IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 32

IN A NUTSHELL.

— Mr Stead's cheque at Auckland came to £1125 j odd. » j — J. Huxtable, jockey, recently deceased, was 27 years of age. — Hendrick was fined £1 for disobedience by the Cromwell starter. —At the Southland meeting Suref oot was sold to Mr J. Shaw for lOgs. — Ronda is not likely to lace again, and he will leave the turf a maiden. — The hurdler Hopgarden was severely injured | at Gisborne while being schooled. — Daimio, Ebor, and Norton have been entered for the Liverpool Grand National. — Mr Gollan's Ebor had a very easy win in the Cheveley Hurdle Race at Birmingham. — In 1810 the dam of Blacklock, "he of the mighty stride," was purchased for 3aovs. — It is estimated that 200 race meetings were held throughout Australasia on Boxing Day. — Culzean, winner of the Standish Handicap, has been Bold to the Sultan of Johore for 500gs. fc-Tha jockey Jack Hayes died suddenly in

India. He was returning via India from Singapore to Victoria. — Mr J. J. Gibson kindly sends an invitation to the Tuapeka meeting, and Mr Quin forwards a ticket for Tapanui. — Damien, winner of the A.J.C Summer Cup, was gallop?d on in the race and taken back lame to ChippiDg Norton. —Mr T. L. Ware, an Adelaide brewer, wellknown in sporting circles, was drowned while bathing last month. — Fassifern, by Creswick — Irma, won the Carrick Plate (Tas.) last month. This was his second win of the Pi ate. — The best two-year-old trotting filly of 1896 in the States is China Silk, by Prodigal— Brown Silk. Her time is 2min 16sec. — During tho past season 23 English-bred horses won 67 races on the American turf, their winnings amounting to £21,294. — Mr A. Eccles, of Perth, recently offeredcMr S. Miller 500ga for Preston, but the price asked by the Victorian owner was 800gs. — After his victory in the chief event at Paris Omnium II was weighted in a Free Handicap at 11.11, with the bottom weight 6 4. —In the Hurdle Raca at Williarnstown All Talk fell and broke her neck. H. Howard, who rode the mare, bad his leg broken. — Minerva fell in the Hurdle Race on the ' second day of the Westland meeting, and her rider, Clements, was badly shaken and bruised. — According to the American Turf Register, the highest-priced stallion in 1834 was American Eclipse. He was then 20 years old, and his fee was £20. — A trotting match for a stake of £100 is to take place at Au kland between Mr Austin's Pleasantou and Mr Edwarda's Albert Victor on February 24. — Zaiinfki's son Sobieski started first favourite for the Liffey Plate, a two-year-old race, at Carrick (To 8.), and was beaten two lengths by Timbrel, sou of Mozart. ~ Childwick is very highly thought of in France, where Sir J. Blunu-ll Maple could any day have 10,000gs for him if disposed to sell, which he i- not. — Grand F.aneur won nine vacs, including the A J.C. Dirby, Victoria Derby, Melbourne Cup. V.R.C. St. Leger, and Champion Stakes. He never suffered defeat. —At the Mancho>.ter January Steeplechase meeting Mr S. H. Gollan's Ebor won the Trafford Park Handicap Steeplechase, two miles, beating his field by three lengths. — Kitchener, wh'j lias been riding this year for the Messrs do Xt zske, the great singers, has won 54 rsc. b during (ho season for their stable, worth altogether about £16,000. i — The report as to the approaching retirement of John Watts is without foundation. The i statement that Watts is about to commence as a trainer is equally groundless. | — Indigo, by Maxim, is said to be one of ! the beat uvo-year-olds in the west of Americß Carrying 7.12, the colt recently romped home in a five-furlong race in Imin }sec. ! — " Reginald " says it is not unlikely that Hova, , Wallace, Auraria, and Nowhaven will be seen in 1 the field together at Flemingion before the latter takes his departure for England. — Velasquez was in November well backed for the Derby at 3 to 1, £400 being booked at the price. The • ame odds were oifered Galtee More, and Vesuvian again stood at 6 to 1. — M. Camille Blanc, the well-known French owner, has disposed of his training establishment at St. Louis de Poissy to Mr W*. K. Vanderbilt, but still ret tins his breeding stud at Joyenval. — Curious, very, that the Gore handicappers should have forgotten that according to Rule 38 no horae can carry less than 6.7 in a handicap on the flat. They weighted four horses in the Flying at 6 6. — Racing is making such headway in Ssuth Africa that the value of the stakes run for last season amounted to no less than £64.000. A giod sign was thit there were fewer races and richer prizes. — Hopes are entertained of re-engaging "Hori Poene" to do the Witness letter from Australia. H« ia leaving Western Australia for Melbourne, and is at liberty to resume the work which he used to do so well. — Matamata, the gelding by Apremont—Speargrass, foaled in 1885, won a race at Orepuki on i New Year's Day. Satyr, winner of the Cup, is by Puriri from a Deadshot mare, and Billy, another winner, ia by Seaward I — When going well about five furlongs from ; home in the Hurdle Race at Caulfield on Boxing i Day, Ariuga fell, injuring himself so severely that lhe had. to be destroyed. A. Cooper, the rider, 1 sustained a broken collar-bone. — Although Walter Hickenbotham did not at fir3t relish the idea of being severed from his kith ! and kin for a whole yeay, it is not unlikely that he and J Gardiner, the jockey, will be induced to accompany Newhaven to England. * , —At Caulfield on the 2oi,h ult. the name of i each horse was printed on the stall occupied by the animal in the i addling paddock The Westralian innovation was app eciated by the public, but a few of the trainers objected to the advertisement given their horses. — Beaumont faces bad to be postponed three days owing to bad weather, and when they did com-j off it was in the presence of a very small crowd. In the Mile Trot G. Henry, the rider of Brightwing, entered a protesl against Agent and Glenboy, which was not su&tained. — La Saeesse broke a long sequence of failures by winning the Derby Cup, though the verdict of ! a 6hort head might have been reversed in another ! stride or two. Every credit id due to S Loates, i who rode a brilliant race on Sir J. Miller's filly, and he was never seen to better advantage. — Kirltham, one of the Australian horses sent over to England by the late Mr James White, is , now at the stud in Ireland. The Irinh statistics ; of winning stallions in that country during 1896 I show Kirkham as the sire of one winning horse, ; a son of his named Kirkeen having- won a race of 1 the value of £30. — Amid all the cry for Irish horses, it is noteworthy (remarks au English writer) that all the starters but three for the Ssfton were Irish-bred ones, and those three finished first, second, and j third. However, the Irishmen had their revenge ] the next afternoon, when Count Schomberg won ' the Liverpool Cup. , — Just as the close contest between M. Can- ,' non and T. Loates for premier position in the i winning list of England's jockeys had assumed a i highly interesting phase the last-named jockey was knocked out «t Liverpool, and Moraington Cannon is assured of the first place among the successful riders of the year. — The English gelding Paddy, by Skylark— Mavourneen. was shot iv November. His career will be chiefly identified by racing people with his victory in the Manchester November Handicap in .1802, in exceedingly heavy going, when, as a three-year-old, he beat a big field that included many good handicap performers. — In a race at Latonia (U.S.A.) in October, Probasco i - an away three rrrles in a false bre-tk. As he finished the third mile he broke one of his legs and was destroyed. Tt turned out that the horse was crazed as the result of an injection of cocaine, which was administered with the humane object of deadening pain in a sore leg. —Mr John L. Brewer, if New .>ersey, lost a valuable trotter from an attack of vicious rats, which bit the 'horse's leg in several places clean to the bone, from which the blood flowed so freely that before the wounds were dipcovev-d the horse was beyond the possibility of recoverj The rats I were double the ordinary size and feiocious as j wolves. j — The attack by the Anti-Gambling League on the Alexandra Park, near London, has been defeated. Mr John Hawke, on behalf of the League, opposed the renewal of a horse-racing license for the park, but the County Council Licensing Committee for Middlesex granted the license — another slap in the face for the spoilsports. — Birchrod held a nice place and was going well j at the time of "her fall in the Liverpool Autumn Cup. Count Hchcmberg'B hurdle-racing experience stood him in good stead, for he had to jump over her to avoid coming down himself. This roust have lost him a length or two, and his easy victory was all the more maritorious under the circumstances. — The N.S.W. trotting stallion Tommy died recently fron. the effects of a kick received from a mare on the previous evening, and which fractured his near foreleg, shattering the bone and splitting it right up. The loss is a serious one to Mr G. H. Allan, who at one time refused au offer

of £1000 for the horse, and prior to his death valued him at £600. — An application was mads to the Chief Justice of New South Wales on behalf of Charles Westbrook for a rule nisi to set aside his conviotion and fine for cish be ting in the paddock at Randwick. The application was baaed on the ground that the saddling paddock was not the place within the meaning of the Betting-house Suppression Act. A lule nisi was grauted, made returnable next term. — The Australasian writes : " The Thunder Queen story appears to have been nothing more than the result of some publichouse chaff, insti-. tuted for the benefit of an individual who interfered where he was not wanted, in the hope of getting information likely to be of service to a patrou. The sensational tale about the ball wa&, it s ems, all moonshine." This is what I half expected. — The building of a hospital for jockeys and others who meet with accidents during their professional career is likely to become an accomplished fact in Prance. The French Jockey Club has given the ground for building the infirmary, <tc. and added a sum of £6000 towards the expenses of building, and a further grant of £4000 will be made out of the prolits from th.B mutual betting. — J Perriu, who died in England in November, was a well-known trainer, who in early life was head lad to John Scott. The lost two winners of great races Perrin ha<l in hand for his old master were the mares which really laid the foundation of the late Lord Faltnouth's racing fortune — viz , Hurricane (by Wild Dayrcll), winner of the One Thousand Guineas 18(52, and Qu-eu Bertha, winner of the Oaks in 1863. — Those who have teen the covered yard at Mr Dan Cooper's stud farm, says London Sportsman, must have been struck with the style of the roofing, which is of boards set about fin apart, admitting at once light and air, arid yet excluding wet. This la9t statement is difficult to credit, but it is correct The roof is pitched at a rather steep angle, and the rain rune down the boards without dropping inside. The principle is an Australian one. — Iv a letter f rum England to a friend in Melbourne, Mr S II (iollan states that Erl -King is doing splendidly, Ebor being of no use to the .son of Splendour in their schooling over hurdle?. Busaco was in great heart when he unfortunately injured himself while jumping, and is unlikely to race again As Busaco had proved himself to be much superior to Norton in trials, Mr Golluu had hard luck in losing the Wellington gelding's services. — At Adelaide on the 28th ult. a protest was lodged by Mr Pile, the owner of Confidence, against The Trojau in the Steeplechase, in which only three started, on the grounds that the jockey, S. Ferry, struck Confidence across the head with his whip. After a lengthy inquiry the s'ewards decided not to disturb the judge's v-rdict, but disqualified Ferry for 12 montrm. Ferry intends to appeal against the decision to theS.A J.C. — " Javelin " reports that tome time ago, on the o"Cißidn of a race meeting, a number of Sydney riugmeu were dining at an hotel in Wagga. "Pass them pickles, please," said one, pointing to a bottle of olives. A moment afterwards there was a mingled burst of blasphemy ami expectoration as the half crown double-eventer exclaimed, with the best intentions and a, palpable shudder, "Chaps. I'D give yer the office— them pickles is very mink." -Pnnstau Times reports that in one of the troth at the Vincentineeting a protest was entered th>»t Mickey Free was not the horee he wag represented to be; but the owner (Mr Robertson) having made an affidavit that he was propnrly entered, the horse was allowed to start. The 12 horses started but before going round once Mickey Free left the course, and we understand ' the stewards never saw the »wner again to ask why he left the course. — Fly, a Californian horse which has been pacing at Morris Park, is a remarkable illustration of the skill veterinary science haa reached. After a few races last winter he fell lam-, and was turned out in a paddock with another horse, who kicked him. Tha blow fractured Fly's skull, but the veterinary surgeon trepanned the skull, using an X ray (the fltst on record), and the horse not only recovered, but is gradually recovering his speed, and promiies to be as good ao ev«r. — I'he Warwick (England) Club is putting forward the biegaat thing yet attempted, so tar as monetary value is concerned, in connection with steeplechasing. The new affair is to be called the Britannia Steeplechase, of 5000sovs, for yearlings of 1897 and older horses of all ages, to be decided at the Spring meeting of 1900. The distance will be four miles, and there is a graduated ecale of subscription, after the manner of tno Eclipse Stakes. A companion event is the Britannia Hurdle Race. — Perhaps the principal and most unaccountable defeat at Caulfield on Boxing Day, nays "T. T " in Melbourne Sportsman, was that of Perverse, on Avhom a well-known though very recent owner of- racehorses laid £500 to £400 (in one hand it is .aid). Perverse did not win— lan last, in fact. Perverse is a big horse, up to a big weight, and almost invariably of late accustomed to be bestridden by a big, strong jock«y— James Haves— who has won seve.-al races on the son of Wellesley. He rarely wins races in the hands of a light weight. — The hurdle-racer Bischoff was sold recently foi 40^8, and his new owner got a race out of him the first time of asking— the Malmsbury Hurdle Race— but there wan no merit in the performance (gays the Age) inasmuch as the rogue's only opponent obligingly ran off the course, the ' jockey being severely reprimanded. Later on, when Bischoff in the Malmsbury Cup met a horse that was willing to so with him all the way, h« was beaten, the prize falling to Malta, a well-known local performer on the flat and over jumps.. Biechoff. prior to Saturday, had not won a race for about five years. — I noticed in last issue of the Sydney Referee to hand, write* a correspondent in London, that some of your correspondents comment on the handicapping of Daimio in the Sefton. They appear very ignorant of the subject, for it is a well-known fact that it is the invariable custom to put an unknown horse at the top of the handicap until he has shown, what bis form is. It would be most unjust to the others to put him anywhere else, and it is never done, never mind who owns the horse. If they want to get some weight off they must run him n time or so, not scratch him, for he will find himself in the same place — viz.. top weight — until he goes out and shows his form.