TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 28, 1 February 1913, Page 16

TURF NOTES.

(By WHALEBONE.;

Tt i< true that there are many -■ yi-r- that arf mere plodders, but we ; iio; make A«rot Cup v.inners out of .. ■ .--*•■-, like that. "A« good at five fur- .'._'- a- ai five miies." raid Captain Ma >■ !!, of I>ii:gia?s. Ti:a: is the sort ul animal we like Wirh Thormanby, the :ur:.i-.r he wen: the better he liked it. ..::: probably v.as relatively better at ;v..j miles and a haii tlian a: half a mile. i i instnni-e him i>ecause of that as an example of a .-low plodder is the most r.i lous non-'-c-p. "How can a rviu V— iir.lu.-ky wim'. pot £00.000 a rear?" pr.r.vled Lord ii!a*.cow. Ho"* can a L.o;=e be slow that \wn = a half mile race at Northampton on the 30 th of March, and ha? a 10 to 1 Derby favourite for an opponent? Lieariy Thormanby was what i apwin Macheil dfvribed l-'mgia.-s as be;n_'. One of his touchest battles, by the way. was when in , tackled the .-ire o; Sterling over ?is furlons* at (. hc.-ter. lie save him 51b. and beat him by a dpv'k. Thonnaniiy clearly ha 1 speed, but it he couid have spoken ho would have f,iid. -ilea-, hear:"'to old Fred Swindell -Th.-n he said. "I diniia - I.ke being b ist!ed. lad." Referring to thp d°ath of Common. winner of the Two Thousand 'iiiineis, Jierby. and S;. Lejrer in l>9l. which took place a: ihc Kuu- Court Stud. Cbeimslord. Esses, on December 17. "jport;ng Jjife" says: —"Common, -.vho was by lnsonomv out of Thistle, never ran at two vpars of aze. beinpr «uch a bis. awkward, and unfurnished horse that John Porter. who had him und.T his care at Kingclere. wisely came t.i the conclusion that to hurry him would be to spoil him. lie made his first appearance in public in the Two Thousand Guineas of 1891. but was not generally liked by the Newmarket critics, who voted him light ill pppearance. and. as his connections were l.one too sanguine eoneernincr h.s chance, J.e was allowed to start at 0 to 1 against, t.ic French colt, ilouvernpur. being a t. arm favourite. However. Common won in a canter, and at once naturally became all the raj;e for the Derby. The race for the Blue Riband o; the Turf was that year run in drenehmcr rain, but all kinds of zoinjr were alike to Common. anJ he again had no difficulty in willHe then won the St. .lames" I'alacr , s;ake- at Ascot, but in tne Eclipse Stakes, a: Sandown Park, niut with the only defeat of his career, being beaten for s;>eed at the finish of a race that was run too slowly to suit his great staying powers, by both Surefoot and his old opponent. Gouvemeur. However, he won the St. Leger easily, and thus joined the select li-t of "Triple Crown" heroes. In h s urst race he ran in the naane and colours' of the late Lord Alington, bin fulfilled his other engagements in those of >ir Frederic Johnstone. He was sold immediately after the race for the St. 1 e,.,. r for "£15.000 to the late Sir Jonu Llundell Maple, and the latter decided to -etirc him to the stud at once. His trainer, John Porter, has put it on r- —1 that he considered this to be an vi v"-c policy, as h<? believed that if Coranon had been kept in training he would h'u-e swept the board of the great cup rac.s the following year, whilst it seemed decidedly risky to put such a backward horse to stud duties so early aj the c of his throe-year-old career." Be ti: as it may. Common was compara-t.-.elv a failure as a stallion.

Those horse-owners who have hitherto been -cared lest they should draw an outside berth for their representatives in -ix-furlong races at Randwtck would a.vpear to have, been making much ado about nothing, and therefore worrying themselves unnecessarily, says a Sydnej writer. Since that memorable occasion when Nuwaru Eliva was sent to the outside of the Carrington Stakes field, in order that he might have the air to try his heels upon instead of the bodies and legs of those of his opponents who were within kicking distance of him, the question of how far .Mr J. Tomlinson'- grey would have won the race by bad he been permitted to start from hi- original place has frequently been debated. Most who saw the race were of opinion that the change opposition cost Nuwara Eliva first place -ia the rich event referred to, but in the light of recent investigations, it is probable that the alteration was an advantage to the horse alleged to have suffered by it. Racing men do not require to be told what a decided ""pull" over other horses is claimed by the animal who is fortunate enough to get a clear passage on anystraight course. When races are run "on the turn" the outer berth is a place to be shunned by horses who are on a winning commission, especially where the held is of large proportions. It does not require a skilled mathematician to tell that a horse running on the outside of a lot of others must necessarily cover a greater distance on a circular course than triage on the inside, and therefore the position is not hankered after. On a course such as that over which six-furlong races are decided at, Randwic-k. the only turn is qur-.s three furlongs from the start, and the starting line is so drawn that the h'\se who has the extreme outside position is required to run very little further than the one who has hitherto been supposed to be in the most coveted place, which is the inside. Since the incident in which Nuwara Eliva figured so conspicuously. Mr C. W. Cropper and the committee of the A-I.C. have been at 6ome pains to ascertain exactly what advantage, (if any) the inner position actually give; to the horse which starts from there, over the one on the extreme outside, assuming that the former is able to jump off immediately the barrier r"s?s, and to thus escape the squeezing that invariably takes place. The actual course has been twice measured, with the result that, in the event of the horse which = t_rts from the outside taking a direct line to the boundary rail of the course proper, and meeting it at a point near tl c four and a-half furlongs post, he will cover about 7 feet more than the one starting from the inner berth. But should the former make a bee line for, tie ho-me turn, the angle would not be so great, and therefore the actual increase "on paper" would be still less. As a set-off against this, the horse on the outside would be in a position to avoid being • a,, off/ . by reaeon ha cear passage, and consequently would actually be in the bette- "j™* veil that this question ha! been Lnl into, for future guidance, and that homeowners should know of it tt, " urbe disadvantage i_ morf than Sn ™T d -need by th, avo.d the ..terferenc/which most ho.se-mu-t meet wrth in the scramble for tions immediately the starter ha* given tt_ signal to go. °

The V.R.C. committee has decided that the apprenticeship of jockeys for a longer period than five years will not be approved under the rule relating to allowances.

There seems to be a confusion of ideas in »ome remark? we have read about breeding from stayers, says the "Sporting Times." In some quarters preference is given to nailers. In this we certainly do not .itrrpc. anil some time ago, said, in dealing with the question, that a mere miler had rarely taken high rank as a sirp. To set forward Springfield as an instance la the contrary is altogether wrong. Over the longest distance that Springfield ever travelled he made pieceine;ii of ihe Derby winner and other good horses. There is no reason to suppose thai he would have failed if he had run for the Ascot Cup. In the same way witli Sterling. Only unce was he beaten over a longer distance than a mile and a-half. and that was when, after a good race, Albert Victor beat him for the Gold Vase. In that race he finished a long distance in front of Coriaande, Dutch Skater, and Agility, and only three days later Corisande won the three mile Queen's PUiie, beating a good winner at the meeting. In the same year that Albert Victor beat Sterling he won the Ebor Handicap with Bst 121b on his back. Sterling won the mile and a-half Liverpool Cup. and in that race ho gave no ies? than 26ib to the four-year-old Louisa Victoria, who afterwards won the Great Midland Counties Handicap at Warwick with Sst 121b on her back. To say, therefore, that Sterling was not a stayer is nonsense.

In the course of a review of racing in Australia last year the "Australasian" says:—"We do not know how trainers are faring. The Victoria Racing Club fixes the jockeys' fees, but this cannot well be done in the case of the trainer, and with things as they are a man cannot train a horse for the weekly sum we have heard of some men accepting, rather than be without horses. Racing should not be a poor man's game, probably an owner who pays his trainer v living wage and defrays all expenses himself will do better than the one who works on cheap and nasty lines. Feeding must be half the battie. and the trainer who takes starvation fees may not be able to feed his horse properly. Several leading trainers have. we know, raised their fees to compensatefor the increased cost of living, but we have not heard of a standard fee being agreed upon and adhered to. We arc afraid some of the small men cannot possibly make a living from the fees they cet. but they prefer to go on training, and take the chance of making ends meet through betting to looking for some other way of earning a living. For obvious reasons, the sensible owner is better off when his trainer is in an independent position, and can afford to attend to his legitimate business, and leave betting alone. The jockeys are well enough off. although, of course, they do not make the hu"c sums that Wootton and Maher receive They. however, have the consolation of knowing that an exceptionally 2 ood youngster can go abroad and earn big wages.