AUSTRALIAN AND FOREIGN SPORTING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5835, 31 March 1897, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN AND FOREIGN SPORTING .

o . Tlie following are clippings fr&w "Ter-linga-'a" notes on the fo-_frtil- dsey of the Victoria Racing Club's AivSumn Meeting; — Auram won tho AU-Agei- Stafea very easily, but neither Coil no?" Ther Officer went at him until well into tlie straight, and probably both were feelingi'the eiFects of their previous efforts. Aft their best they might not have beaten _$urun_r b..t it was a poor race, and t.titf' DcrSy favourite was not thoroughly' testae., * * * Had Power waited for tv l_.sfc r ri.a with Warpaint in the Loch Plate backersof Newhaven might have had bad luct-j-bnti the Adelaide Cup winner was taken' tb -the> j front and ridden to a standstill. A't'omv I part of the race Newhaven seemed well j beaten, but the other two stopped' to- ■ nothing in the last half-mile, and he won; \ easily. The chances are Newhaven was "loafing" when he appeared to be in j trouble^ but I doubt if he was in anything . like his spring form at this meeting, and in' . all probability Mr Lloyd was wise in not j taking oh. Auram in the All-Aged Stakes, j Of tho sires represented at the Victoria . Racing Club's Autumn Meeting, the expatriated Trenton was the most successful, his progeny having secured five wins — Aurum in the Sires' Produce Stakes, Ascotvale Stakes, and All-aged Stakes ; and Cinder Ellen and Majestic in the Autumn Handicap and Unplaced Two-year-old Stakes respectively. Newminster follows with three successes — Newhaven in the Champion Stakes and Loch Plate, and Beverley in the Bourke Handicap. Robinson Crusoe was credited with a couple of wins — by The Officer in the St Leger and Manfred in the Nursery Handicap. Coil scored similiarly for Abercorn in the Essendon Stakes and Australian Cup; and Creswick's only representative,Lilith, earnedlike . distinction for her sire by annexing the Brunswick Stakes and River Handicap. The sires who were credited with a single win each aro Malua (Waraka in the; Hopeful Stakes), Cavlyoti (Carlton in the Newmarket Handicap), Eiridspord (imp) (Hive in the Hurdle Race), Boolka (Larnook in the Steeplechase), Padlock (Key in ■ the Junior Handicap), Braomar (Earlston ■ in the Second Hurdle Race), Neckersgat (Reka in tlie Maiden Stakes), Commotion (Mischief in the Place Handicap), Wizard (Zanonia in the Second Steeplechase), and Martiui-Henry (Acton in the Farewell Handicap). In his notes on the Victoria Racing Club's Autumn Meeting" Terlinga" writes : — Evidently the St Albans stable is going to be very strong.in three-year-old races next year. Aurum is the champion of the stable, and unless something comes to the front in Sydney, the Trenton colt will stand out a very strong favourite for the next Derby. As far as Keera, Patriot, and The Hypnotist are concerned, Aurum is undoubtedly the best colt we have seen, but Fleet Admiral won his race in Sydney very -.easily, and he must not be forgotten by people who are interested in the next Derby. Fleet Admiral and Aurum are closely (related, both, being out of daughters of Instep, and I have no hesitation in putting them down as the two best colts of the year. At present Aurum is all the rage for the Derby — the absurd price of -61000 to _800 has been taken that Mr Wilson's colt wins the next Derby and Cvp — but Fleet Admiral is a very fine colt, and on calm reflection Aurum did not do anything wonderful at the late Autumn Meeting. Keera lam sure is a non-stayer, and The Hypnotist ia not to be compared with some two-yea*--olds we have seen. Aurum won the AllAged Stakes, and won it easily, but the race was run to suit him, and I fancy both Coil and The Officer were not quite at their best that day. Let it be understood that lam not underrating Aurum. I have no doubt that he is a good colt, but I don't think Victorians have 3 r et seen the best of Fleet Admiral, and, with the exception of Aurum and Fleet Admiral, the chances are that the two-year-olds we have seen this season are a very ordinary lot. Key can go very fast _or__ve--i_-o_-gs. So can Keera, but as far as we know at present the only youngsters capable of getting a distance are Aurum and perhaps Fleet Admiral. Mr Wilson won nearly all his »_oney at this meeting with two-year-olds, and his greatest disappointment was Reliance. This colt was said to be inferior to Aurum, but much better than -Manfred. . He did not run up to his form, as he got a fair run, and was badly beaten in the Junior Handicap, which Key won. Reliance is a tine colt, but his joints are very doubtful, and lie is likely to give Mr Macdonald a deal of trouble. Manfred stays well, and is just the sort to prove.. useful in handicaps, and Majestic is likely to improve. Of the other two-year-olds which we saw at the meeting, Key was the best, and I take it that she has improved very much since going into the hands of J. Wilson, jun. Patriot is brilliant, but does not get beyond five furlongs. Once more (writes " Terlinga ") has the Champion Race proved a failure. Steeplechase horses could have run tho three miles as fast as Newhaven did. Of course the club saves half the stake through tho limit of oinin 40sec being exceeded, but that is small consolation to the thousands who went out to see a three-mile race, and saw tlie competitors take 3min losee to run the first mile and a half ! Newhaven once more asserted himsoli'. The .improvement made in him between the Saturday ancl the Thursday was little short of marvellous, and of course he is the best colt of the year. Whether he was tho best horse in the Champion Race on the day is not so certain. Coil's chance was thrown away by the terribly bad judgment of liis rider, who kept him lengths away from the leaders uutif half a mile from home. The task of giving Newhaven and The Officer ten lengths start in haif a mile was altogether beyond Coil, although he was going the strongest of the three placed horses at the finish. Newhaven seemed to me to have had quite enough at the finish, and the miserable pace was probably all in his favour. Tom Payten blames himself a _.ood deal for Harris's stupid riding of Coil. Payten blamed Harris for coming too soon in the Australian Cup, and told him to be sure and lie off until the very last in the Champion Race. In trying to carry out these orders Harris overdid things, and as far. as Coil is concerned the Champion Race counts for -nothing.-.. No horse ever foaled 'could, have, won th o way he was ridden. • There was a good deal of cheering over Newhaven's victory. People wei-6 glad to see the champion of the spring wipe out his St Leger defeat. At the same time it would be suppressing the truth were I to say that there was not a good deal of talk about the reversal of the Leger form. To me there is nothing strange in Newhaven avenging himself on The Officer Ihe race ha had on Saturday and two or three nice gallops subsequently had transformed him into quite a different animal to the colt we saw floundering home iv the St. Leger. Yet I thiuk Newhaven is still behind his spring form, and I am doubtful about his having beaten Coil on his merits last week. It is a pity a great colt like Newhaven so constantly besmirches his reputation by a wretched performance. A real champion should be consistent, as Carbine was. Carbine might be beater occasionally, but he was only once guilty of vnv.ning'a bad race, and then he was lame