TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 303, 20 December 1913, Page 16

TURF NOTES.

(By "WHALEBONE.")

Cantilever, the winner of the Cambridgeshire, runs his r->.ces without s-not-t.. Ii he runs many more, says an English writer, the majority of backers will be going home without boots.

■She start for the Cambridgeshire was stated to be the on record. Fairy King and B-'ue Ston-> -were standing I broadside, and Drinmore had his tail io j the tapes when the starter worked the lever. The man who exclaimed "Can't ! he lever -better than that?" was slain on the spot. Representatives of the Melbourne metropolitan racing chilis met in conference recently to further deal with the dispute between the clubs and the farriers employed at their race meetings. It was decided to register a limited number of farriers a: a nominal license fee. which will result in a reduction of the past charges by about 50 per cent. It was felt that registration is particularly desirable in view -if the Loch Maben eatse at \T3lliaimstov,n recently, as i; will • enable the c!u:-s ;.> keep a closer check •in the shoes worn by horses at their I meetings. The year 1013 will g., down to history | as the year of surprises, says an English writer. The long-discussed Cambridgeshire was not the least of the unexpected results in an astonishing year of j outsiders. You will recollect that Cantilever, starting at 33 tv 1, was placed first by the hair on his nose, with Cheerful 133 to 1) second, and Sanstair (100 to 9) third. - Yi.u will also remember that Cantilever beat Tracery in the Jockey Club. Cup, although his owner had overnight determined to scratch him, and in this connection it is probably fortunate that his owner is a member of the peerage. If a bookmaker were proprietor of Cantilever, nasty things would have been said long ere this. Lord Harewocd, of cource, is above suspicion, but lis eoit has involved him in sensational incidents, which he would probably have readily dispensed with. On Tuesday night Cantilever was coughing, and at the big betting club his name was read out, and it was announced that he was a non-starter, so wagering was not transacted upon him. In the morning he was looking so well that his trainer rang up Lord Harewood. and the vet. attached to the stable, and there was a consultation, and Cantilever's number went up at the starting-board, to the immense surprise of racegoers. The stable's usual jockey had been engaged for another horse, but the trainer had a rider named Southey, who rode at Newmarket twenty years ago, and who used to keep a public-house on the heath, who was put in the saddle. Tlie ordinary racing men regarded tbe appearance of Cantilever in the field as a foolhardy and forlorn hope. You can judge his surprise when the coughing cripple led the field home, arid after a stern fight with Cheerful had his number put up by the judge. For a three-year-old to. win a Cambridneshire. nine furlong 3, with 7st 121b, in 1.57 4-5. he has to be something very much out of the ordinary.

English trainers are getting just a little envious of Mr. Richard Wootton, says an English writer. He has already turned out 60 winners this season, and the stable has by no means exhausted its talent. The English record is held by W. E. Elsey, who, nine years ago, led in no less than 79 winners. The season is pretty iasr gone, but Wootton still has a chance of equalling, if not excelling, this remarkable achievement. In point of fact, if the class of the races won is analysed, it will be found that Wootton has done even better than Elsey with his GO winners. Most of his successes can be explained hy his ability to place horses, -and in this he has been considerably assisted by having the call upon a number of riders of exceptional still. Xo other establishment has so many clever boys to put in the saddle as Wootton. They do not head the list of "winning jockeys, but the aggregate score of the boys in Wootton's stable vastly exceeds that of itise jockeys attached to any other stable. 'When Elsey was allconquering, Wheatiey had the pick of the stable mounts, and, needless to say, headed the list of winning jockeys, his total being 124. Maher may" reach Wheailey's high-water mark this year, hut theTe is no hope of Frank Wootton doing so. His weight and his occasional indisposition have kept him out of the saddle too often for him to break any records this season. With the two HuxJeys, McKenna, and Smytihe, the Wootton stable has, however, a string of jockeys wTiich every trainer would like to possess.

Writing to the London "Sportsman" under date of October 14, the Continental correspondent of that journal had the following:—"Nothing has been heard for some time in France as to the 'doping question,' to which 11. de Monbel and another equally innocent owner were the first to pay tribute to the 'acumen' of our veterinary surgeons or budding analysts, who pursued the system they called infallible. As regards the qualification they apply to their tests, it may serve them to know- that tlie Russian and other chemists appear, by some process of conjuring in the laboratory, to have discovered the 'something 1 demanded of them. At the recent Frankfort meeting a rumour was current that a certain filly had been 'doped.' On the spur of the moment the committee opened an inquiry, and I supposn the chemists had their gloves, bottles, and other paraphernalia ready for action. At the eleventh hour, when the 'crime' was about to be brought home, it was found that tho extent of the offence was the rubbing in of some special embrocation to reduce a swollen sinew. The whole gamut of cocaine, morphia, and strychnine had been run through, but. fortunately, the racing committee acted with great promptitude, and the eager chemist had to stay his hand. The Hungarian Jockey Cub, where tho 'doping' scare broke out, fias mulcted a prominent trainer in a penalty oi £12 for having administered to a horse under his charge a certain drug of most innocuous property to preven'. nasal hemorrhage. He is* accused of having infringed the new rule of racing, which prohibits any trainer from administering any kind of medicine or drug t.i nny horse within three days previous U. a race without the medicine Ibeine given in the presence of a dulvquoiified \etertnary surgeon. This seems the limit irom a racing point of view ami t,. many an act which curiously aggravates the harsh sentences passed oil men .-.,- cannot conceive guilty of th« acts imputed to them by analysts since iSisavowgd."

The stories about Derby favourites and such-like celebrities ultimately descending to the indignity of drawing a cab are mostly apocryphal, the only authentic case' being that of Black Tommy, who, starting nt extraordinaryodds, was only beaten by the length of a walking in the Derby of ISO.. In the summer of 1862 this horse -was, according to a well-informed authority writing at the time for Bell's Life. Wing worked between the >hafu of a "four-wheeler" by driver 7.014 on a stand in Camden Town! Similar cases of descent in dignity and state are, says an English writer, called to mind by" the recently-announced death at an obscure Yorkshire village of an exjockey who rode Poison in several of her races, and during her preparation for the Oaks of seventy years ago. Poison belonged to a Mr Ford, and was a daughter of Plenipotentiary and Arsenic. As she had never shown anything like classical form, she was quite unfancied. and started at very lengthyodds. The favourite was Mr Payne's Mania, whilst the One Thousand winner, Extempore, was also well fancied. Poison, however, won very easily. Her subsequent career was of a varied nature, and when offered at auction in ISSII no one would bid for her. "This mare is a winner of the Oaks," said the auctioneer, in desperation, and, this announcement producing a bid of ten guineas. Poison became the property of a sporting butcher, never to be heard of any more.

Tie -romance of racehorse breeding is a subject continued in the "Pall Mall Gazette" by Mr. Edward Moorhou.se, who tells the story of the stallion General Symoris, -bred by the late Mr. R. A. Brice. at Witham, in Essex. As a foal he showed excellent promise, but early dn his yearling days he contracted some evil in his joints, and- became a hopeless cripple. Mr. Brice was on the point of destroying him, when Mr. J. H. Taylor, of Mullingar, happened to call at" the Witham Stud, die was taken into the box on the floor of wbich General Symons was lying. "What are you goin<» to do with him?" asked Mr. Taylor "fchoot him," was the 'laconic reply. Mr. Taylor thereupon urged that it "was a pity to destroy so good-looking a yearling. "If you have really made up your mind to .put him away, give -him to' mc, and I'll taioe him over to Ireand." Mr. -Brice protested that th* colt could* be of no -use to Mr. Tayi.ir or any.body else. "Never mind." -aid the visitor, "if you'll make mc a present of him 111 chance it." And away the colt went. Some years afterwamis Mr. Brice happened to meet Mr. Taylor at Liverpool, and greeted him with the inquiry, "How's that white elephant, you took ■away (from -Witham getting on!" "White elephant, indeed!" exclaimed Mr. Taylor, and then he proceeded to tell Mr. Brice that General Symons -was getting a shoal of winners. So it was. When"General Symons died about three yeaTs ago, he commanded a fee of -200 guineas.

On the English Turf it is commonly said of many an old rip who has nowt else to recommend him, that, after all, he was a "good husband" or a "kind father"; and the recurrence of another Cambridgeshire revives memories of old Bob Bignell, of the Argyll Rooms, and the promising son he sent to the University of Cambridge somewhere in the 'seventies. Tlie proud parent allowed the boy £300 a year, and to encourage thrift said, "Whatever sum of money you return to mc at the- end of term I will double, and you can put it in the bank against a rainy day." Now the youth was a live wire, and, besides doing himself particularly well at the East Anglian seat of learning, be got well in with some racing nuts, who. only taking him for a promising boy ingrained with the right spirit, put him into some hot jobs. Playing his spondulics up from week to week, the boy wound up the back-end of '77 by a thousand to thirty, five times, about Prince d'Arenberg's Jongleur. Did it cop? Aye, marry, didn't it! Next day, when young Bob called on old Bob in the little private office in Great Windmill Street, the old man asked if there was any little nest egg to be doubled, and—no less than three of his false teeth fell out when tbe precocious kid spread Bank of England notes for five thousand pounds on the desk! The old 'un drew his cheque like a man, but decided not to continue the playful agreement. "It appears to be unnecessary," said he; "you seem to be quite capable of running alone."

For some years past there has been great rivalry between the Australian boy Frank Wootton and the American, D. Maher, for the position of leading jockey in England. The Australian has topped the list on several occasions, but recently his weight Iras increased, and his scope has consequently been reduced. As a result he has had this season to bow to his lighter rival, Maher, who headed the season's list with 115 wins, coming next with 91 wins. Young Huxley, who it will be remembered is also in Wootton's stable, came ninth on the list with 37 victories. The American rider does not seem to have lost any of his dash, and his horsemanship was one of the features at the Newmarket Second October -Meeting.

"Vigilant," in the course of some remarks in the "London Sportsman," says:—"Ose of the outstanding features of the celebration has undoubtedly been the splendid riding of Maher, who has been frequently compared with Fordham, Archer, and other great proficients in the art of race-riding in the past. The charm of his riding has been in its wonderful variety, for, great as was his effort in each instance, the method was distinctly different where Prue, Radway, and Borrow were severally concerned, and in each instance it was a masterpiece. As regards Lord Rosebery's filly first-named, it was an exhibition of delicate handling and supreme patience th-at got her a neck in front of Arda for the Xewmarket Oaks; in strinking contrast, Radway had to be vigorously ridden every yard of the way to win the Ditch Mile Nursery, and Borrows success in the Challenge Stakes showed us another variety of brilliant skill and power, in whieli his 'postman's knock' in the last stride figured prominently; and, be it added, the finish between him and Wootton on that particular occasion was one of the titbits of the wcik, for each excelled himself. Maher has exceeded the century of winning mounts, coveted by every jockey, and holds a lead which should ensure his finishing once more at the top of the tree; but Wootton's record is also worthy of his great fame, bearing in mind how severely he is handi capped by increased weight and health perhaps not too robust."