SPOUTING.

EACINa FIXTURES. 1884.

May 20. - Otau'au Annutl. Slay 23, 24.—Dunc.lin Winter. Jlay 24. -Grand National Steeplechases (Canterbury) May 24.—Crotnwi ll Winter. May 24.—Wanganui Steeplechases. May 24.- Palmerston North Winter. May 21.-Winton Winter May 24.—Wyndham Winter. May 24— Tatapuna Winter. May 24.—NolEon Winter. liny 31. - Foxton Winter. Juno s.—Waimate Steeplecha=e3. Juno 6.—Waiiuato Winter. June 12.—Oimaru Steeplechases. June 20.—tlawke's Bay .Steeplechases. NOTES BY BEACON. There aro any amount of horsea atthe Forbury in preparation for our winter meeting, but aa thoy work at irregular hours, owing to the cold weather, it i 8 difficult to give a detailed account of thoir doinp*. Jimmy Cotton has the largeat string, consisting of our old acquaintances, Theuge, Violin, Molly Bawp, Glenara, and the trotter St. Louia, and alao the comparative atrangera Trapper and Larry, who are being schcoled to the jumping business; while I hear that he ia likely to have placed in bis hands shortly the Maiden Plater Flapjacket, who won a couple of racoa at Tokomairiro last month. Kean haa Lady Emma and Gorton in ateady work; while Stewart Waddell's lot on active service consist of Captain Webster, Mata, Jenny, and Ouida. Tommy Cotton is looking after Prospero and tho trotter Bella, while Arthur Smith's Bole representative ia the steeplechaser Little John, and Harry Goodman haa only that useful borae Billy. Taggart has two trotters in Wakatu and Charlie, going in good style, alao tho hack Uncle Tom, and a two-year old filly by Perkin Warbeck—Lady of tbe Lake. Quite a awarm of trotters disport themaelves daily and at all bourß of the day on the tan, and altogether things look pretty lively. The csurse ia in grand order, and at preaent everything, shapea well for an interesting meeting.

In bolting circles littlo ia doing, offera of 100 to 10 on the varioua doubles being scarcely tempting enough in these daya of the totalisator.

As the acceptances for our meeting are not due till today, I shall refrain from giving any lips till next week. In connection with tho Dunedin meeting to bo held next week I would remind owners that acceptances for the Hurdle Handicap of 50 soys, Provincial Handicap of 110 eovs, Trotting Raco of 70 soya, and Tradesmen's Handicap of 60 soys aro due thiß (.Saturday)

evening, together with nominations for tho I Maiden Plate of 40 sovb, Selling Racß of 40 soy, and Novel Handicap of 80 soys. Tho former New Zoaland jockey, R. M'lvor, rode the winner of tho Warrnambool Steeple- I chase of 120 sov3 on the lst inst. The horse was All Serena, tho property of Mr J. Homer. I A Press Agency telegram from Auckland states that a private telegram received thero from Adelaide says that the Goodwood Handicap was won by Mr J. Whittiugham's colt Ironmastor, 4 yrs, Git 121b. The Timaru Herald has tho following :—The hon, secretary to the Grand National Steeplechase Club, Mr W. St. Lindsay, notifies that tho races will take place ou May 21! thia year instead of May 2-4, owing to the Governor having proclaimed the former day a public holiday. Wo in Dunodin aro in blissful ignorance of this change in tho day for observing her Majesty's birthday, but I suppose it is all right, Our Christchurch correspondent in hia letter throws some light on tho subject.^ Imay remark, however, that I do not think the Grand National Club have the power to poatpone their meeting as they have done, the rules I laying down that thoy may only do bo in cases of urgent necessity. In auy caso they have got into a pretty mess with the Plumpton Park party, who have also adjourned thoir races and coursing matches from tho 24th to the 26th. The steeplechase people should have stuck to tbeir original dato, or else have adjourned to the Saturday following, when the sporting crowd from Dunodin would havo been ablo to put in an appearance, Bad management somewhere!

A meeting; of the Trustees of the Timaru Racecourse Reserve was to have beeu held on Saturday, saya the local paper, but it failed to come off, owing to want of a quorum. A meeting was called for Friday, and only one member turned up; it was adjourned till next day, when threo members appeared, but four are required for a quorum. The business to be transacted was of considerable importance, it being to decide upon, or at any rate to discuss, a proposal to delegate the powers of the Truateos to the South Canterbury Jockey Club. The member who attended on Friday came into town again on Saturday on purpose to attend the meeting, and waa naturally very angry at the repeated failure to get the business attended to. ■

In connection with the satisfactory report of the Canterbury Jockey Club "Senex" writes: It Sb devoutly to be hoped that at last some substantial amount will be voted for planting the racecourse. It ia now some 30 years since the Riccarton course was first vested in tho C.J.C., and beyond the boundary fence and a score or so of pines planted in tbe stnnd enclosure not a cent has been expended in this direction. It ia not only that tree planting will add to the value of tha estate aud afford some varioty to an otherwise desolate landscape, but a background is requisite in order to distinguish the horses while running along the back stretch of the course, Visitors to Riccarton complain of the impossibility of watching the incidents of a race, and lay the blame on tho size of the course. The fault, however, does not Ho so much there as in tho want of a belt of shrub 3 and trees, which would bring the ho scs out in relief, and also prevent tho glare of the sun. Everybody likes to watch a race from end to end, but no true sportsman would cate to sacrifice the merits of good horses by shortening our course, which is none too big now to allow long-striding animals to Btretch theuißelves to their bent, and wo know that horses of this class are severely handicapped on cramped courses, where they are always on tho turn. Tree-planting has beon delayed from year to year on the score of insufficient funds, owing to the large amounts expended by the Club on other necessary works. They are, however, now well supplied with accommodation, having three capacious stands, a good saddling paddock, and a lawn, whose only fault is being a trifia too large. They aro also well provided iv the matter of training ; gallops, and consequently no outlay boyoud keeping these in serviceable order will bo required for some yoars to come. We hope, therefore, that tho Club will now tako this matter seriously in hand, and uot allow the present season to pass over without expending a few hundred pounds in treo-planting, than which nothing could add more attraction to race meetings. There is another matter which should also eng.'.go thoir attention—the nccessessity of widening the course in front of tho stand. The following aie the handicaps for the Lower Heathcote races:— AUTUMN HANDICAP. Of 0) soys. st lb at lb Tvampet.r ..0 5 Ko'derncaa ..8 0 Hippodamia ..9 6 Rcbcco .. 7 12 Kingailc .. '.. 8 3 Oeo .. ..7 0 Lady llarrli ..8 6 Kato.. .. 0 0 HANDICAP STEEPLECHASE. Of 65 boys. at lb at Ib Canard .. .. 11 7 Andy ..10 7 Aucnt .. .. 12 6 Levant .. 10 0 Hercules .. .. 12 6 Linwood ..0 7 Batman .. .. 11 4 Mustard (lot* Barbary .. .. 11 0 Bugler/ -.00, FLYING HANDICAP. Of 30 save. st 11) at Ib Trumpeter .. 010 Nor'-wester .. 7 2 Kin_rask .. ..9 8 Bruootto ..7 0 Wh:tbieh ..0 6 ts'chmoozcr .. fl 10 Hi^iiiOßC (lato Jick) 9 5 Supplejack ..0 4 Princosiltojal .. 811 Feir Nell ..0 0 Lady Harria .'. 8 8 Secrolary ..0 0 Holdtr.eia ..8 6 Shuffle-the-Broguo 0 0 I .hear that Messra Robinson and Lance recently offered £800 for tho Auckland colt Krupp without avail, one reason for the refusal being tbat ono of tha colt's party stands to win £1200 on him iv tho noxt Chriatchurch Derby at the nice prico of 10 to 1. At the annual meeting of members of tho Westland Racing Club the balance-sheet showed that the profit on tho Easter meeting was £175. A lettor was read from Mr J. Lynch, offering to provide a totalisator at a cost of £175, provided that the Club would grant him the sole right to work tbe totalieator at their meetings for three years, at a commission of 5 per cont. The proposition was declined. It was decided to communicate with the Reefton, Ross, and Greymouth Jockey Cl \bs relative to the advisability of appointing ono general handicapper for the Coast, and if necessary delegates be appointed to meet at Greymouth or elsewhere on tbo subject. The use of the courso en tho Queen's Birthday was granted to Mr James Evans for a raco meeting, on tho conditions that tho Club receive any profit arising, and that the course be not damaged. An Auckland correspondent kindly forwards the following interesting items of news from hia quarter:—Considerable dissatisfaction is still expressed at the poor Bhow made by Captain Russell's maro Leonora in the Easter Handicap.—Tho crack Muskot filly Necklace will, if.all goes well, in all probability take part in the next Christchurch Derby —Mesars | Lyons and Blackio's steeplechaser Woodpecker broke down badly in tha race for the Cambridge Cup at the beginning of the month, and will require firing and turning out for a spell,—Mr J. Chadwick has Bold hia jumper Fairplay to Mr Carina, an hotelk^opar at Mercury Bay.—Tho jockey G. Williams, who was fined at Cambridge racos £5 for disobediance and £5 for insolence to tho starter has apoligised and had bis linos remitted. AUSTRALIAN. At the Lacblan races, whicb were bold a fortnight ago, Mr J. Dillon succeeded in appropriating two of the events—the Queen's Plate and tho Rain Race—with tho aid of old Torminus (whoso throat, it will be remembered, was cut some IS months back). Terminus also ran second to student in tbe Lachlan Newmarket Handicap. Harry Veer.d won tho Welter Handicap at Elsternwick Park on the 3rd inßt., on Sir W. Clarke's Phantom. Mr Long intends again to sport his colours on the Austrabau turf, and to that end haa purchased a piece of ground in tho neighbourhood of Warwick Farm. He also baa something good to commence with, having purchased from Mr O. Roberts a yearling sister to Garlield for 500 guinuaa, a full brother to Lord Exeter for 115 guinas, and a filly, by Julian Avenal, from Princess, for 75 guineas. The sister to Garfield ia reputed to be an excellent animal.aa far as appearances go. It is rumoured that the famous Fernhill stud ia to bo broken up, the executors in tho eatate of the late Hon. E. IC. Cox having mado up tbeir minds to disposo of the whole some time next year, by auction. If this eale does take place there will no doubt be a hard fight amongst Colonial studmastera to secure Darobin, who is lord of the haretfi.

Mr Donald Wallace being anxious that Le Grand should in futuro bo trained in Victoria, Monaghan took the champion over last week, and delivered him fit aud well iuto hia owner'a hands. He will in future be trained by Walter Hickenbotham. Monaghan was very mucli cut up at having, to part with Le Grand, though it i 8 only natural that Mr Wallace, who is resident in Victoria, should desiro to have his favourite trained in that Colony. Since the A.J.C. Autumn meeting Monaghan haa lost the three best horseß in his string—Le Grand, Sardonyx, and Favo, Le Grand goes to Walter Hickenbotham, Sardonyx is relegated to tho stud, and Favo was purchased by Mr Long, and will be trained in futuro by T. Brown.

The Melbourno Sportsman contains the advertised programme for the New Caledonia races, to bo held at Reunion in July. Tho stakes amount to about £100, and the names and conditiona of the racoa are a queer mixture of French and English terma.

A New Zealand gentleman, who, while waiting in Sydney for the boat to take him hotnß, had been utilising his spare time by looking through the Richmond and Fernhill Btuds, writes to " Augur " in very eulogistic strains of tho foals of Moorthorpe's firat season. He was charmed with Grand Flaneur, and was surprised to find Vespasian ao hearty and vigorous in bia old age, but he Bays that all the stallions he saw wore thrown into the shade by Darebin, who is now a magnificent specimen of the thoroughbred, and to whom Habena, Miss Pitsford, Lord Burghley's dam Lady Constance, Atholine, Lady Chester, Stockdove,, Sophiatina, Lady Hooton, and Narina are all in foal. Grand Flaneurs dam, Firßt Lady, unfortunately missed to him.

Prom the Tasmanian papers I learn that Mr I WiUiam Field intends to race again, and will shortly put into training fillies by Napoleon from Bella and Pearl, and a four-year-old filly by St. Albans from Bella. At Wamambool Amateur Turf Club racoa on April 30 an accident happened to Mr Robort Chirnside, who waa riding Peacock in tho last race. He was leading the field as they entered the straight running, when, cutting the turn tco fine, he struck a post, breaking it off short, and getting a very heavy fall. Prompt assistance was rendered to tho injured gentlemau, who wes at once removed to the hospital, where it -was found that he had sustained a. severe fracture of tbo leg. Pell Mell, from whom bo much has beon I

oxpectod, but who has as yet failed to justify the high opinion entertained of him, is now the property of the well-knowu steeplechase rider Scobie, who subsequent to the late Autumn meeting of the Australian Jockey Club, purchased tho disappointing sou of Panic for -100 guineas from Mr W. R. HaU. It is stated that Pall Mall, who proved to bo a very expensive customer to hia keepers, is destined for the jumping business, aud will' henceforth receive ■instruction therein from tho clever Ballarat division to whicli his present owner belongs. Out of the last shipment of 32U horsea consigned to Calcutta by Mr George Glasscock in the care of bis son—the well-known amateur horseman—only two were lost on the voyage. " Vigilant" writes as follows in the Melbourne's portsman :—" In a highly eulogistic articlo on my old friend aud brother journalist John Mitchell, who for years wrote for the London Sportsman, under tha norn de plume of ' Vigilant,' and who has recently handod in hia • last copy, and gone where printers' devils' are unknown (?), the writer says : ' In these vory fast times for sporting journalists, whon everything has to bo done at high prossure, it requires a clear head, a ready pen, and soundness of constitution to bear up against the severe calls upon body and mind. The greater portion of sporting writers dio young, for it requires more than ordinary vital power to grow old in the calling.' The last three linos of the paragraph must bo eminently consolatory to thosa readers who follow the tips of sporting prophets, and lose their money. , Mr H. Bracker was dining at an hotol in To^woomba some short time ago (saya tho Queensland Figaro), whon a gentleman sitting opposito to him asked him whicli horse he thought would win the Sydney Cup, and ho replied " Favo," which created a little merriment ; but tho waitress, Julia Powor, who waa attending upon the table, put the name down, sont E. E, Jones £1 to back Favo for hor, and received in return this week £31 and a polite note, intimating that her letter was tho means of waking E. E. Jones up to the doings of Favo, which he quietly backed to win him £7000.

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN.

Bell's Lifo comes out now twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, and has been reduced from (id to ld a copy, I has been vastly improved of late years, and still further improvements are in course of being effected. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News has commenced a series of beautifully executed coloured portraits of celebrated English jockeys and the first, that of Fred. Archer, is just to hand. In tho letter-prosa is an account of nn interview with the crack horsomau, iv which we read that Archer thinks the bost horsa he ever rode is the Duke of Fortlimd's St. Simon, the unbeaten two-year-old of last season ; aud next to him Lord Falmouth's crack filly Wheel of Fortune. He eaid that Matthew Dawson expected Harvester would at the salo fetch wall ovor £5000, and Busybody £8000 or £10,000—say 15,000 guineas for the tho pair. [They were to be sold just before tbe Two Thousand Guineas and- One Thousand Guineas Stakes, the former of which is worth from £5000 to £GOOO, tho latter from £4000 to £5000. Harvester ran third in the former, while Busybody won the latter]. Archer then went on to make tho following remarks on riding:—"lt isn't the getting away first so much as how you get away, how you set your horse going, I mean ; that makes all the difference. You can't set a horao going at once if you havo a tight hold of his head. You ofton see a jockey at tha post in a five-furlong raco pulling at hia horee, as nervous as ho can be, watching tho starter. The flag falls, and he lets go of the reins, but his horeo isn't ready to slip off at his beat pace. I've always got my lioiso ready to go, but not pulling at him ; and thoa when we do start, I am at full speed at once It's

a great mistake to knock a horso about, and I know that a fow years back I waa a severe rider. I'vo learut better by experience. I rarely hit a horse more than twice in a finiah now, and I rarely, or never, havo rowels to my spurs. You can hurt a horse almost as much without, for tho matter of that, if you want to, but it's bad policy to hurt them." The great jockey spoke regretfully of tlio break up of Lord Falmouth s stud, aud remarked ;—" I owe most of my success to having been able to ride his horses with such confidence, knowing that if I did mako a mistake in coming a bit too soon or a bit too late there would be no complaint, and his lordship would bo suie that I had ridden to the best of usability." Particulars of the principal events at tho' Lincoln Spring mooting will be found in this issue. Fordbam was not seen in tho saddle there, but Archer and Wood opened tbe season with some successes. Archer lost his mount in the great event, tho Lincolnshire Handicap, through Fulmen getting cast in his box and injured a day or two before the race. The Lincolnshire Handicap was won, as will bo scon, by Tonans, tho horso with which Mr W. A. Long, of New South Wales, was so noar pulling off a good stako or two last season. In ISB3 Tonana won the Babraham Stakes of C 7-5 soys at Newmarket, ran fourth in the Cssarcwitch Stakoa of 1202 soys, second iv tho Cambridgeshire Stakes of 1G72 soys, and second in tho Liverpool Autumn Cup of 737 soya. After hia performance in tho Cambridgeshire, Mr Long parted with Tonans to Mr Smith, who is a member of a firm of bookmakers.

At Liverpool races on March 27 tho Hurdle Handicap of 200 boys was won by Lord Hastings' Zeus (list Sib), beating Bix others. The Prince of Wales' Cup of 400 soys fell to Mr C. J. Merry's Beauty, by Prince Charlie — Symmetry, in a field of 10. Tlio Molyneux Stakes, of 300 boys, for two-year-olds, was secured by tho Duke of Hamilton's Empress Queen, by Strathconan. The day before the Grand National Steeplechase tho winner, Voluptuary, stood at 100 to 8 ; Frigate, who finished second, at 100 to 11; and Roquofort, who ran thin,', at 100 to 7. A fow particulars of tho raco will bo found in another column.

The American "plunger" (Mr F. T. Walton) and the jockey AY. Donohue have arrived iv England, Donohue was to rido Giroflo in the City aud Suburban, which was run on April 23.

The English jockey Edward Gilford -and Edward Day, trainer, arrived in New York in the steamer Greece of tho National Lino, in charge of the thoroughbred horse Charaxus, tho property of Mr Sands, of London, in April. The horse arrived in good condition, though the voyage was attended with somo vory rough weather.

The Hon. Carter Harrison, Mayor of Chicago, has a Bon of whom the Interocean tolls the following story:—" Tno other day the young fellow had tho Mayor's pot mare out speeding her on the boulevard, and escaped arrest for fast driving only under suspension of rules. Tho Mayor heard of it, and tho next day he said to me as Will approached, 'Now, here'B my chance. Sco me haul the young gentleman over the coala. I will make him believe ho is on tho straight road to the calaboose, and that the fingers of the law are clutching at his throat.' Tha boy came .up, and the Mayor said with considorablo severity, 'There ia a complaint against you for fast driving. Did you. havo tho maro ont yesterday?' 'Yej,' replied the boy; 'I had hor out, but I hopo no one calls that driving fast. I let her tako it easy, but thero were dozens of followa driving fast, and ho named soveral owners of crack horsea. Aa he talked, the jsevero look on the Mayor's face became an anxious one, and aa his boy wont on to tell how this man and that one drove, tho Mayor burst out with, ' You didn't let him pass you, I hope'; and then he thundored out, ' Did you lot him paS3 you ? " To all of which replied the boy, ' You bet I didn't.' So ended tho leSßon.