TURF GOSSIP

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 76, 28 March 1908, Page 13

TURF GOSSIP

{BX WHALEBONE.)

The price paid by the German Govern-: ment • for the Irish Stallion, Red Prince 11., was £2750. i

As a result of the action of the Wolverhampton (Eng.) Eace Company In levelUng a toll on bookmakers for the privilege of oetting. on the course,'.the committee of the Racecourse Bookmakers' Association decided to recommend their members to boycott I the meetings until the toU is removed.

the result of the deliberations of the Special Racing Committee appointed by the French Jockey Club and the Minister for Agriculture is that they are of opinion that the Pari Mutuel system Is the only one that can be useful to breeding and charity. French owners will have to make up their minds to deal either with the existing middlemen or invest direct at the booths. " • .

Mr Musker, like other English owners, has come to recognise the advantages Ireland possesses in the matter of raising horses. In addition to the stallions and brood mares, ' the owner of Melton has eight yearUngs at Haddenstown,. while at the "Lodge" there are a couple of horses in training which are likely to carry his colours In this country in the course of the forthcoming season. ■ .

An excellent Idea has been conceived by the Sandown (Eng.) executive to counteract the congestion that has hitherto made the chief enclosures uncomfortable. Two squares have been marked out by white paint on the asphalte; and those bookmakers who do "not bet on the- rails are allowed to take their stand only within those squares. Thus gangways have been formed, and one can now move rapidly without interference about the ring.

Following the example of the stewards of the Jockey Club In England, the French ra ,Si nff .authorities have been discussion the advisability of nominating an inspector of racecourses. There is no doubt that such an inspector will be of valuable assistance thot w*f\ authorities. It is said ™l van is ?&**- favour of the move, and it rests with the Special RactaCommittee to decide if an official wmbe appointed to act iv France on theiinS

The West Australian Turf Club n *> r * revised list of.colourblind at ffi last meeting decided that 11 ™£ will be allowed to be combined for racing they oeing white, black, brown? blue tartan, red, -;pink, orange, purple aa'd'Sw Distinctions flowed will be sleeves, feashet spots and hoops. The caps must be of th 4 foundation colour, sashes and hoops fouraches wide, and spots four inches in diameter. , ■.

One of the many cheap tipping sheets in England recently gave itself away beautifully. It was dated on a Monday, but re-' ceired by the addressee either Wednesday evening or Thursday mornings Yet the extraordinary thing was that this sheetsupposedly in the press on _ilonOay—had actually , tipped, amongst others, the lon-»-pnced winner of a selling plate on the Wednesday, for which, the entries only closed late on Tuesday night. '. -

At a meeting of Doncaster Town Council, recently, the-Race Committee recommended that £15,300, part of surplus profits for the j present financial year, be transferred to the borough fund. The committee have revised the programme for the Spring Meeting with a view to putting the-meeting on a Rtill better ..footing. A suggestion that the Race Committee should make "a Temptin-' offer for the purchase of the Glasgow paddocks was not entertained -■ . • ■ ■■■ ■

In .commenting on the announcement of a | forty-day meeting at Fort Erie this snm'mer a Toronto paper remarks that continuous racing or protracted fixtures like this nave injured the Turf in Canada,- and In many sections of the country aroused, so much hostility that legal enactments closed the tracks If a law was ever needed to Umit racing inthat country, it should be on the Statute Books now. And it is announced that a bill will be introduced at the next session of the Ontario Legislature to limit race meetings in Ontario to 15 days.

Apropos of Lorl Stanley's sporting tastes an amusing; story is told of an incident which occurred when he was first elected to Parliament. He had invited questioners at one of his meetings, and a voice caUed out "Can you give us a tip for to-morrow's race? Lord Stanley did not hesitate for a moment. " Yes," he said, " I'm backing such-and-such a horse." And he gave the name. The horse, as It turned out," did actually win, and some people maintain that it was. largely this which helped to place Lord Stanley at the top of the poll."-

Good light weights are so scarce in India that there is plenty of room and to spare ; and an invasion from Newmarket (En--) would be a very welcome one to owners who" are very often hard put to it to find competent lads to ride their horses at the weights (says a Calcutta exchange) Of course, it can scarcely he expected that jockeys would come out from Home "on spec to a place like India, but owners are now fully persuaded that it is less an extravagance, to retain a good man from Home than to chance getting one should he be engaged in India. Templeman, Blades, Bray Rohbins, Barrett, Melsom, all get- a hean of riding, and ihave found the " Shiny" a by no means unprofitable .place to visit

It is unusual to see more than two horses in the same ownership running in one race but an the Grand Prix de la Ville Nice! a steeplechase of £4000, run at Nice! (France) last month, no less than five of the eleven competitors carried the colours of M 9K kienart. Backers -did not attempt to pick, the -oest of the five, but backed the Lienart stable. They were not at fault either, as« Hamed, one of the quintet, toot charge at the start, and led all the way over the three miles. and a furlong, nls stable companion Jacasse 11., running, third. A stable starting so many representatives in a steeplechase would certainly have been unlucky if its elect had failed to win. In connection with owners being strongly represented, i} may be mentioned that on one occasion the first four horses in a Grand Prize of Paris carried M. Blanc's colours.

I do not know what. your papers may be saying of John E. Madden (says an American writer), " but here it is one universal clamour that he is going to race In England In the coming season. I do not think there is a scintilla, of truth in it. I was lunching solus one day last September in the clubhouse for members at the swell Coney Island Jockey Clnb course, and Madden came and sat with mc. He said he was going to England to ' open his sons' eyes,' and that he had entered several youngsters for the classic events, telling mc what they were; that he had been fortunate in making money here, as much as he was likely to need, and that now what surplus he made he could

' have fun with,' and remarked, ' What better fun could I have than to win an English Derby, Oaks, or St. Leger, with stock of my own breeding at Hamburg Place? You know I have the blood, that I have won most events here, and I do not think I could have a more pleasant ambiton.' That Is all there is in it. Madden will be In this country, racing and training and selling as usual, not only on the running. Turf, but a big trotting campaign has also been mapped out, with a brand new superintendent, etc., and •there is not a logical sign that Madden has changed his mind since his September talk to mc."

If The Victory is to re-establish the line of Fishermen in England, and at the same time make a stud reputation for himself he is being given ample opportunity of do-' ing so, says an exchange. He is now located at the'Slratfan Station stud, in Ireland, and among those to send mares to him is Lord Rosebery, who has taken seven subscriptions to the Melbourne Cup winner From Germany, Baron Schmedir has sent several mares, and other prominent breeders who have taken nominations to The Victory are the r>uke of Portland, Colonel Thorneycroft, sir Maurice Fitzgerald; Miss Hawkridge, Sir Charles Nugent, Mr • E: Robson Captain Daing (breeder of • Antonio), Mr H M. .Wilson, the Hon. Sir. Hedworth Lamb-

•ton, -Mr H. S. Persse, Mr Vyner, the Mar- J guis of Waterford, and Sir- John Robinson. I So far The Victory's progeny have notryetappeared on the racecourse, but those^sub-.- ---! mitted to auction have sold really well for the stock of an. untried sire.. He will bo. represented on the turf shortly, as J. B. Brewer has several two-year-olds in his. stable. One of the best yearlings at the [ Straffan stud is a colt by The Victory from, I Coo-ee.

On the occasion of the annual race meeting at Orange, N.S.W., reference was made to the totaiisator, and it was generally, agreed that under the existing laws the machine could be used iv the race enclosures of this State. At one or two of the . picnic race meetings in N.S.W., the machine has been used in the past. This knowledge," with the report that one club made a prone • of nearly £200, set Mr .S. R. Wilson think-, ing that it would be a good thing to have at the next race meeting held at Welling-, ton by the Picnic Club. From a report to hand the committee have not decided yet,, upon the matter. There is not the least doubt but what the majority of the country ' racing people are in favour of the machine, and as the law stands there appears to be nothing in the way of their running it at the picnic meetings. It is a remarkabla fact that great efforts are being made tv prevent people subscribing to a popular; consultation or sweep, which all know is conducted on the fairest of lines, yet -we have in this State Quite a number of sweep... promoters now. Some of them, no doubt, are fair, the promoters beiug satisfied with their percentage, but it- is very safe to say, - that a number of them will be handled in a .. different manner, and that some of the pro- - moters will be found missing after, say, a Sydney or Melbourne Cup is run. — Ex™ . change. ~■...----

The foUowing is a reference by the London -"Sportsman" to a meeting at Doncas- ; ter (Eng.) last month, and If there were any colonial racing men present they were probably disgusted: "At Doncaster fields were large; in fact, they were far too large : for the men in charge of the number boards,, ■ who in several cases found themselves iv a. tangle, and did not succeed in completing their work till long after the horses had " started. The reason of this was-thatr-no.-adequate.assortment of jockeys' names-had.i been painted, so that each one had to be painted befdre it could' be displayed, and also because in the ■ weight-for-age -races ■ no .weights appeared, in the card, and these ... had also, with much labour, to be printed during the afternoon. There_were many instances of horses running in • wrong col- : ours, and these were not always advertised in the frame as required by rule. Therefore, what with one thing and another, there was some little confusion', but it may be 1 assumed that next year these things '• will be worked more satisfactorily. Similarly, doubtless, in the future a system of signalling will be improvised on the part' of the police in the case of an accident, sotha'. + .hose in charge of .the admirable horsed , ambulance which is in attendance may. be made acquainted that their' services are _re-_ quired, and may hasten to the spot- -Therewere several faUs. and the jockeys, though able eventually to walk back, were so much bruised, dazed, and shaken that, had" the ambulance gone to their aid, theywould have been glad." : . :..„.'.„

Matters in connection" Vmh~racing in : the" States are at present in an unsettled con- ' dition, and commenting on the fact ■an - American writer says:—Governor Hughes fs generally regarded as,a strictly religions' man with-the courage" of- • his. opinion's:'' which -~ is taken, to indicate that, while he ■ may make mistakes, hg makes them doing what he believes" to be "right." Before he moved against racing he commissioned a" well-known and. prominent politician to- • gather .bim data... ■- Of all the: tissues ot' error and misleading. lies ever gathered' to-' gether that-mass-of-detail was the worse" It stated, among.'other things, that~tho> - quarter of a million dollars of • racing taxpaid to the Agricultural Societies■- each - year was "obtained from the bookmakers" as payment for exclusive liberty to lhaka books," the fact being that absolutely no" tribute of any kind is now received from - the books. - It also said that the eminent people now directing racing in this state " were "the same as controlled the Iniqul--tous electric light racing plant at Maspeth, fifteen years ago." These two examples are sufficient. When all this came to the ears of the racing world that .well-known - politician was visited and asked where heobtained his data, and his reply was he had "been told so." "His" eyes were opened, hewas shown the-truth, mirabUe ■ dietu—being an honest man as well as a politician, he wrote to the Governor telling him of his misleading, and.washing-.*is,, hands of. the entire anti-racing crusade ia future. -..--• '_-.■■--■■■• -" -- —. —;

-The Governor and leading Senators andAssemblymen are .. being bombarded by ■; literally thousands of letters a day purporting to come from families, wives, and business men, whose sons, husbands, and - employees have..been "ruined, .by racing,"-., etc. These are now discovered to be manipulated by the rich "gang of' poolroom mag- ' nates who have been crowded to thewall'during the past four years, and who threat- . ened .to "puU down racing"-If they, wereimpeded in their business, , They are aided." in these letters by a certain clergyman-who is utterly discredited through, the public' prints each year, but who springs; "like - Hope, eternal,'.' believing the public, cannot, remember anything for the space of twelve moons; and therein he is about"right

This is what the Jockey Club of the Stabßof New York, is fighting at present, and—r as. I predicted months ago—it is facing the hardest battle for actual existence ever; met with since its formation. The whole • thing, from its earliest germ, is to be laid, to the disgruntled poolrooms, and if they had never been interfered with, by the Jockey Club, but only by the Law, things would be very different ' to-day. This' makes -it very interesting to recall.-that the first blow against the poolroom coterie was struck by Mr. Richard Crbker, owner of Orby, the Derby winner. He had declared on oath he was hot worth £2000. taxable property, and two years later gave £50,000: for a. half interest in the famed Belle Meade breeding farm, now, alas, out of existence. He owned Dobbins, and many good horses, spending money like water to secure them, and then, being Chief of Tammany, -which controlled" municipal- - affairs with a rod of iron, he saw the advantage of allying himself with the Dwyers,, owning the popular Brooklyn Jockey Club, and boosting the gate receipts by denying any information as to races run, starters, odds, results, etc.',-'to' the "rooms." This was done, and a fierce war waged., Telegraph wires were cut out, pigeons were used to carry information, and men with fowling-nieces stalked around the infield between races. Great- wooden towers were built to overlook the course, and still greater fences built to block the view. Although an eminently "free country," no citizen was allowed to pass out through the gates until after the final race, * no. matter how well he was known, and there was a terrific row. One of the Dwyers is; dead—plunging "Mike," the one who tried to teach you selling race ethics—-Tammany-is no longer a power, simply -a "name".; Croker is in exile, and, having: been. Irish, became American, was . transposed to. an.

"English country gentleman," and is again Irish (what a problem for a human figure family sharp); and the remaining Dwyer has settled into _a.__staid, representatlye Jockey Club man, whose course Is how free-", ly visited by men who, twenty'years ago.-' regarded it as anathema', and -would not even be seen within its fences. The tiny squabble which Croker in his municipal might precipitated is; to-day, liable—we all' hope for the best, of course, and so it is a qualified "liable" at best—to the grand racing of this State, which Is really the representative racing of the United States. ' Woeful as it is; it has its eminently ludicrous side after all.