TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 30 May 1914, Page 16

TURF NOTES.

_By WHALEBONE.) Two Australian jockeys in J. Prout and K. Btdlock fought out tiie finish '-f the Cra-wfoTd Plate at Newmarket on April 15, Pront on Lorel Villiers' Erl King beat Bullock ou >ir .1. Willoughby';! Jarnc-oii by three-quart ere ol a length. Tiie ".PiiblizistJc.h'e Arbeitin" states that two million persons in Oermany are coocerned in betting on racing. < if these two million, spread over Git towus. 0,050 bookmakers have to be reckoned. There _re also 210.000 provincial betting agents and tipsters, and it is calculated that between .Ci 0.000.000 ami £100.000,000 is spent every year in betting. In 1912 ihe revenue from the tax on betting amounted to £625.000. Jn consequence of the duty on bookmakers, the tax will ; n futurp .ebc double, and the revenue is expected to amount, to JJl.i'in.OOO.—DalCommenting nn l.ord Newton'- bill. an English writer says: The spoon-fed nybrid population of to-day noed. 1 supjmse, more careful supervision of their propensities and inclinations than the young did in my day. when we got welshed or otherwise robbed, and learned our own leesons effectually. 1 still believe that it iri a deadly mistake to for the protection of fools. You want wise men to run a £tate. and wise men are. not made by legislation. On the other baud, the man who has been "welshed" or lias dropped his money at thp three card or any other trick has 'earned, as the Beaver said--'•far more than all books could havp taught him in spvejity years. There is really no donbt about it. and I have often watched •with keen enjoyment the tuition imparted by the thrpp-card men to the unsophisticated. }.y oniv regret i s that the professors of th.- 'three-card trick appear to regard mc as a detective, ami are uncomforteahle in my nresencp. I know they do not like being recognised, but I e,.-i n-esure them 1 mean them no harm. ■-~,!. , believe they do a lot ,of ? I'iging fools to a'knowledge ■"' ' so that from a trifling loss e,u '- ; i - "lay develop common sense. One vi tiip most popular raeps in the world, made so by its purely '.porting" eliarn-cfer, is what, is known 'as the ■National Hunt Steeplechase, run at Cheltcnliatn. England, over four nides of good undulating ground and some ridge aud iiurrow. Competition iv this steeplechase. •which, by the way, is of the value of IUOO soys, is caniined to horees that have never won a race of any description, and the course is unique from the fact that there are between twenty and thirty fences, and it is not necessary to jump fhe same one twice. When" National Hunt Steeeplechxse was run a few weeeks ago, it attetacted nearly thirty starters, and War Duke and Silvcrtop ran first and second in that order. Mr. Malcolmson, the present o.tu. bought War Duke as a foal, aud his yearling sister for £50 from tiie Irish' dealer, Pat. Rogers. Ab a rretUt of an operation, War Duke contracted poisoning, and he went -o had that he was on the point of being sent to the kennels. "Two years ago." -.ays Mr. Halcolmson. "1 went down to sco him in Ireland, and 1 then said to my man. 'Here, nowk. just bring that horse in to-morrow and have him sent to the kennels. I've been feeding him for over six years, and he's no better.' " The gToom, however, did not obey instructions-. Tho .Sydney writer. '•..Uilroy." is a pronounced opponent of the totalisator, and in comparing a couple of meetings held receently, says:—-The -May meeting lipid at Tatter-sail's CLirb is regarded always as an "off day,"' but the prize money for tlir- six races amounted to a couple of thousand pouuds. and the forfeits all went to the winners instead of into the coffers of the club. There were about IS.OOO to 20,00(1 people present. On the same afternoon the South .VuFtTwliaji' Jockey Club began the biggest mpcting of the year in that section of Australia. For six races the dub gave. i_2..'Soo, but carefully kept The forfeits. Roughly, the payings in ton shape of forfeits by owners at Tattprsall's meeting amounted to about iX6OO. which goos to the successful. In Adelaide the bookmaker is banished, and is not allowed within gunshot of a T3epcoui_e. though hp manages to bet just the same. Here bookmakers are registered and controlled. It may interest totalisator men to learn that £10,000 was won over a single race on Saturday by a syndicate. One would need to back every winner at Adelaide.., and take two-thirds of the money invested on the machine every time, to gathpr in that much, and would pay over 10 per cent for the privilece. The flat racing season has not opened too auspiciously for the Australians, who .performed so creditably last year, says un English writer. Several of them have been knocking at. the door riding seconds mid thirds, hut somehow they <a.n't quite get there. Six months out of the saddle has possibly affected their skill, and thpy will improvo as the season grows older. There Is a tremendous opening for the really capable horseman at present, Wootlon ihas gone, and Danny Maher is on the shelf. The American has fallen the victim to an Insidious pulmonary complaint that may keep him out of the saddle for life. It is hoped that with careful nursing ilip will budd up again, but tliß chances arc against him. The gaps left by these two jockeys provide an opening for a lirst-class rider who, if In- can (ill their place, will easily earn from £5,000 to JCIO.OOO a yeai, ThoTi- un: consequently big prizes offering for our young Australians to win, and one of I hem may get to tebe head of the list 'before the ■ enson ends, To a. large extent this must depeznd upon the form ot ihe horses iv Wootton's stable, if Woottmi, sen., is in luck, then lite boys will necessarily ha\i' an exceptional number of winning mounts. .So far no stable has ehown any consistent form. There is only ..ne set of colours ihnt the public will always follow. They are those worn by the King's jockey, 'flic preseiice of one of His Majesty's horses in any race is always assnrance of a fairly pond race for the Ring, because ill-luck 'persistently sticks to the Royal Mahler.. (I;i( of ten starts His Majesty ir lucky i- i, c gain,-, a minor place, and fortune absolutely beam:, upon him ni.en .. n ,. .-,-' _ bon.-:i SCiualJv- tsiiis.

They are evidently no respecters of person- in England, for. says an exchange, it i.s singular that tin*, first sultatie.u thai th,- new trio oi Jockey |Club stewards should have to hold concerned the running of a Royal winner, bin happily Mr Uimbton. Lo'rel Wolvcrton. iiti.l L,,r,l \'illi or ,s found no ncc.'sity to all,-; the \crdict in the' Wood Litto'n Stake-. The inquiry concerned the swerving of His Majesty's horse Sunny Lake but it was found that the Egcrton House candidate was too far in front at the time to have interfered with any of his rivals. Moms. K. Rianc has been disappointed many times in bis attempts to win the Bngli.h Derby, and certainly on more than one occasion he may have had luck again,-; him, for .lardy, (jnnverneur. and Yinioius had doubtless claims to lbe considered the equal, if not tile superior, of tho winners of the Rlue Riband in their respective years. Thp journey between England and France is oftpn, and justly, blamed for upsetting horses that come over, and now that the horse motor-van is a fact the ne.vt French invasion will have to ebc very serioutdy feared. The van to carry one animal can be fitted rapidly to a Laid motor chassis pquipped with twin pneumatic tyres, -being lifted ,by a crane and damped to 1 li-e chassis almost instantaneonoiy. The motor lias a considerable front overhang, but (there is no mpe-hanisni behind thp driver's seat. With the honse in the van. ami the lad ill thp forward compartment, communiea.ting with the driver, the joiirnpy is made fo Boulogne, rwliere the l vehicle is Liken alongside the steamer, and the. body lifted by a crane ami d-eposited on theTdeck without a jar. At. Folkestone, a similar chassis is in waiting, the van is placed on this as hpforp, and the horse goes direct to its d'Pstinaition. From the time -of leaving the French stables to its arrival 'on the 3.nglish racecourse the horsp does not -loave its box. and is not disturtied in any yvay. it its claimed that, in 1 bits. way. the journey is made in less lime than by rail. Mr. Chaplin itt repori.il to have committed himself to a statement of opinion that 'liie Tctrarch was the bet-t 2-ypar-old he had ever soi'u, not even excepting Hermit, and it would really be uureasonaibl. lor anyone to declare thai hp had ever seen a lietter .-year-old than The Tctrarch, for there has never beeu one in living memory who won his races 'more easily. .Hut, after all. questions such His this are answered only by individual fancy 'or prejudice, says the Special Commissioner. Mx. Chaplin, for instance, might liave thought of such 2-year-olds as St. Simon. Ormonde, or Minting, 'but qirito naturally Ire harked back lo his old friend. Hermit, just as 1 am in the hajbit of harking ,backr to Blair lAthol. .So. too. many of us have taken an interest from time to time in •classifying the Derby winners -we have known: but. excepting for recorded trials which throw Teal light on the matter, our claissitica:ion does not at ; all convince others who an l as capable [judges as we arc. I Tiie greatest authorities havp npver. Iso far as lam aware, been tixed in their beliefs as to what was their best horse. At different times 1 have heard Mathew Dawson mention St. .Simon, Minting, and Ladas in this connectioni and I have abs-o beard .Mm Porter declare Rosici'iician to be t.he. best he ever trained, though events, later, turned his fancy t,i Isonomy, Ormonde, and l''lying Fox. lie could not believe that Flying Fox was better than Ormonde, but -.hen neither he nor any one else ever knew how good Flying Fox was. (We have none of us ever seen the horse yvho could so effwtually den.ora.isp his Held in the lirst two furlongs as Flying Fox used to do. A stable like the Kirrgsclere one, with classic representatives year after year, could naturally, to some oxtent. keep in touch with the form as years went on. and Flying Fox's trials were really .more remarkable than his public victories .by Teason of what liv was a,-ked to do al homo, and did without an effort. The late Dukp of Westminster on.-p said to mc. after Flying Fox had won a race and was Hyping led away: "Wp kneiw no nioro of him than you'do. !Hp always wins like that at bom.-, no matter what ho is asked to do." [Mr. Chaplin is ai any i-ate correct in proclaiming The Tctrarch io have been an abnormally good ..-year-old, and the point .of substance is. to ascertain whether The Tctrarch is really well. It seems to mc, however, that Mr. Chaplin was quite right iv refusing to commit himself to any profjrrostieation as to the colt's Derby prospects. IWhy on earth should he" do so. 1 have several times instanced the case of Kcossais, who was possilbly an even more br'dliant 2-year-old than The Tctrarch, and he. failed in his O-year-old classics. "What 1 came out to inquire, however. wa& —if any man had ever known a best honse whom he could prove to be. or havp ebpen. better than any other horse that is or has ever open. The proposition is impossible on the face of it. though we may still take Rlair Atbol in his ''vinta-cre" year: also Ormonde, in a similar year: Spearmint, by his gallops with •Pretty Tolly: Bayardo. by his wonderful -Ascot Cup victory—but. after all, what does individual 0-pin.on amount to? (Poor old Bruce l/owe's judgment iby results in the only useful test after all, and- it will hold on for ever and over. Apropos "The Bloodstock Breeders' and Backers' Guide" has now been published, and it gives the Brucp Dowe figures of all the horses in training. I do not want to be understood ac maintaining that it is out of the question to arrive at any son of deiim.p conclusion when .trying to compare classic winners of one year with ihosp of nnother. I suppose ivo 'one would be 'inclined fo dispute a. statement that Bayardo, for example, was a mu.-h belter horse than Albnyeur or Night lla.wk. or that .Spearmint was n better Derby winner than Mln'oru, fl'erslnrm'on may. wit limit fear -of contradiction, hep preferred to Jpildah: Ormonde to 'Merry Hampton: Ladas to Sir Visto. or Flying Fox io Vnloil.Yov.skl. In short, it is not 100 much lo say that classic form varies from year 'lo year 'to the extent of a least 211b, That was what iSam Darling estimated to bo the difference between his etwo successive Lcdg-i-r winners, tialtee More and Wildfouior. Where the noleibly .best classic, wininert., however, are concerned any u.seI ful comparison i- really impossible, and J ivp may 'be glad thai they were never able • , mem one'another, for then all i.iit one would iia.'- had ;.. figure as chattered idolo.