THE Racing World.

Auckland Star, Issue XXXVI, 21 October 1905, Page 11

THE Racing World.

RACING VIXTL'KES- \ Oct 21 and 25—A.T.C. Spring. j Oct.-28 and 2T—Masterton R.C. SprinffOct. 2G and 27—Poverty Bay T.C. Spring. ! >'or. 2—Waihi Sports Clnb Annual. j Nor. 4, 6, S, and 11— C.J. C. Metropolitan. - An English writer says that if the King and Queen had not been present at Good-! wood this year, the meeting would have j hen a frost, and adds that unless some-1-thing is done to improve the programme I and reduce, the prices of admission to the f stands and enclosures, the fixture is doom- i ed to sink iuto a second class affair. Goodwood is about the most expensive meeting! ia England to attend. j fr The "Special Commissioner" states that "ac never known a horse in such absolutely world wide demand as John o' Gaunt. \ There scarcely is a civilised country iv which some one does not want to buy'him. I and if Sir John Thursby needed 20,000 guineas — which he does not — there would not be the slightest difficulty in disposing of his horse for that sum. while, in case of a sale by auction, there are so many people wanting him that he would probably take a good deal more. An Australian, writing to the "Australasian," from New York, says: — "In spite of the fact that racing, or rather betting. is prohibited in Chicago and St. Louis,' the sport is In a flourishing condition in this portion of America to-day." it is only this season that the anti gambling laws in the Western States have been strictly enforr.eed, and, as a consequence, there has been an unusually large influx of horses and owners from the West. Even here, however, the racing situation is peculiar The racing law of the State of New York, which pots the supervision of racing in the hands of a State Commission appointed sy the I troyernor, does not enter into the question of betting. In order to give the enemies of the sport uo opportunity of attacking it, tee Jockey Oub has. decided not to officially recognise betting, and the clubs nave thus this year deprived themselves of a source of revenue which brought in, on an average, about SOOOdol. (£1000) a day. Each member ot the Metropolitan Association of Bookmakers, about SO men, had been in the habit of contributing 58 uOL per day. to the (Hubs for the privilege .?££?*£?* ?*** ■"*>■ this deficiency, the clubs have abolished the issue of free nasfnd r 3 r«ii b^° km i lk ? rs . an<a their assistants, «> e admission fee to the grand£f*? - Mol t 0 «a£ This move was at first very unpopular.". • An English.writer says: The handicandriven to male IP S i —Z° tae ste wards of the Jockey Ciub who 1 ™\i mnb,in r- 0f dissatisfied owners ™°aiaie- complaints t0 and a Jna7tf S n»n ISSUed ' -° r reiterated that if owners consider they have ground for dissatisfaction they' are to demand investigation from the authoritiesi and not growl privately. Of course, tee hand* °f mimr Mendsand more ac( naintances. and as, I suppose, no set of t~JL U r2 T^? c hj , some irate o"T-er, advanrS&Uw!?*?" f L - tha ««»Mlntance or the O? the rn P c, to *"** t0 the *"»# or the race a sense of his iniquity. I well harZ Z e t as P eratfa S * t<> And a bad horse with the burden of a good one and more than once, when I had* horses under my charge, I purposely avoided handicap? out into expressions of sarcasm or of wrathr more than once, too, r bare translated and drawn from the handicapper an LIT that - ae Potest was well rbund„,V P o ' a * a ye sene'ral rule it fs a mistake to-do anything but grin and bear £~? * N t - horse !n order that the fact ot his being overburdened :may be made evident. y Thus "Eapier." in the "S. and D. News''«Tm« b l 3t fr .™ dS tmin U ° rSe «- a "d aie men for whom it" is impossible to feel anything but the highest respect: but there are trainers of a totally different deserinn ' a K d I T hea - rd a story of one of them the o.her day which is too characteristic Oj. a certain class of the modern profe=wonal horse-master to be left untold. There-.-UI, I hope, be no harm in telling it if I give no indicaUon of the hero or the locality to which he does. fmore or less) * £" , s cm P lo F« proposed to back one of his horses, and asked the trainer in question how much he would like to stand m the commission? '!Te n pounds," the man replied, would be quite enough. It loosed a-good thing-was he sure that £10 would be all he- wanted, he was asked and he answered, "Yes: he did not care for" more. When the commissioner weut into tne ring, to the owner's intense surprise he fonnd the horse, a hot favourite: and making inquiries in the right quarter learned that the trainer was bavins a real royal dash! The owner, of course had to _ put up with the leavings.and take what price he could get: but wheft he came across his trainer, be told him what he had heard, and asked for an explanation.' anticipating that it would take the form o£ a denial. On the contrary, taxed with backing the animal, the trainer replied that he had done so. and saw no reason why he should not. "You speculate in the city, and make money In all sorts of wnvs and places." he answered. "I hnve nothing but my horses to get my money on<\ aud I shall back them as I like!" "My , horses.'? it will be observed, was the , purase. and yet the "owner" had imagined that they belonged to him, and that the trainer was his servant! v. Says an exchange: — Colonial racing crowds make a great noise when they think c hey have a grievance, but we never hear of their attempting to mob a jockey, as was occasionally done in England years ago. One reason why the crowds here are content with voicing their opinions is pertiaps. that they are railed off from the course. At Epsom, when Fille de lAir won the Oaks in I&G4. after having- run very oadiy in the Two Thousand Guineas, for which she was a hot favourite, there was a scene. After the O.oks Edwards and Fille de lAir were escorted back to scale by four prize-fighters—two at the head of the mare and two at the tail. Here is the account of the affair, from "Bell's Life in London"':—"lf the result of the Derby did not lead to any demonstration, the same cannot be said of" to-day's race, but this expression was not such as is usually made ( on Epsom Downs after the Derby or Oaks. It was. in truth, hardly to be expected that the victory of Fille de lAir, after her suspicions in-and-out running, her 'nowhere' one day and easy victory another, could be lightly passed over by those who- felt themselves aggrieved or considered themselves victims. So thought not a few persons who have had experience on the turf, and so. it . would appear, thought the Frenchman's party themselves, for they had taken the precantiou to secure the ser-vices-"of a band- cf the 'rough-and-ready' division (prize-fighters). Scarcely had the number of Fille de.l' Air been displayed as the winner when hisses, groans, aud cries of 'Shame' resounded on air sides, and the mob below made a rush at Arthur Edwards (the jockey), with an evident determination to drag him off the mare. The 'band' just referred to, however, came to the rescue, as did the police, so that Edwards escaped actual molestation, and was safely guarded to the weighing-room. Custance. who rode Antoinette, narrowly escaped being moooed also, for the colours of Mr Joice; being very similar to those of the French party, her. rider was mistaken by some for the jockey of Fille de FAIr. Count Lagrange left th* course shortly after the race. He may congratulate himself that he escaped the polite attentions preferred to his jockey.? The explanation of Fille. de rAlr's- performances, nowadays accepter"., is that Arthnr Edwards occasionally pulled her, quite on his own account. * ..". "Ranger" is responsible foe the following:—Learning to ride—about which . some weird opinions are now expressed—is' a work of small diiSeulty when the local conditions are. favourable. The bast plan is,of course, to begin- young. . Jockeys axe not made- out of well-worn material;, "ancient legs do not mng with the ardour becoming to this situation. Ltds sent into racing stables as apprentices team to ride, in a remarkably short time, and only, the other morning I saw one of- : these agile imps , steering a racehorse in a ■ canter at exerciae. with admirable ease, though he had

only been employed in that capacity during la period oE, about - three months. Pointed I out to mc also was another boy, who has already ridden iv races and "shaped" I splendidly; it has taken him not more than, j eighteen months, to . acquire that ability. "He has' a natural gift for the job," remarked his employer, the trainer, in communicative mood, "and if hi* flesh does not beat him, as it generally beats most of us, his spirit is sure to make Mm a big hit in the pigskin." That authority discoursed .with gusto in respect to the subject of youthful idiosyncrasy, as revealed in this I connection: "There is an urchin," he said, ! cracking his whip at one. "who has been riding for three years, and i even now he can't rids a decent gallop, and he never will be able to do so, unless horses are specially constructed to cary him like a sack of coals. The best he- can do," added our .sparkling commentator, "is' just to hang on, and .some day .he will mount the scaffold once too often—the hang on will end in a drop." Learning to ride late in life is a bit ot a mistake. We might as well try to make love with one foot in the grave: the other foni is sure to follow pretty soon if we are successful, Little, short, fat men,, with round limbs and uutruly, built - are not Intended by Nature for the saddle, and when I see them perspiring lv that direction, running risks which are especially deleterious having "regard to the <xcess of their adiposity, I marvel how, they escape a "ermnpler"' to lay then* out. If horses had more sense, fewer jockeys would achieve distinction.. We. also do well to remember—since even* scraps of information aie better than having "oae's mind a blank in relation to this great sporting subject—that rtdiug runs in families, so to speak, and that it seems to b* an inherited capacity or instinct Like a protracted nose or a tendency to laueh in the wrong place, it descends from father to son, from mother, to maid; with automatic precision. I have seen four generations of jockeys belonging to one family on Epsom Downs. Perhaps the case is unprecedented, perhaps' not; yet its interest is ■equally great In either event, we cannot get away from the. esseittal facts;. and, happily, they tend to substantiate the thesis now formulated. ' Thus, about t'went years ago or move,'! used to see the late .John Nightingales father—an estimable old gentleman of about eighty suminers T -riding racehorses at exercise~in a top-hat oh our glorious Downs; whilst, at the same time, I saw his son John, aforesaid, also engaged in that exhilarating occupation, together with his two grandsons, Arthur and William, both of whom have earned the'highest reputation as steeplechase jockeys; Then, to complete the picture - so far as I am concerned, I have just watched the two small" sons of William Xightihgail ride a capital gallop oh a two-year-old and a three-year-old respectively, 'when those youthful Archers, aged ten and twelve, finished, with the utmost, steadiness and resolution. To sec four generations of a jockey family.—well-, it'ls very interesting, very curious, as studied from the proper sporting point of view; and I am thankful to have been alive "during.the time, likewise at present, so- as to record my impressions conscientiously. It is no use 'waiting,, lest one forgets; such chances do not occur every day. even, if one, is touting before with heart aflame. Jockeys are a virile race.' Assnmlhg that a bad fall does not pnt paid to their account, their receipts are often satisfactory, their desires are keen, and what is left of them after a period of arduous "wasting" is frequently reproduced with amazing fidelity. If their flesh—it is an old story—does not beat them! . Writing on. the deterioration of horses, \ "Milroy" in the Sydney "Mail" says:—The S stamina of the Arab' la so much moonshine. The Arab is no hardier, gamer, or anything else than-the ordinary. Bush-bred "cocktail" of this: country. - The-Arab ought to be superior to the average. Australian brumby, for the Bedouins of" the desert take care ot their horses,'handle them from foalhood up, while the brumby runs wild over hr larste expanse of country, and lives as best ha may. The writer can quote instances of. wild horses having to travel 20 miles for water every day. The grass was fully 20 miles away from the water..but these wild, hard-boned fellows came in and out at a racing pace, and did it for months,, yet dead ' "brumbies" in that region were scarce as dead donkeys in Woolloomooloo. -' 'xne pick of such horses when broken and settled-, down to the. usages, of!, civilised life are equal to the best Arab for hard, delving work or speed; and as riding horses they are invariably, safer and pleasanter in their; paces than any Arab the writer has known, and he has seen a great many Half-breds of that breed.in his time. To run three miles at a trifle less than top speed is a great test for any- horse. An ordinary animal will generally choke up and stop if pushed for two miles,. yet we Have- seen "brumbies" gallop for hours at almost top speed in pursuit of their own kind. The Arab can do no better, and perhaps not do> it as well. Once upon a tinie from three t» twenty miles races-were generally set aside for Arabs in India and Egypt, but the introduction of the British thoroughbred into the East, also Russia, where Arabs were very much favoured 50 years ago, has. quite exploded the old idea of the Arab being at his best over a distance.. After many years* experience and testing with the thoroughbred it is found that the Arab is at his.best in- a half-mile run, just as owr ."brumbies" are. We have known wild bush horses capable of • pacing from two to four furlongs with proved racehorses, but when a longer distance had to be run the "brumby" was left far astern. •'. So it is with the- Aran. 4"he Indian authorities put on a-number of races for Arabs and country-bred*,, but seldom ask them to run more than a mile. The most popular distances for Arabs are from fourluriongs to 100 yards. The-best Arab that ever came into India, however, would hardly face an Australian thoroughbred at any distance above half a mile and at a difference, of any weight up to sst." About 20 years, ago the deterioration bogey was rampant in England, and •a. breeder with more' influence than brains managed to excite the -widest interest In favour of. the Arab as a regenerator, and so imbued the English Jockey Club with his ideas that the stewards "put on races worth up to £200 and over three miles for Arabs bred in England and elsewhere. Thanks to the Duke of. Portland, they did not live long in the calendar." The champion was' Admiral Tyrou's Asil. but the Duke of Portland backed lambic, the sorriest five-fur-long selling plater in England, to ran the Arab champion over three mites at Newmarket, allowing the Eastern- crack 4st Tib. lambic administered such-a. beating as has seldom been seen on the historic, convincing " ground.. The IDuke. of Portland regarded lambic worthless as a racehorse, and gave the horse away to" a frfend to use as a hack. An eminent writer -on turf matters has placed it on record that three miles was absurdly out of lambic's distance—that is, providing he ever had a distance,," for ha was not good enough to win a race. Shortly prior to the time mentioned there was a great race of 20 miles run at Cairo, for which all the famous Arab runners assembled, and one in particular, with an' unpronounceable name, who was- the pride of the desert, and probably a lineal descendant of that marvellous Arab Oulda tells about in "Under Two Flags." By. the wav, lady , writers are ever prone, to. gush over the Arab. The halo of romance that surrounds the "desert born," or the natural aptitude of the Arab man as a-first-class romancer no doubt charms them. However, the- great Arab racer that was going to gallop all his opponents into mincemeat,was badly beaten by a little English thoroughbred mare, a J4.3 daughter of See Saw. The account of this race was published at the time, and is alluded to by William Day In one of his books, but "the name" of the" mare has escaped the-- writer's memory. '■ Fifty years ago in Great Britain they bred the. best cavalry horses, hunters, and light trappers in the world Trom "cocktail" stallions. a grade of blood horse not good enough to beget racehorses or compete with high-class thoroughbreds. : Subsequently somebody introduced the Hackney to the notice of army people, and they favoured it to 'the extent . ot recommending farmers., to use- this kind !of stallion, and the progeny were Thought' up with avidity. "The result' is now- the English army in England is. the; worst ■■ • mounted iv the world. The introduction or the Arab did not get very::far after lambic. v! knocked the bottom out of. the ■ stamUM. theory, but just now there seems-to aev leaning again towards .Che s t ?™,T - thing else as an Improver. These matters. • certain forms of. msaa-.. tty? crop n P periodically,./n« doubtless w« are InTor another dose of * atop same 2% . . T.wrs' coajßHrstire teat. , ...,, ..---'