IN A NUTSHELL.

— Plunger Walton now keeps a pub. in New York.

— Dad Kingan had a winning mount at Napier Park.

— Missouri ha 3 a mule which weighs 18001b and stand 20hds high. —An offer of 6000gs has been refused for L'Abbesse de Jouarre.

— During 1892 the list of 230 trotters in America totalled 2272.

— Culloden split his hoof slightly while running in the Champion Stakes. — I fancy that Brown Alice has a show in the Easter Handicap at Auckland. —It is understood that the V.A.T.O. will go no further with the Islander case.

— Malvolio has been blistered on the off foreleg, and is not likely to race again for some months. — It is rumoured that Paris has been purchased for one of the principal stables in Calcutta. — Stepniak, Heather Bell, and Au Revoir are a well-handicapped trio in the Thompson Handicap. — George Wright bought in Australia a bay gelding, five years, by Newminster from Coolyrie, for lOgs. — The Hawke's Bay Trotting Club managed to put £2000 through the machine at its recent meeting. — English papers to February 17 quote Isinglass at 7 to 2 for the Two Thousand, and 9to 2 for the Derby. — The approximate loss over the recent V.R.C. meeting is £1500 more than last year, when there was a loss of £3315.

— Sorry that I cannot accept Mr Mirrielees' cordial invitation to Rivertou for Easter Monday. Thanks all the same.

— Tempest would not have got a penalty for the Great Autumn Handicap if she had won the Anniversary Handicap. — Something like 40 trotting meetings will be given in Great Britain during 1893. We have more than that in Maoriland.

—On one of the American tracks nominations are free. We shall have that in New Zealand yet, when the tote gets a fair show. — Mr J. B. Clark was the biggest winner at Flemington, taking £3827 8s ; but he was closely followed by Mr Purches, with £3159 125. — Of the local yearlings a Sydney writer prefers the colt by Goidsbrough from Lady Bathurst and the colt by Goidsbrough — Happy Thought. — Patsy Bolivar says that one of the books was struck for £70 in one pop over the last race at St. Clair on Saturday. He cashed up without delay. — Studley Royal, by Hampton out of Pretence, and the colt by Bend Or from Illuminata are the latest introductions into the Epsom Derby meeting. — An unnamed two-year-old daughter of Darebin and an Iroquois mare won seven races out of 11 tries in America during November and December.

— Jim Walls tells me that he had not a pennyworth of the big dividend paid by his mount Perkin at Amuri. The horse had only been six weeks in hand.

— An Ohio breeder has a colt and a filly that were produced from two different mares by one service of a stallion, one of the mares having been artifically impregnated. — The Ohio Legislature has passed the bill prohibiting the false description of horses in races, and "ringer" business thereby becomes a penitentiary offence in that State. — After the Novel at St. Clair Park Billy was bought in at £11 10s, Kate was sold at £9, Grif at £8, and F.F. being claimed fetched £25, Jack Loughlin being the purchaser. — North Canterbury Steeplechase Club is to be wound up owing to the lack of support. The balance in hand (£6 odd) is to be given to the first horse- jumping races started in the district. —The death is announced in London of Mr Abington Baird, the well-known sporting mau. Death was the result of a chill caught while Mr Baird was acting as second in a recent prize fight. — Mariner may have a show in the Palmerston Cup, but I should not be surprised to see Maribyrnong run forward in this race. Mr Gwynne forwards an invite, for which I thank him. — Goldsmith Maid won more money and trotted more heats in 2min 30sec than any horse, mare, or gelding that ever faced the starter. Her tail swept the ground and her backers swept the pools. — It would surely pay to take two or three fairish trotters to Hawke's Bay for the races there. Koromiko, winner of the chief event at the last meeting, took 9min 23isec for the three miles.

— Finetta is not very bright just now, and it is quite possible, though she is a class above the others at Beaumont, that she may be beaten there if she goes up. What about Tuapeka for the chief event?

— Blizzard's yearling sister has found a purchaser in Mr S. J. Mercer. If this youngster turns out as good a spec as Beadonwell, who also was raised at St. Clair, the buyer will have made a capital bargain. — E. Huxley and James Hayes head the list of winning jockeys at the V.R.C. Autumn meeting. Huxley's record was four wins, two seconds, aud two thirds, while Hayes scored four wins, one second, and one third. — Eclipse, the most noted of the early racehorses and stallions, furnished in the tail male line 73 winners of the Derby and (34 winners of the St. Leger. The former has been run 117 times and the latter 114 times.

— The Napier correspondent of Sporting Review hear*, that just before Fraternite was scratched for the Wanganui Cup his connections had supported him to win the next New Zealand Cup for a large sum I think this must be a mistake.

— Amongst the nice little windfalls that Fortunatus secured for his party when he galloped home in front of his 29 opponents ia the Newmarket Handicap, was ,£SOOO laid to them to nothing by the fortunate drawer of the horse in Tattersall's £50,000 sweep. — Morion, by Captivator— Madcap, was exercising on the Otahuhu racecourse when he fell, breaking his leg, and had to be shot. The horse was owned by Mr W. Bobbett, of the Thames. He won the Great Northern Devby in IS'J2, beating Clanranald. — " Martindale remarks that Goidsbrough looks good for many a year to come. He has done well at the stud during the last 13 years, seeing that he has got since 1879 no less than 201 winners, who have scored 390J races, the stakes in which totalled up Lo £57,193 — Among the visitors to the V.R.C. meeting

was Sir Roderick Cameron, a well-known Canadian, who was one of the founders of the American Jockey Club, and the importer to the States of Leamington, who got Lexington, Iroquois, Longfellow, Parole, &c. We have Colonel "Warburton's word for it in his recently-published book, "The Racehorse," that good walking action denotes capacity for high speed at the gallop as well. "I have never j found," he says, "walking action, as a test, to fail in judging a number of yearlings." A. Palmerston North telegram states that Mr Lyons has instructed his solicitors to isMie a writ for £200 against Mr Simson, of Opuiiake, for alleged damages in connection with the Stock Boy-Badger affair at the last Manawatu races, Lyons being the present owner of the horse. — My attention has been called to the fact that the North Ofcago Club has already introduced the system of re-handicapping, the Autumn programme providing that the winner of the Cup may # be re-handicapped in the Flying. I had not noticed this when writing on the subject last week. — It is said of Marlow that only once did he raise his whip to Flying Dutchman, and that was in the Derby, in consequence of his having to make up some lost ground in the last 100 yds. Poor Charles Marlow, although he was the Archer of his day, died in the workhouse at Devizes. — There seems to be nothing to prevent Lord Zetland from continuing his victorious career at Fairlie Creek. He has 9.5 in the Easter Handicap, a mile, Quibble following with 8.12, and 9.0 in the cup, a mile and a-half, Quibble being next with 8.10. I book both these events for L.Z. if he is well. — Some time ago, says "Terlmga, Dunkelcl caused a deal of amusement by rearing at the post and trying to take Mr Watson on at a boxing match. Birinji emulated the New Zealander at theV.R.C. meeting by standing up on his hind legs and placing his fore feet on the clerk of the Course's shoulders. — Owners of horses are beginning to take advantage of the low coastal charges fortransport. Mr Mercer took Beadonwell by steamer to Lyttelton, and told me that he could get himself, his wife, daughter, and the colt carried by sea for £4 less than would have been charged by rail for one man and the horse. — George Wright talks thus in Melbourne : "You may depend upon it, that if the totalisator had been absent, St. Hippo would never have come to Australia, and the same may be said of every other good horse that has left New Zealand.' G. W., you are talking without the book. What about Manuka, Lurline, and Calumny ? —At Invercargill last week Alex. Potter, Richard Clark, and Jas. A. Fish were each fined £3 for conducting a Calcutta sweep on the Dunedin Cup. The bench said that such sweeps were very objectionable. In this opinion they are not supported by the best class of sporting men, who frequently regret that Calcuttas are abolished. — John Corlett says that Highborn's victory in the Viceroy's Cup affords some clue to the comparative merits of English and Australian horses, and he is inclined to give the colonials every credit for the excellence of their breed. Highborn cannot be much inferior to Buccaneer, if at all, and therefore he asks what must Carbine have been ? — The stewards of the National Hunt in England will not in future sanction advertisements in the Calendar for races to be held where lawlessness and outrages have occurred, if it is found upon inquiry that full provision has not been made for the maintenance ofpeace and order, and for the protection of all peaceable persons attending the meeting. — Lord Bradford has had the misfortune to lose that well-known horse, Chippendale, from rupture of the diaphragm. Foaled in 1876, the horse was bred by Mr T. Dawson, being by Rococo out of Adversity. He never ran as a two-year-old, but the following year won six out of 10 races, including the Cesarewitch. He went to the stud in 1882-3. — A full brother to Boulanger died the other day in Sydney. This was poor Dan, who is described as one of the best galloways ever saddled in that city. One of his be&t performances was' carrying 10.2 to victory, over four furlongs and a-half, in 58sec. He won 23 races, many of them under heavy burdens, and he was a strictly game animal. — Some people who are responsible for the nomenclature bestowed on racehorses have a good deal to answer for, but the person took the cake for pure cussedness who named a colt belonging to Captain E. Bulkeley, which was entered in the Derby of 1835. This horse— who was by hangar— Delphine, by Whisker— was actually christened Honorificabilitudinitalibus. — The first trotter to make a 20-mile record below one hour was Trustee, a chestnut gelding by imp. Trustee, dam by Winthrop Messenger, who in 1848 trotted 20 miles in 59min 35} sec, a mark which stood for 17 years, when it was lowered to 58min 25sec in 1865 by Captain I M'Gowan, a roan gelding of unknown parentage, whose record for this distance has never been equalled. — An English writer who recently visited India says that the native attendants are far in advance of the men who have charge of horses in England. They sit for hours at work on a horse, [ hand rubbing the legs, &c, the most vicious horses soon becoming quiet under their treatment, and it seems to be almost a labour of love with them. They never, except in rare instances, ill-treat or neglect their charges. — The Canterbury Trotting Club has adopted a new idea with regard to handicappiu^ for the forthcoming meeting. The Handicapping Committee will make one set of handicaps, and two outside handicappers one apiece. These will be labelled 1, 2, 3, and the nominators will be requested to vote by ballot as to which they prefer. The set of handicaps which secures the majority of the votes will be used for the meeting. — The breeders of trotting horses in America have of late years paid great attention to the subject of inbreeding. The Michigan Farmer gives instances of the success of closely- inbred sires producing high-class stock. The most noted instance quoted is that of Egbert, who is described as the most inbred of all trotting stallions, and yet his get are not only distinguished for speed, but show the gameness and endurance necessary for racehorses. — Several instances of extreme longevity in horses have recently been given, but the following is unusual :— After the war with France in the early part of this century, among a number of thoroughbred English horses sent to the Hanoverian cavalry was one which had served in the Third Regiment of Dragoons since 1793. In 1816 it was transferred to the Hussars of the Guard, in which regiment it remained until 1847, when it was made a pensioner, dying in 1850, aged 60. — The following is one of Marvin's sensible utterances :— lf I were able to doit I would like to have a good horse and 20 highly-bred mares, and I would breed 10 one year and 10 the next, giving each mare a year's rest from foal-bearing. During that year I would work the mare for speed ; that is, I would give her short brushes so as to get up her trotting action again, and the mare in foal should get work as well in season. My idea is that this would tend to impress the offspring to a certain extent and the year of rest would increase vitality.