"HIPPONA'S" NOTE BOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 277, 22 November 1899, Page 3

"HIPPONA'S" NOTE BOOK.

The Otahuhn Trotting Club make a start with their Spring Meeting- at Epsom on Saturday next. The first event is timed to start at 1.30 p.m. Mr A. F. Stilwell will have charge of the luncheon department. '

The Victoria Racing Club Spring Meeting not only left the question of the three-year-old premiership somewhat of an open one, but, racing men are also in doubt as to which of the two-year-old division is entitled to the palm. Finland certainly won the .Maribyrnong Plate in fine style from The Idler, Hautboy, the penalise! Wigelmar, and others, but it is not so certain that he would have succeeded had the rich event been run on the

last day of the meeting instead of the first. Neither he nor Wigelmar raced I again, hut Hautboy rapidly improved with each race, and his performance in the Flemington Stakes with 9st 7lb stamped him as a nailing good colt. But Kenley and Debenture are also high-class youngsters, and if the quin-

tette named were to meet on level terms it would be a matter of difficulty to tell which would have the strongest following.

Word from the South states that Mr Stead is unlikely to send up a team to compete at the Auckland Racing Club Summer Meeting this year. It is possible, however, that Mason may be able to get Screwgun ready for the Boyal Stakes, in which case, he would be brought up.

Miss Delaval was taken to Mangere after she arrived on Sunday, where she will be trained by her old mentor, George Absolum. I understand that in the future she will not be trained for long-distance races.

During the time H. Franks was at Christchurch he purchased Courtier and Tolstoi. The pair were safely [ landed here on Sunday last and afterZvards were taken on to Ellerslie.

Major George left The Labourer at Christchurch with E. Cutts. It ap« pears the colt was hurt when he fell in the Stewards' Handicap, and it will take him some time to recover.

R. Butterworth arrived from Christchurch in the early part of the week, bringing Tauhei with him to fulfil A.R.C Summer Meeting engagements.

Young Turner, rider of the Melbourne Cup wihner, Merriwee, is a native of Colac, and has been riding only for about four years principally "round the country," as he himself term it. He has been with Mr J. Wilson, junr., for two years, during which time he has proved himself a rider endowed with coolness and judgment. His principal win before the Cup meeting was on Diffidence in the Sydney Cup last April.

The race for the Cesarewitch Stakes was a most exciting one, Scintillant only getting home by a head from Ercildoune, which belongs to Mr Wilson, who is interested in the Ballarat stable which shelters Wait-a-Bit and other good horses. Ercildoune would probably have reversed positions but for a penalty of ten pounds for winning the Duke of York Stakes, a performance of which the English sporting writers spoke very highly.

The Takapuna Jockey Club have issued their programmes for the Spring. Summer, and Winter meetings, in neatbook form. At the Summer Meeting the handsome sum of 300 soys. is given in added money for the Takapuna Cup, |_ mile. The T.J.C. Handicap is worth 150 soys., 1! mile.

Could Screwgun have beaten Seahorse? was frequently asked after the latter had secured the treble (says the Canterbury "Times"), and most of the questioners supplied the negative answer themselves. Nothing succeeds like success, but if Screw Gun and Seahorse ever meet and are both thoroughly well, 1 opine that the latter will be accepting one of the haraest contracts he ever took on.

The stakes won «it the Victoria Racing Club Spring Meeting totalled no less than £15,452, and a popular sportsman in Mr Herbert Power won almost a third of it with his brilliant colt Merriwee. His cheque is. £5076, the Melbourne Cup being worth £ 3543, the Cup trophy £100, the. Victoria Derby £1079, and the C. B. Fisher Plate £294. Voyou and April Fool won for Mr F. Foy, who is next on the list, £1317, Voyou representing £1050; and the Maribyrnong Plate was worth £1047 to Mr J. Turnbull, owner of Finland. The only other owner to run into four figures was Mr W. A. Long, who won £1034. Mr W. R. Wilson and Mr S. Miller, who keep elaborate racing establishments in Victoria, were out of form, their cheques respectively totalling only £180 and £40.

At the settling over the Melbourne Cup meeting at the Victorian Club, Mr John Bncklev, secretary, took advantage of an interval to propose the health of Mr Herbert Power, the owner of Merriwee. He said that the performance of the colt must have been very pleasing to such a keen .sportsman as Mr Power, who had thus the gratification of avenging the defeat of Savanaka by Chester in the Melbourne Cup of 1577. Mr Power, during his long association with the Victorian turf, had proved himself a Wgh-class sportsman.

The • celebrated ''•< English stab' lion St. Simon was well advertised during the progress of the V.X.C. Spring Meeting. His grandson, Merriwee, by Bill of Portland, won three times, and auother grandson in Hautboy, by Haut Brion, won two of the races for two-year-olds. Musket's blood was also well to the fore. Etra Wennie, the dam of Merriwee, supplies the Musket strain, and Carbine was represented by two winners—.Miss Carbine and Ballistite. Altogether Bill of Tortland had four wins, and YVigelmur, who was second in the Maribyrnong Plate, also claims Bill of Portland as her sire.

A New .South Wales correspondent writes thus of the V.X.C. Derby and Melbourne Cup winner:—"Merriwee, or properly 'Murawee,' is the name of the place on ■which the homestead of Mr G. Lee. M.L.C., on South Condobolin, stands. It is the aboriginals' name for a place where bundles of sticks grow (or used to grow), so there is nothing particularly, apropos in it as a name for a racehorse. Had it- been 'Marrawale'-'sit quiet'—it might have been more appropriate.*'

The opinion of those who saw the running of the recent. V.X.C. Spring Meeting (says the Sydney "Telegraph") is that no horse was ever, better sold than Australian Star. The pi-ice which Mr S. H. Gollan paid for that colt was upwards of £ 2000, and yet he subsequently behaved in public like the greatest commoner. His connections were denied the excuse thatAustralian Star had "gone off," for in private he could be depended upon to beat any of the great crowd of horses in training at Flemington, but when it came to repeating that form under silk, only failure resulted. No horse that was ever trained in public has so puzzled racing men. Oue section vote him to be a cheat, others say that he requires to be ridden behind in order to show his form, while there are those who say that he should be allowed to get to the front early. There are, however, only two things certain about Australian Star, one being that he is quite unreliable, and the other that Mr A. Gollan acted wisely in accepting Mr S. 11. Gollan's splendid offer. Matters ar_ totally different with respect to that other high-priced colt, Cranberry. In his case 3000 guineas were paid, but he went amiss, unfortunately, and did not run. Those who know him best, however, firmly believe that be only requires to return to form to not only show it in a race, but to repay his purchase money with interest, for his courage has never been questioned.