AUSTRALIAN JOCKEY CLUB AUTUMN MEETING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 69, 23 March 1898, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN JOCKEY CLUB AUTUMN MEETING.

The first acceptance for the Doncasttr Handicap and Sydney Cup shows a go<,d number of withdrawals. 1 here are 45 left in Che short distance race and 27 in the Cup. The two top weights, Resolute and Amiable, continue their engagement in the Doncaster Handicap, and of course the New Zealander Vedette still remains in. The Auckland-bred True Blue is also an acceptor, and he is said to be doing very ■well just now. So is another Aucklander Eeaper, who ran so well in the in Cravat. Newmarket Handicap, has been taken from Melbourne to Sydney for the race aud he should run well. In the Sydney Cup Aurum is an absentee. This points that 'the colt will not be seen out at the meeting. Amberite, Cravat and The Grafter i are a trio of candidates greatly fancied in 'Sydney. "Spectator" writing from Hastings thus • refers to Vedette's departure : The general :. opinion up this way is that Vedette, who •was snipped for Sydney at Wellington on [Saturday, has been favourably treated in -the races in which he is engaged on the .other side, particularly in the Doncaster Handicap ; and my own opinion is that he ■ only requires to be as well as he was ■:at Taranaki and Wanganui to give a good account of himself. I related last week that I made the timo>for the mile that he ran at Wanganui lmin 42 3-;"sth sec, as against the lmin 42sec of the official watch holder, and may say that I timed him to run the first half mile of the race in 50sec dead, and the three-quarters in lmin 15 25th sec; and he was running under a strong pull all the ■way. Whether there is any truth in the report I cannot say, but it was stated that he had run a mile and a-half, in private, in faster time than recorded for the I'aranaki J.C. Handicap, which lie won in 2min 36 2-oth sec. How he will fare when he gets into " town hall" company remains to t>e seen, but I question whether we have anything faster off the mark ; and fit and ■well it would be hard to find in New Zealand a better representative over short courses, Avhatever he may do over the longer ones.