AMBER LEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2425, 5 September 1900, Page 39

AMBER LEY.

Away back in the seventies there used tc be a regular racing club at Amberley; Mr Lance handicapper, Mr Courage judge, and Mi Ferrar secretary. One of my early reports shows Mr J. Lunn's Robin Hood, ridden by Clifford, beating Tommy Sheenan'a Shark and a fairish field for the Hurdle Race ; Mr P. Butler's Numa, ridden by Derrett, outpacing Soukar from the fall of the flag iduthe Cup, the pail thoroughly beating Longlauds, then owned by "Mr Fraser, " whom wo' now know as Mr Steacl ; while at the same meeting Marie Antoinette won her Maiden Plate, and Mireille disgraced herself by break- • ing her bridle and bolting in the Northern Handicap, leaving Soukar tc win from "Vampire. In the following season the real and ' original Clarence won the Hurdle Race, Sharl ' again second; Rand wick, ridden by Hankins, accounted for the Cup and the Northern Handicap; and Farewell, afterwards famous as the dam of Au Revoir, won the Maiden Plate. In after years the Amberley meeting w»»

shifted from the mitldle cf December to the middle of May. That was the date at the outset of what I may call the modern records, and, pitching at random on 1891, I find Isidore winning the Hurdle Race, Harkaway collaring the Cup, and Adieu (a daughter of Farewell) getting home, in the Teviotdale Plate. These meetings came to an end in 1892, and we heard no more of Amberley as a fixture until the gathering of Augtut in 18S6, when the steeplechase meeting was started much on the lines of this year's programme. At that inaugural meeting Dundonald won the Hunters' Steeplechase, and also pulled off the Tally-ho Steeplechase, cartrying 11.5, and beating Undesirable Bill 11.4 iby a couple of lengths. The machine investments for the day came to £11244. In 1897 ''only two horses started in the principal event, and, Kuku falling, Nanakia finished alone, tbeing piloted by Free Holmes. There were, ihowever, good fields in most of the other 'a-aces, and the day's takings at the machine 'reached £1226 i. In 1898, when Dundonald j.-out up 13.0, and won by 30 lengths from 11.2, there was a capital afternoon's sport, several horses of class competing ; still, the machine investments stopped afc £1212. •Last -year Dundonald showed up in splendid {form, wiiuiing the Brackenfield Plate with 13.7 from Fleetwood 11.2, and later in the day carrying 13.5 and beating Crocus 12.4- by jnearly the whole length of the straight in the /Jally-ho Handicap. The totalisator takings .were -£1220. This ycai Huntingdon won the same double, but. not with such crushing ,fweig-hts, though his were really sound performances, he making haclm of all his opponents. The takings at the totalisator, it may be added, dropped back to £917, the smallest on record. • This is queer,- for they never had better horses at Amberley in recent years, bar the champion Dundonald.