary of the club. j — One splendid feature of stewardship in 2 American racing, says "K. H.," is the starting s judge and tho patrol judge, the latter a. com- t peient paid official, who watches the runniDg — not from tho stewards' stand, but from the in- r side of the course, generally at the home turn, c

where so much shuffling and juggling to gain, or lose, a good position takes place. Since the appointment of this officer great improvement has taken place in racing. rr — Mr AlliEon says:- The Jockey Club at Newmarket (Eng.) on paper seemed good for Herman if ho were really himself, and yet Mazagau had given Skopos 131b and a beating at the previous meeting, in spite of which Skopos finished fourth in the Cambridgeshire. Morman -was set -a severe task in being asked to give Mazagan 18!b at this time of year, and jet I believe he would have found no difficulty in doing it if m his Goodwood or Dcauvillo forrn,^which ho certainly was not. — The groat American jumping event, the Champion Steeplechase, of 9000dol, three and a-half miles, vas run at Morris Park, New York, in October. There were 13 starters, and after a great race the favourite, Van Ship, won by a head from an outsider named Philjc. Tho race was regarded as a success in every way, and, it is thought, will greatly benefit cross-country racing in America. Of the 9Coodol prize money, two-thirds was subscribed by gentlemen who want to see steeplechasiii" go ahead in thnt part of the world. — Answering the question, "Which, in your opinion, were the throe best horses among" the following: Lone Hand, Left Bower, Ballarat, Sussex, and Redleap?" the Australasian says: Any answer to a question like this can only be a matter of opinion. Wo place Redlenp abovo all -other steeplechasers for two reasons. According to Mr A. Miller Redleap once did a throe-mile trial p.hnost good enough to giro him a show in a Champion Race, and he was never really well when he won his steeplechases. We would place- Sussex and L«ft Bower next. Thoy woro great horses over hurdles as well as over fences. — Saya a London scribe : Labrador's running at Newmarket showed pretty clearly the utility of the American stylo of jockeyshin ior ilare, though he has not yet mastered tlie short-stirrups idea, lay right out along the old thief s neck, with a rosult thai Labrador galloped as ho has not done on a racecourse for many & long day. He ought to have won, too. He wag only beaten a head, and Hare, who will rapidly improve, deserves every credit for having had the moral courage to risk ridiculo and try a style of riding which, to anyone unaccustomed to it, must be, to say the lea3t, difficult. ■ — Tha prominent show made by Airs and Graces in the Cambridgeshire ensured her good support for the Old Cambridgeshire, and she started favourite from her stable companion Skopoa. The last-named destroyed his chance by going the wrong side of two posts in tho early part of the ltice, whereby he lost a lot of ground, while Airs and Giaces could only get third. Tha issue was left to Lexicon and Plambard, and in the lun home it did not seem possible for the last-named to be beaten, but he suddenly declined to struggle, and Lexicon was able to beat him by a length and do the fielders a turn. — Tho Criterion Nursery, at the Newmarket (Eng.) meeting in October, fell to Carbinia, a smart daughter of Carbine, who stuck well to her work. Mr Allison writes: There are certain to bo pome more good ones by the same famous horso 111 due time, and breeders will :lo well to make a note of it. With Duiu Bum and Carbinia ho has done a lot better than Isonomy did in his first season, and it is notorious that Carbine's stock need time. Some in Australia that were dead slow two-year-olds hayo turned out good in later life. On this point Mr Septimus Miller is very strong, for ho owns one of the animal? in question. —At the- Hawthorne track, Chicago, a jockey named Boyd, who had tho mount on Globe 11, is alleged to have attempted to run another competitor off at the first fenco in the steeplechase, and in doing ao came an awful cropper, bringing two others down as well. Strangely enough, Boyd was the only jockey injured, five of his vibs being broken Pnd one «m broken in three places. He died tho same night, but before- that happened he had been ruicd off by the stewards, and the general opinion is that tho action of the latter was in questionable taste-, considering tho condition Boyd ivas in when taken away from the course. — I waa present at the settling a-t the Victorian Club (says the South Australian writer "Phaeton"), :uid I noticed during the betting at the room for the week before the Cup that Mi H. Oxenham is still the biggest bettor among the ring men. That was demonstrated at the Victorian Club when the settling took place. The leader of the" ring ivenfc to th 9 club loaded with crisp bank notes, which formed four high rows on the central table. The piles rosa and fell as the mornin? v,-o-o on, now increasing, now decreasing, but I fancy that, when the er.d ol the paying3ut cams his bink notes had gone. — The affection of the iacehor=e Dungauon [or a lamb winch fell out of a. passing flock snd 'our.ci its way into his paddock is hisloncal among animal friendships. It is not 30 well known tint Chilblain, who won the rand Military Gad Cup in 1870, and again in LS77, conceived 0 s'nnlar attachment in his old igo wiieu pensioned hy Sll- Cl.vud? do Cres-?i',-n> at Cha.m]vo:i Lodge. Chilblain occiiJicc 1 n four-acre pacHock. with a shed and ooso-box, and the lainL shared the premises ivith him; if or.c of tho tvvo went out of the )o>: the other immediately followed, and if )iio fatopprd feeding and strolled homeward he other folio-.vcd. — S.'.m Clufiiey — one of the greatest nding irlists of his day on the turf — jut but a poor iguro when following the hounds, being excessively tinur], ji, fact well k:.owii io his patron, lis Koyai Highness tho Prince of Wales, aftervatds George IV, who nlwaya ordered him to ako tho lead over difficult or unknown fences, t, i,ost of honour which the jockey dared not, n course, decline. O<ie day, having had a ■ather scv.to fall over a fence which the Prince ucl sent him to esploro, the unlucky Chifney shouted a warning to the- Prince: "A ditch, by finqo!" ho exclaimed ; "and I have just aloift jrokca my nock over it. Don't you try, your iloyp.l Highnoso, or your nock will soon be done or!" — Sportsman's special writes: The Grail.T lid badly, I know, for a considerable time liter his arrival in England, and tho acclima,i?ation process waa in his case, unusually lifficult, insomuch that he had to be clircped n tho «irly summer, and I have been "told hat oats h^d to bu biought from Australia or him. Ha 19 a. good horse when well, and his I do not tr.ko so much from tho book is from tha fact that the same high authority n Axistralia wiio recommended the purchase >f Maluma, Merman, nnd Oban also strongly tdvisod that Tho Grafter should be bought for lOOO^s prior to his Melbourne Cup. Ihat no >no in England was bod enough to buy him a nothing to tho point. — "Analyst," author of a Look entitled "Flat Racing Explained," ia dovji on that idiotic lecrecy which trainers observe as jealously now is did their predecessors in the early days of ho century. Lor>£ experience has satisfied him lnvt in these days o* largo stake 3 and post beting it would do r.o harm if trainers were as jpen about what goes on in their stable as a :rickeier is fbout his form. Tho more secrecy here is about a sl.vble ihe shorter tho price the xiticns of t!:ai stable have to toke when they vant to back ono of it, initiates. A hundred ■ears pgo a trair.er v,v,s taught that aecrecy was ibout tho most impoitant thing in his profesiion. Most training methods hare been alered since then, but iLi3 silly notion survives. — Something like 20 years &go Sir Beaunont Dine was ba,dly bitten by the nunia oinmon to plungers for indulging in bisr beta.

which did not tend to improve the state of hi 3 exchequer. A good story is told about the baronet and Steel, the bookmaker. Sir Beaumont was standing talking to the leviathan on Newmarket Heath one October meeting. Tho wmd was high, and it was raining, and the noble plunger wanted to light his cigar. Ha had only one match left. "Bet you a monkey, said he, "that I light this cigar with this match, where I stand." "Done," replied Mr Steel. Without any preparation Sir Beaumont struck the lucifer, lighted his weed, and won his bet. Steel ever after that date carried fuses for the accommodation of plungers. — It is generally admitted that the turf reporters of the present day are far in advance of scribes who flourished some quarter of a century ago, but wo doubt, says an English paper, if any of thorn could give weight to the gentleman responsible for the following giaphic account: '" ' Go!' shouted the starter, dropping a square of crimson bunting, which flashed brightly against the green background. ' They're off!' roared a Latonian mob, in a h'ugc, hoarse chorus, which rolled sullenly -from beneath tho grand stand and betting shed, rumbled across Ihp course aud paddock, until it reached the ribbon of stablemen and boys that fringed the whitewashed rail at the far end, and ultimately rumbled back again, softened, sweetened by its journey, a faint echo from the emerald hillside." The field in this exciting race consisted of two, and the race was won by 20 lengths.