NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 7564, 7 May 1919, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE MANAWATU R.C. FIXTURE

(By "EARLY-BIRD.")

Racing at Awapuni to-day and tomorrow. First race 11.30 a.m.

In connection with the Manawatu Races this week, the train leaving Wanganui at 7 a.m. daily will run as usual to-day and to-morrow, connecting at Palmerston North with trains to the course. Instead of leaving Palmerston North at 4.22 p.m., the train will be delayed and will not leave until 5.40 p.m. to-day and to-morrow.

Big fields of some of the best handicap and weight-for-age representatives should ensure high-class racing.

Some of the best hurdlers are engaged in the Karere Hurdles, and this should be a hard proposition for punters, but they may not be far wide of the mark in expecting Master Lupin to have the call over Thrace and Kahumangu.

With Maronne "no more," the field for the Maiden will probably be a bare two-dividend one. Glentour and! Negligee may run more forward than the other starters.

The Autumn Handicap, nine furlongs, is to be a hard race to win, but it will be still harder picking the winner from among the twenty probable starters. Most likely the placed horses will come frdm the eight-stone and over division, with Nobleman a bit better than Vagabond and Lovematch. Gray will be up on Vagabond, as were he to ride Taunaha he would have to put up ha!f-a-stone overweight.

A very good lot of youngsters will go out for the Manawatu Stakes, six furlongs, and in this it is expected that Affectation will reverse Trentham form and finish in front of the Highden representative, Warplane.

A small field will saddle up in the Linton Welter. \ Pretty Bobby's brace of seconds at Trentham makes him out to be pretty useful, and he should not have much difficulty of disposing of the pretensions of Railand or Vacuum (if not started in the Hurdles).

It will be useless to look further than Sasanof in the Gold Cup; it looks more reasonable to find the runner-up, which might be that smart filly Star Lady or Bonnie Maid. A stable companion of Sasanof in Taunaha is also in the race, but he will go for the big handicap.

The Woodhey Handicap will produce a good field of a dozen or more. Cadet, with H. Gray up, reads best, the possible danger coming from Black Mark and Moutoa Ivanova.

The principal sprint , event, the Telegraph Handicap, is the" concluding item on the cards, and another big field should cause punters some thought. Tigritiya is fancied, as also are Chimera and Spanner, but the latter is considered an unlikely starter.

One of the favourites for the Wanganui Steeplechase, Master Strowan, will be seen, out at Awapuni to-day on the flat.

Special local interest will be evidenced in the hurdle race to-day, for no less than eight of the runners claim an engagement in the Century Hurdles. These are Sleight - of Hand, Sir Fisher, Multicipal, Kahumangu, Multive, Vacuum, Papanui and Rio, while Sir Fisher and Vacuum also claim an engagement in the Wanganui Steeplechase.

Geo. Jones, the Hawke's Bay trainer, who trains for W. G. Stead and W. Richmond, has now a fashionable team in his stable of such racing strength as has not been under one mentor in this Dominion for years. Indeed, any trainer would be content to have under his control any. one of Jones' charges; for instance, tried ones such as Sasanof, Spanner, Surveyor, or the promising three-year-old Taunaha, or the big two-year-old colt Golden Bubble. IVfessrs Stead and Richmond are contemplating a visit to Australia in the near future, and it will be strange indeed if they do not bring back a heap of foreign capital. /

As H. Young cannot ride ' the weight, R. S. Bagby will have the mount on Pretty Bobby in the Linton Hack Welter Handicap at Awapuni to-day.

Affectation, who has earned the full penalty, will fulfil his gngagement in the Sires' Produce Stakes at Awapuni. L He is to be ridden by H. Gray. The meeting between Warplane, and the elect of the Chokebore stable should result in a splendid contest.

Unless Desert Gold is able to start, which at present looks unlikely, there will not be a very good lot to oppose Sasanof in the Awapuni Gold Cup.

G. Price intends starting both Ermine and Warplane in the.Sires' Produce Stakes at the Awapuni fixture to-day. B. Deeley will ride the filly and R. Reed will be on the Challenge Stakes winner.

Owing to the inability to obtain a suitable rider to do the weight, Hurry Up will not be a runner in the Telegraph Handicap at the Manawatu meeting.

F. Davis received word at Trenthani on Saturday that Desert Gold had again come sound. She was to be galloped at Woodville yesterday morning, and if she pulls up well she will be brought over to Awapuni to race.

Handicaps for the Hawera meeting aro due on Friday next, and acceptances close the day following.

The Speaker will have to shoulder 1 Gibs penalty for his two wins at Trenthani. Astinome has a lOlbs penalty. Both are in the Woodhey Hnck Handicap to-day.

FI. Rayner has turned Starengo out for the winter, but Carmel Arch, Simon, and Signorella are being l rept. going steadily at Waverley in view of their engagements at the Egmont and Wanganui meetings.