ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 242, 11 October 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"In.uir.r." Mt. Eden.—St. Michael is by St. Leger, from Ich Dien, daughter of St. George, clam Ravenswing, by Apremont, dam Idalia (imported), St. Michael was not purchased as a yearling. Mr Stead bred him himself. The Seneschal—Necklet horse South Australian, while being exercised recently In Sonth Wales Wales, fell over a fence, and, breaking one of his knees, was destroyed. One morning recently at Randwick, after breakfast, eighteen two year olds were given a trial spin with the colours up, and without shoes. I have seen as many as thirteen given a run at Riecarton at one time, but that was reckoned a big muster. The recently imported English horses, Sir Ambrose, by St. Simon, and Orm.nus. by Orme, have completed their term o. quarantine in Melbourne. The former, who js owned by Messrs Clarke and Robinson, is described as a very fine horse, and goes Into training.

According to official returns Russia contains 35.000.0.0 horses of various breeds, from the tarpan, the singular TVild horse of Turkestan, to the thoroughbred Arab. Perhaps the most interesting are the Kirghiz and Kalmuk horses, the useful cavalry animals of the Don, the unequalled packhorses of the Altai, and the small but serviceable breed of Finland.

A very fine performance was put up last week in Melbourne, says an exchange, by the trotting mare Lightfoot, ■who, at Richmond, started 4GO yards behind scratch, in a mile trot, and won in 2min 1715.c for the mile. Within the last few weeks this slashing mare has won five times, dead-heated once, been placed second twice, and third twice—out of ten starts.

A Home paper, in its report of the Goodwood meeting, has the fo'lowi-g item:—T^e d^'ghtin-r feature r.f the whole •week was the Kirg's success—the first flat race since his accession—with Mead. Everyone within a mile knew without looking what .'-as lr-p-pning when the horse., had o^iy entered the r^ils. Errad. this was a thrilling, truly glorious happening and scene. The Kine's ho rses are to be sr_d. aid bis tu-f acsonifition severed, bad b°en n rervoTit r.i.T-m 1. W^at a thundering grand denial this proved.

Grant Richards, in his latest work. "A Wasted Life." says be has bee_i frennently asked whom he considers the greatest jockey of his time. Looking through the long list, he says. "T find many who were almost faultless masters of the art. and It may seem invidious to award the palm to any particular one. I give it. howp-er. as my own humble opinion that, looking at the sufrieet from every point of view and 'taking him for all in all,' George Fordbam was the greatest jockey we have seen for forty years."

It is reported that a 3 year old 14b lin pory, by Freetrader, out of a Tam-o'-Sh..nter mare, bred and owned by Mr Geo. Gra.vland. dairy farmer, resident at OMI--tern, N.S. Wales, was run into the stockyard to be eaueht a few days ago, says an Australian exchange. The yard is surrounded by a cemented stone wall. 3ft wide at bottom, l.ft nn top. and Off 4in high. The pony cleared the wall without touching it. Mr Graylnnd and three nien present measured the distance from take off to place of landing, and found it to be tGft Gin.

Pet books on Caulfleld and Melbourne Cups are not so plentiful or exte"=ive as In former years, and will probably die out altogether, as Mo grows moi-e and more chary. One big penciller tells that he began last year by laving 1000 to 5 a__inst Revenue and then 100's to 1. when, If he had waited til' the day of the race, a £1000 v> oo ir would hove seen him f°t ovtr £500 Revenue and more than £200 San Fran. As it was the frst "thou" in his _er book brought only £55 through the same two. When Lancaster started a .1 to 1 fav.u.ite in Clean Swee_'s Cup. two year.-- a_o. thr-.e firms of Syoney bo.ks were "going up" for £10.000 against him. laM at an average of 20 to I.—"Bulletin."

his old-time colonial form—long since evaporated. And the street corner man had so taken to him that he has been the mysterious tip for every big handicapwas already booked for the ensuing Cesarewitch, and even clever men held the absurd belief that he was a second Australian Star. In this case it was giving a dog a (too) good name, and Mr Muir reoently had reluctant need to ccmnlain of his handicapping to the stewards. This is the first flat race which the brown, blue collar and cuffs has won in England. Sweetheart 11. having gained a hurdle event at Hurst. It is the first winner, too, which Piatt has trained for Mr Mui-. whose few horses quite recently ioined the string, and Piatt's maiden success from his new home, Russley. Congratulations all round. Truly everything comes to those who wait, and Mr ." -i-r has waned long enough." And the following further interesting item appears:—"Russley, which the late R. Peck made famous as a training centre, but which has had two or three tenants since, has now been leased by Robinson (who bought it last year for his brother Nat) to R. Piatt. Parthian has quickly marked the change."

Some few months back the Queensland papers reported the finding of an ingenious contrivance for the manipulation of a set of scales in use at one of their ia.ee meetings. At the time many thought that the matter was a bit overdrawn. However, says the "Town and Country Journal," a discovery was made lately that the "clever" racing men had v - been idle in the neighbourhood of our metropolis. Some time back the proprietor of the Moorfield racecourse decided to make some alterations. To effect this some of the old buildings had to be demolis.i-u. Amongst them was the old weighingroom. When this was done, the discovery was made that at some time a well-oar-ried-out plan to tamper with the scales had been made. Racing men think that this explains one or two notable "reversals of form" witnessed upon this track. Perhaps they are not far out In their reasoning. Having these cases before them of tampering with the scales on important race tracks at Brisbane and Sydney, shouid cause the clerks to maae most careful Inspection before comniencinf thei_ duties each race day. It Is real.y wonderful how clever and ingenious the "sharpers" are in tampering with +he racecourse scales. Though some people profess to b.lieve that weight makes no difference, and scoff at Ihe efforts of the handicapper, it is a very solid fact that the astute lacing man will bet a tonune on a horse that meets another on a few pounds better terms than it did the day previous; and in the majority of Instances

wins his money. Thus, if they can get a pull of a stone, then in nine times out o£ •ten it would be a certainty. It is only a few weeks back, at one of our most important meetings within the metropolitan circuit, a clerk of the scales made a most important discovery. Going early to the course, he adjusted the scales. Shortly afterwards a boy came in to try his weight. Now, it so happened that fus same boy was the first to be weighed, when, to the surprise of both himself, trainer, and clerk of the scales, he was found to be close upon 31b lighter tnan on the previous trial. This brought about an inspection, when it was found that a cert, ir part of the scales had been manipulated to bring about the result. Further inquiry elicited the fact that some of our jockeys were the culprits. The fact is that they have made the discovery that by a little work at the scales they can save the expense of various Turkish baths, cr hard reducing work. The former is much preferable, to them. .Boys are in the habit of teiling owners that they can ride at a certain weight. On the day they find that they have not reduced sufficient, and sooner than lose the mount will resort to any dodge. Some years ago the same clerk of scales as mentioned above discovered, fixed underneath his scales, a quantity of lead; while the Newcastle oeople will well remember a case winch oc.-.red upon their course some v«V buck. The scales were there tampered with while a race was being: run Mary other cases could be mentioned, all of which tell that those in authority should pay the utmost attention, and nu .h mere than is generally the case, to the appointments of their weighingroom, and those who frequent it.

The following apropos of Glorious Goodwood' snouid _c iead with in.e.e_i. U is rrom tne pen of tne tu._ correspoadent of tne otu-uay ,pa_.er, "x'tie 1 c.pi. . —•'We have not man a great Goodwood— just a plta_ant, quiet meeting. Its cna.ra 13 seclusion, its picnic c-_ar-_e.era.i_ Dietty surroundings—when you get there. inaccessibility must make uo.dwoou quiet, and with so -much racing nowadays mayhap .he ducal -meeting is. luce so ruany wings, more to talK about-to anticipate than to enjoy. It one stays the veek in the vicinity—you can do uooawood in conuort and with leisure.y eu-iovment-but, despite the splendid special services, it reaily btc.m.s a feaifai lag t 0 travel up and down dai.y—and is v worth it? There is no Ascot crowd—no such' pomp-and just a tinge of the Society side. Those wfto oaiy speaK. O.i Goodwood from what tney have heardor imagine—are woefully wrong. Oi course certain portions of the course make won.r.us pn.tos--any course w.uid-an_ one gets a picture of the grand stand on their tickets, but this is also misleading, and 1 suppose those who have noi been there Win be astounded -to learn that tiiere is oa.y one standi— praiiticall> oh= enclosure-plus an adjacent ..addi CX. the" size of which is about equal to Windsor's nalf-acie. In some—ai__.o»t iiiae...- ■- able-senses there is not Goodwood's equal —but "gl_nou_ Go.d.v-od" s__ge_t_ so much—takes so much getting there ana really yields so little. its arraugemeat.are primitive in the extreme. It is really a"private meeting, but however mucn cherished by the Tew by reason of it. ancient lineage, a modicum of modernness becomes essential. One absolute necessity for Goodwood's success is fine— anyhJw, dry-weather, and luckily now the threatenings never got beyond __ig.hte_-i._- one. The brightest , ino_.i-..i occurred as the Stewards' Cup field weie a.t the post. There was controversy regarding the crowd-its "class" was < obvious, and, perhaps, average is a fair estimate. No race mceti. g is cheap t th n Goodwood in entrance charges, but there are still absurd restrictions as to whicu entrances or exits one can use. Here the lawn is rea-.ly all one-the first 50 yards being crowded by the speculative firces and beyond long rows of seats and a good stretch of grand lawn and natural hillock barely tenanted. Beyond are the few vehicles of the populacefor no one can go opposite the stands— the course forming a perfect abyss behind the rails, so the "swells" leave their carriages outside—behind the stand. One mi^ht really ponder how it was ever conceived to make a racecourse on these heights The tracks are most peculiar— the^ftve and six furlongs straight but uphill and down again, the ground sloping considerably from right to left (the wav the horses run). No complete circuit i. cossible the course being really a horseshoe shape, with for 1. mile races a very ,chort loop at the starting end of tne horseshoe. We speak of the grand ••e-oine" here, of the Birdless Grove, and of "Trundle" Hill by traditional hearsay, the drive through the Duke of Richmond's park meriting all the praise if ir could only be done in isolation, not in the midst of the motley throng which nrovide the means of reaching the race hill And what a climb it is. All female and mvenile Chichester turn out to <> _ the folk go to and come back from the races Along St. Pancras it is an un- . roken gauntlet of little ones, cap or I runafore in hand, yelling, "Copper. « vr *-~».'« cents.," incessantly. The townfolk have Referring to the victory of Mr sj s ha^ racehorses trained an_on_ Arr-tralian-bred horse Parthian IL.Larry fyZm and many of the resident goe~» Lynx, sporting contributor to The ;^" t ' en are owners, but the Duke of People," thus writes:—"lf ever the mar- -y h -. nd is strongly averse to racing, ket spoke detrimentally it did so in Far- £ ',_ k ene ftts by the annual race meetthian's case, for after evens lumped at * d gives the local trainers permisand s's bar one, point by point the old ms. the superb downs. Halnaker Waler drifted out. We saw what is a sion back of the gtan(J< un _ true measure of the horse's form, iditn- s« fil- an ywihere, winter or summer." c.to he has been cruelly handicapped on equanea w«

Indication- are that, provided everything goes r:'_ht with Wakeful, she'll line up as hot a pot for Melbourne Cup as hoi stable-chum Revenue did last year. The "Bulletin" says: "The public are crazy on TV akeful after her recent Randwie'- achievements, but Mo, wary always, knows this an I isn t likely to risk much until the cods- cramp a bit more so that he may s-6* his money in at the shortest possible 'figure. Another the raucousvoiced are very loth to lay is Patronage, who only has to continue well to get loads of support. As far as can be gathered, and de?nite freouent daily "ress nars. to the contrary, it is almost good enough to bet that The Persian is the only nag legitlmatelv invested upon so far."

In the year 1835. a Mr Briscoe incurred great odium by asserting his right as lord of manor to a large area of Epsom Downs, .nclnding a part of the racecourse. As Mr Briscoe insisted od obtaining recognition of his rights in the law courts, the public assumed that racing at Epsom would be at an end. Tbe case was heard by Lord Denman. and given in Mr Briscoe's favour against the racing committer, who had to pay that gentleman's law costs. Needless to' add. Mr Briscoe rested content with his victory, and did nothing to interfere with the use to which the Downs bar] been put for so man.f years. The course left much to be desired at the time mentioned. A contemporary turf chronicler says:—"lt is high time that such a meeting as Epsom should be cleansed of the slongh in which it has been too long involved It cannot be but that subscriptioncould te. had fully adequate to all its expenses: five hundred pounds per annum would keep the course in order, and leave enough to make plates and assist stakes."

The auestion of appointing stipendiary stewards has practically been decided upon in New South \vales. but the selection of the officials has yet to be decided upon. A writer in "The Town and Country Journal." referring- to the situation, after offering a suggestion on the matter of raising funds to defray the expenses, says: "It is evident that a man who knows his duty, is willing to do it, and will not be prevented from doing ;t by paltry considerations—or others, for the matter of that—should at once be put on the job. Such a man may be difficult to find, but I have no doubt he can be found when a decent salary Is paid, and it should be decent to place the recipient outside the temptation of bribery. The stipendiary would relieve purely local officials from initiating what to them is often an unpleasant task. He should be present at the inquiries, examine all witnesses, and take part in the deliberations of the committee, and if dissatisfied with the committee's decision, to t-eport to the A.J.C., who have the power to hold an inquiry.