IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 37

IN A NUTSHELL.

— Nancy Till/the dam of Battalion, is dead. | — Tenjpe's foal died on the day after its mother. — Amberite's full brother has been named "Marshall Pelissier. — The Cromwell club wants to get a starting machine for its trots. — Damigella, now traiued at Winton, is still in trouble with her off fore leg. — Merman is favourite for the Liverpool Autumn Cup at odds of 11 to -2 against. — The Shrew has been purchased by the Hon. J. D. Ormond, and sent to Robinson Crusoe. — Persuasion, by Escutcheon, won the initial two-year-old race of flie~"West Australian season. — Heavyraiu before and during the-Drummond meeting made the " lawn " look like a stockyard lot mud. —It is estimated that the Chinese invest from JE30.000 to £40,000 in a year in Tattcrsall's consultations. — Amberite's dam, Duenna, is by Lecturer, a son of the famous Sappho, whose pedigree cannot betraced back. — Jiiau, who was entered for the New Zealand Cup last year, is now one of a four-horse drag team at o»mam. — It is said that last Saturday the money for a wager of 1000 to 20 Oannonshot for N.Z. Cup was j posted in Duuedin. • | — According to .the Pelorus Guardian, a bullock taci will, if the committee permits, be run in an interval on the race day. — 'Tokio II has for three years in succession j won the Jubilee Prize at Vienna, and during his ! career has earned over £24,000 in stakes. j ■ — "WiHam Noble, rider of Lanercost when that horse carried off the first Cambridgeshire in 1839, died on September 19. He was born "in 1814. — From 127 totalisator pei'mits'the Government drew last year no less a sum than £12,079. The' amount put through the machines was £505, 149. — It was/Flic Grafter who beat Positano in his first race in the colonies, run nine weeks after the ' St. Simon horse landed from the English steamer. — A month before the Oesarewitch Merman ■was not mentioned in the batting at all. Nor were bis chances even discussed by sportiDg writers. — News comeß from Perth of the death of the jockey W. Eyre, who was formerly associated with the stable of the Melbourne trainer T. Dempsey. — Mr John Lee has decided not to forsake the Musket blood so far as Duenna is concerned, and the dam of Amberite is now on a visit to Fusilear at Turanville. — Rapallo, who effected a surprise at Newmarket in September, is one of the famous Bend Or — Napolt family, and" was making his first appearance in public. — Malatua, tbe Malua colt of Mr D. O'Brien's, do_e3 not look like distinguishing himself yet, being very much on the leg — he l.oks, iv fact, like an overgrown baby. —At a recent Wanganui sale The Onyx was purchased Viy Mr A. Shearsby, of Palmerston i North, for £61 ; Realistic by Mr W. Tuck for £25, i and Disraeli by Mr B. Coyle for £18. | —On Saturday afternoon, September 11, at ] Randwick, Amberite won the Derby. On the j Barae afternoon, at 'Kempton -Park, England, j another Amberite won the £1000 Great Sale Stakes. — Maydawn did a remarkably .g»od gallop at tbe Forbury on Saturday ; better, that is, than anjrone had thought her capable of. She it trained by W. JBuddicomb for Mr Thompson, Goldspur's breeder ■ — I he Waikouaiti. Racing Club holds its races . as usual on New Year'srDay, when £167 10s Will . be given in stakes The programme has been-ap-proved by the Dunodin Jockey Club, and will be issued iv.a few days. — Wildfowler, a -winner at Manchester in September, is by Gallinale '(son of Jsoiomy) from ' ■ Tragedy, by Ben Battle out of The White Witch, j . -by Massinissa — Jen dca Slots, by King Tom. This ; . is an uncommon pedigree. j —An English racehorse namcl Brimtwood, who could not have been purchased for less than £10,000 as a two-year-old, realised 35gs when submitted to auction after a selling race recently. He is only a four-year-old now. — At the Bun'ljgo (Vie ) show last month Fair- I field. and Moral tied for the high jump at 6ft Sin. Both horses failed at 6ft 4Ln, -RH'l their owners .agreed to divide. Moral, who hails from New South Wales, is little more than a pony. — Malachite 11, the son of Chester taken to England by Captain Scott, started with 8 0 up in *the Sunlmry Handicap at Kempton Park on September 11. The distance was six furlongs, there were 14 starters, and Malachite 1 1 ran seventh. — The ygarly aid given by Government to horse■breedingan Prance in 1896 was £86,152 ; in Gerxuauy, according to the estimate for 1897-8, the Bum to he exponded is £192,274 ; in Austria, £170,298 ; and in Hungary, no less than £233,333. — The Age says that the rule with" regard to j Tiding horses out was again flagrantly burlesqued at Moonee Valley last month. There were peveral case^ of -pulling off, and one case in wbich the practices of the rider might have been questioned, but the stewards apparently saw nothing. — A district racing club has been formed to revive the game at St. Bathatis. Mr N. Nicholson is president, Mr C. W. Armour is secretary, Mr j T. Goodgor judge, and Mr S. Hanger starter. Fifty membeis have been enrolled at 10a per j capnt. A hack meeting is to 1)8 held shortly. — " The Fly," of Cromwell, writes : 1 came across one of the placed hnrseß in last year's Derby the other day — Silvcrcrest. Th ; s horse has been turned out on the commonage all the winter, and ■ it is a great wonder to me how he survived. The ' present state «f>the horse is just skin andbone. — The filly Marie Corelli, owned by Mr R. G. Talbot, was entered for the Moonee Valley St. , jfUbans Handicap as being .sired by Trenton instead of by Carbine. 'Those connected with her •-evidently thought she had a chance, as they paid £5 to correct the nomination. She finished fourth. — T?wo Lawrence lads, George Morrison and , George .Martin, drew Gaulus iv Tattereall's £1 - Melbourne Cup sweep. The sweep did not .fill, and they laid the owner £1000 to nothing : still they divide £12,500 or thereabouts. Second prize of £1500 went to a man -named -Limbrick, of Kaikoura North. — Says "Javelin" in the Leader . If you -were .at Caulfield on Cup day of course you 'noticed all those good little jockey boys again riding their .horses out tor places. Joking aside, was there .ever before a drastic innovation, heralded by flourish of trumpets, so orenly ridiculed and unblusbingly violated ? — "What's a fair thing .for this race?" said a lady friend of mine (writes "Squire" in the Napier Daily Telegraph) to me as tbe Puketapu -Handicap came up for settlement. "Are you a believer m coincidences? Well, here's Bulrush, And be is ridden by Moses." Accordingly she backed him, and, of course, lost. — The'brood mare Gondola died at Duckenfield a few days ago after foaling to The Australian Peer, but tlie youngiter still lives. Gondola, who ■was 20 -years old, was an imported mare, aud was by Paul Jones (son of Buccaneer and Queen of tha Gipsies), from Matchless by Stockwell, from Nonpareille, by Kingston, from England's Beauty, by Birdcatcher. This is the neat way in wbich Truth's writer puts it :— ln the great plague days of 1665 the frequent cry was heard "Bring out your dead ! " and the people were obedient and did so This doesn't seem to be a sporting par, does it? But the connection can be found by thinking over the performances of several animals in the race that Loch Fair last won. — .Ssys -"Javelia": After the finish for the Caulfield Cup a big backer of Ayrshire wore a ' countenance sicklied o'er with the ..pale cast of "thought — of settling day. His gloomy meditations ' *were not much brightened by a -friendly fiend's , reminder that it -was no wonder Ayrshire " sprawled all over the shop in the run "home, as ahorse by Dualop might surely be expected to tire." Van Buskirk'js patent magic bit is well spoken T)f. The liowe is controlled in a way entirely different from that of any other bit. The pull being downwards from the top of tbe head, and running double through and-across the mouth and slightly on the lower jaw, it is impossible for him to take the bit between his teeth and run away, whilst even a boy can prevent him bolting off the track. — On the day the great American two-year-old Went— tlie Futurity— was ma suck jjerfect

arrangements were made with the Trlegraph Com pany and the caller at Sheep3head Bay that the positions of tbe horses at every furlong were telegraphed to the Harlem track, caught by an operator, and called out so that every occupant of the stand could form a mental picture of the coa- , test nearly a' thousand miles away. j — James R. Gougb, a well-known Sydney jockey, has been figurmg.in the Divorce Court, the wife bringing the action. Gough has been a sue-ces-ful jockey, and in her affidavit Mrs Gough averred that he earned at least £500 per annum. After riding the winner of the Australian Cup he received £1000. An order for tbe payment of alimony at the rate of 30s a week was made agaiast Gougb, as well as £15 costs, to enable the wife to carry on tbe actioa. — The Caulfield Stakes has, remarks "Ter-. linga," several times been the means of deluding backers into standing off the winner of tbe Cup. Until this year the -most noticeable instance of a previous favourite being driven from favour by a poor performance in the stakes was Paris. Amberite, however, has eclipsed that as a record. He went out a strong favourite for the weight for .age and ran nowhere, whereas Paris vi as notfavoirrite for the Stakes in 1893. — The Sydney agent of Newcastle T:vttersall's Club neglected to send along the scratching of Euglo for the last race 'at tbe recent Moorefield meeting, and some trouble, as a consequence, arose between tbe layers and takers of odds in the " coal city." To try to meet the oase, the committee of Newcastle Tattersall's Club made the following resolution :— " That bookmakers who held wagers on tbe last race of the day on Satur-day-last be requested to return to backers at least half tbe ampunt of money held by ihem over the ' •liorse Euglo." • — Sydney Truth says :— The news c^mesthat m the Caulfield Cup The -Grafter was ridden contrary to orders. Report says the makeshift boy was instructed not to go to the front until the straight was reached. Point of fact, The Grafter went on in the lead five furlongs from home, and then felt the flail at that. And this sets one thinkiDg, for it looks— from the stable orders, I mean _ as if Tbe Grafter was, for that occasion only, I suspect, the said stable's best. In which case those who have backed Gaulus for tbe Melboarne Cup needn't whip the ca l ". — "Milroy' writes: Parthenopaeiw, it is given out, will go to .England. The handsome son -of Splendor— he resembles bis sire more than any hors-i the Tocal chestuut ever got— is a good hor.?e to take to the old country, because he has demonstrated that he cju get any distance, from six furlongs to a mile and a-half, well. He is of a much better class tban Merman, aud to my thiuking the best horse, batriuc Paris, that has yet gone to England, and as be is a sound, hardy fellow, who comes from stock on both sides of the house that improve with ag*, he m»y jet develop into a better horse than even Paris did.

— Talk about aged campaigners, writes The Breeder. Montana has her share of them just at present. At ßutte, August 2, l6-year-old Fantasia reduced her record to 2min I9£sec, and four days later 18-yi'ar-old Meteor trotted in 2min 17Jsec. Strange as it appears, both of these antediluvians are in Jeffries's stable. When it comes to aged records, however, there is not much danger of the record of Goldhmith Maid ever being surpassed. She trotted in 2nun 17isec when 16, in 2miu Msec wben 17, in 2min 14£ sec when 18, in 2min 14-ec when 19. and in 2miu 14Jsec when 20 yeaw old. There will never be another Goldsmith Maid.

| — Sydney Bulletin tells a story about a young fellow who was lucky enough to strike £600 first pop in an Adams sweep, and foolish finough to 1 blab to Ilia -father, a aoted p'llar of the kirk, whereupon he received a loisg and solemn screed "beginning with pious horror at the son's depravity, but gradually working round to the conclusion that as there was no way of returning the cash, and as such-ill-gotten dross couldn't propeily be applied to any religious or chai i table purpose, the cheque had better he placed in the paternal hands for investment. The holy man got it, and stuck religiously to the cash, and the young fellow is now vainly searching round for a bigger ass than himself.

— I am not sure (writes "Milroy") whether I have seen a better-shaped l.ochiel than Holbrook, whose dam, Hussy, has a knack of putting good looks and toughness in her foals, as those who remember West Country Dick, Derby, and Here's Luck will testify. If the old mare, who is by Yattendon, is still alive, she is in her twentyseventh year, and to rear such a fine horse as Hoibiook at 23 years old speaks volumes for ber vitality. She, like The Barb, Barbarian. Barbelle, and Stratbmore, comes from old Cutty Sark, who in 1826 made the trip from England to Tasmania with Spaewife and Peter Finn in the brig Anne. It would now be considered rank lunacy to send a blood horse even as far as BrisVmne in a brig. That trio of Auttraliau Stud Book landmarks who journeyed 12,000 niiles in a barily-found brig musk .have been invented with, more than an ordinary share of courage and toughness to have withstood such a rough and protracted trip. •