TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 22 November 1913, Page 16

TURF NOTES.

(By WHALEBONE.) A well-known English money-lender v\i- grumbling the other day that he! had l.'-t £300 racing, when one of his I p.: - remarked: — j ■What the blue Hade» are you i grumbling at! You've only got to lend I a chap a dollar, and you've got it back with interest."' The English e-portsman. Sir Wifliam ! Nelson, does not approve of betting. A fnend'y wager of £10 over the dinnertable at Do:ica.-tcr cost him £'2,000. He be; that he would buy a certain yearling, and they ran him up to (1.000 guineas Tiefore it was knocked down to 4iim. The first thin? he did afterwards wa= to go and collect the tenner. Very few people know how Whcatloy, who rode the winner of the St. Leger, became a jockey. When he was quite a small boy he was apprenticed to a village shoemaker at Haumber, where William Kfaey used to have his boots repaired. The well-known trainer went into the shop one day, and saw a small boy "rugling with a needle and some leather. Addressing the proprietor of the establishment, Mr. Elsey said he thought the youngster looked more like making a jockey than a cobbler, with the result that the shoemaker agreed. Wheatley served his tim° at Baumlier. headed the list of winning jockeys five years ago and has now won a St. Leger on a 50 to 1 outsider. At this time of the ypar. coming as it does after the big A.J.C., Y.A.T.C., and V.R.C. Spring meetings, it is usual to herr stories of defaulters, says a Sydney writer. So far as can be gathered, no bookmakers of any account have given ■' the knock." and while there are always a few who fail to discharge their liabilities, there are no big sums involved. A few of the smaller fry of the fielding fraternity have had to ask for time, but the majority of these are Victorians. Others who might have found themselves in a similar predicament are being financed by larger and more stable bookmakers. One owner in particular has a number "where he wants them.'' All the year round there are defaulting pun tore. -Fielders, however, take "these losses philosophically, and as an inevitable part of the business. Indeed, one big operator remarked the other day quite casually, and, ad if it was nothing to occasion surprise, that his losses ill this direction each year easily topped the amount drawn as salary bv the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth. Then he proceeded to open another bottle of wine. Xot all the fielding fraternity, however, are in as good a fix as he is. It is common knowledge that many of t'irm are decidedly shaky—that they are flown tor eight, and that another p'uneh in the shape of a bad tro: will have them out altogether. 'i he campaign in favour of the admission and licensing of bookmakers in Germany, supported by the police, is still being carried on in the German sporting pc.pers. It will relieve those who patron-i.-e sport from that restraint which seems to prevail over every course in France and certainly increase the number of iiwm-rs and breeders. A writer in the •'Deulscher i>port," a journal which has taken a leading part in the discussion now licing carried on respecting the ways and means for furthering the interests of the iovernment, of racing authorities, and the general public, deprecates all idea of a tixed tax being levied on all investment.-, and suggests that a fixed sum should be paid each season bv the licensed bookmaker, as in Austria and Hungary. The Belgian system will probably be copied as far as regards the betting books of the layers of odds, which shall be issued, duly, initialled, .by the respective delegates of racing societies and opeu to inspection by the. Stewards at any time. It is a known fact that the lottery system now in vogue under the name of the "Totalisator" covers up all the finessing of owners, jockeys, and those interested in those doubtful transactions which are of too frequent occurrence at the moment. It is therefore proposed that with the initialled betting book open to the vStewards at any moment twenty licenses should be granted to respectable men. aud that each license should be issued at an outlay of £I,ooothat is to say £10 a day for each of the hundred days' racing in Germany of importance, and that a further annual sum of 500 shall be paid for the opening I of any single branch office, whether for ' betting on home or foreign events, productive probably of an income for the Government and societies which may be estimated at over £125,000 per annum, without considering the economy presented by all costly control and supervision c.i the part of the authorities.

Although in New South Wales ami Victoria they pride themselves on leading the world as regards racing, there ijrc one or two matters in which they are considerably behind the times, one in particular being the race books. Ou this subject "South Australian" writes: —"Can you tell nie why the A.-I.C. and kindred associations do net 'have an acceptance day for their minor events? The present' system of issuing a racebook filled with a multiplicity of nonstarters is exceedingly exasperating to the average racegoer. One wastes half the time 'between races iu marking out 'wholesale the 'scratched' horses, and when, as it often happens, a scurvy dozen arc left out of. say. lifty. it is next to impossible to gauge the strength of the field, owing to so many pages having to be tumid over, examined and memorise'!. In Queensland. 'South Australia. West Australia and Xew Zealand, there are acceiitaince days for all events, thus enabling a smaller and more compact race-book to be issued, at. ten. half the '■>]".—•. 'b-.lv in Victoria and Xew South Wales i. the stupid old English plan of printing the fall entries, irrespective of ,':" actual number of starters, adhered r •. When the totalisator comes, accept:'iice day must -of necessity be general, t':i -rwi.-e the building to house the c -I'.ine wouid extend all round the ...■Hi -es. It is inflicting no hardship on anyone that. I can see. to ask owner3 and trainers to notify their intentions ■'..- 3; -t or-scratch) a day or two before -.he event. '1 he bookmaker can have no objection: whilst to the clubs it would ■"• a decided advantage. We should then I'-T-'.e a -correct card,' which it would be i pleasure to use, and would add 50 'V ffl 'J° <>ne ' enjoyment of the sport, * "r Sll . 3t °« to make their selecare l^JS n .f pldrty awi ease ' If there the SSSf ameilts ''» favour of ««tJm n o! ft<s Present .bad old of them: ThTafflSti 0 *V«*™»«* **£ is the trow? oUlty « £

I When the late Czar of Russia— father of the present ruler, and himself only Csarewitch at llic time—was at Newmarket, over thirty years ago, be was introduced to worthy, but lioniel}-, old .John M.iy. The veteran train.-.- was. greatly impri">«>.l. an.l. making a most ; profound low. expressed li.c Imp* that I his Serene Hi-.'liness »a- <!»' well. Feel-| 'ing. a,in- .1 -ho; 1 pa-:ec, fiat !>•» should ; have ■■ttf-mleJ these compliment-; to the; vi.'v o; the great rul.-r ul-n. he rammed home the melted butter v.illi; "An.l L J tru-t your Imperial Majesty's Consort, j the I jmbridgc-liire. i~ goi'.i' weil loo!' , Tlnw> sportsmen who take u>l interest in KnglWi racing need scarcely bo reminded that the Derby and several other big r.'.ces of the current racing season j in England went to uut-iil<Ts. But they: may not know that in must cu«es fancied : lior-es won the s:uh!l raws, and in a! measure allowed backers of hor-os to get their own back. This ii what the "cluelH in a. very big bi-ttiiifc- p-t»b!U:imeul in England, says of the feasou"* results up to ti~<: coir.ciencfment of last mouth: "I have no news at the moment to write you, except to tell you that we are all | plodding along in the usual way. Outsiders j win now and again, then the favourites equal it. I must cay, However, that the i principal big races this year have been i won by a great majority of outsiders. ] but the small races -have been captured ', by the greater number of favourites, so 1 it is a near thing between backer a-nd I layer. Our firm is a little on the winning side." The French have arisen ns competitors; in the bloodstock trade. Many wealthy Americans also have formed big studs ■ in France, but still English prices go up. I The reason is not far to seek, says "Mil- | roy." The English betting ring" is the i strongest in the world, and it is possible • to win from it immense sums with every j class of racehorse. Therein lies the i secret, while over the way. in France, ( where the totalisator does the betting, I prices for local consumption have fallen | off considerably; but a good French horse j is worth a lot of money on the English I market; in fact, it is said, three times! as much as it is worth in France. Xt-w Zealand and Sydney (also Melbourne) j =tand on much the same footing. A colt ; like, Beragoon as a two-year-., could j have been sold to Mr. S. P. M.ickav for j £10,000; but doubtless ouch a' sum! would have been adequate for the pur- j chase of the live best two-year-olds in New Zealand. Commenting on the Melbourne Cup, a Sydney writer says:—Doubtless Bravo's ! was the most sensational of all Melbourne Cup». A fortnight earlier he carried 8.12 into third place behind a good horse like Boz (7.9) and The Charmer (7.71 in the Cauiaeld Clip. The riding of Bravo was. I recollect, much commented upon, but that evening there ' was any amount of money on offer I against him for the Melbourne Cup at 20 to 1. In Bourke Street I met an old Queensland friend, a close follower of form, and he was very keen on Bravo for the Cup. He gave good reasons for his enthusiasm, but, though there appeared to be something wrong when such a long price was on oiler, he "chanced it." and I chanced it with him: but in a few days the horse was knocked back to any price by Lorry Zucker, a bookmaker who "knew something." In fact, at the finish, he laid Cullen, of liurlingham Park, £ 1000 to one shilling, and rubbed it in by spending the humble "bob" for two drink.-. Bravo certainly was lame, but it was kept quiet. He burst the, frog of ono of bis hoofs, but was whisked back to Ballarat at once, and the general public knew nothing of it. pucker, however, got wind of the troulble, and went to work. Bravo rapidly mended during the interval, and in ten days was sound again, but Zucker I did not get that important piece of I information, owing to Bravo's trainer, Tommy Wileon. taking the precaution to . '"sack" one of the boys, and thereby cut off the fountain of information. Bravo was fairly resurrected. He came down to Flemington on the Saturday before the I Cup, and on Sunday morning ran a j mile in 1.48, and, starting at S to 1, won the Cup very easily from Carbine, I who carried lOst.'ajid beat Melos (5.12) by half a nwk for second place. Melos was a hot favourite, and ran over a tremendous lot of ground. On the first day of the meeting he beat Carbine at level weights in tl;e Melbourne Slakes, and what ho would have done bad he kept as close to the inside fence as he did to the outside of the course may be left to conjecture. In his reminiscences of the Cesarewitch, Mr. John Corlett has the following:-— An old turfite who kept a hotel at Newmarket many years ago told us of how a Cesarewitch had been lost through a bit of suspicious cunning on the part of the owner o' the horse that should have won. On the ni-rht before the Cesarewitch won by Clarion Jim Robinson was without a mount, which would have its equivalent nowadays to the services of Maher being still available. Our informant was a great friend of Robinson, who told him that a horse that he was to have ridden was not to . run, and he would give him the first call on his services until nine, o'clock that evening. Our friend promptly sought out William Ridsdale, who bad Bloomsbury, who bad won the Dei"T>y, in the race, and told him of the golden opportunity, but he mint give an answer at once. Kidsdale shuffled a good deal, and would say neither yes nor no, thinking that he would be able to obtain the services of the jockey without having to pay any commission. Fie appreciated the full value of the services of Robinson, ami sent, down, to the '"Rooms' to put a further sum on B!oomebury, who he knew would advance some point.? in the betting when it was known who would ride him. Concealing all this from his informant, in ;he course of the. night he went to Kobinson's house, but found that he had gone to bed. Tie threw some gravel up at the window, mil the great jockey, throwing up the i=:i<!'., wanted to luiow -what it wan about. ''I want you to ride Bloojnebury Tomorrow," said 'Kidsdale. "Have been engaged half an hour or more to ride Clarion." was the answer. '"Why did you nob coma earlier?" And, closing down the 'window, he went to bed again. In the result, Clarion, after a fine race, just beat Bloomebury who was ridden by Chifney. and Ridsdalr , had the morti(le.atio:i of realising That had he not tried to put the double on his friend, and secured Robinson in time, Chifney would not 'nave been able to take his place un Clarion because he could not have ridden "the weight. I