TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 7, 8 January 1916, Page 16

TURF NOTES.

<By 'WHALEBONE.) A nice point cropped up at .Newcastle (JEngiand) on Cambridgeshire Day. YV. Eaxby, the well known jockey, now an officer in the 12th Cavalry Reserve, attended the meeting in uniform. fining the albernoon he rode the Game iJ.en co!t ■unplaced in fche Maiden.Plate. After the lace the point was raised whether as an officer ihe could ride as a professional jockey. Fields in Germany for tlie jumping xaces at Berlin Karlshorst were again large on October 19, no fewer than 102 horses "being saddled for the seven rates on the card. ' Sor the chief eyent, the Landsberg Steeplechase of ToOsovs (two miles and five furlongs) there were fourteen runners, and the winner turned up in the four-year-old gelding Lobas, by Isinglass out of Lockente, trained by ,1. "Waugli and ridden t>y E. Torke, who ivou easily from Herr. j. Neumann's Graco and tie rest. The ■winner figured at a Jong , price,'the tote returning 433 for 10 marks. ■ On the final day of the English racing season His Majesty's colt. Kriar Marcus, by Cicero, from Prim Nun, Avon the Queensberry Handicap, live furlongs, at Newmarket. There were 22 starters, and favouritism was disputed by Friar ilarcus aand Wormleighton, which finished as named, the King's colt scoring by half a length amid a scene of great enthusiasm and excitement. Friar Marcus was piloted by R. Jones, who, it will be remembered, had his first winning mount under the royal livery on Diamond Jubilee, which placed the Derby and other important events to the credit of the late King Edward. Jones was anxious to wind up his career as a jockey by a "win for the King, as he intends to enlist with the Cambridgeshire*, and expected to get a commission. The five furlonga were covered by Friar Marcus jn the good time of 595.' It -is reported from Christehurch that there is a prospect of Mr. J. Fleming taking the crack pacing stallion Our Thorpe to, America, to measure strides •wjth horsey of his class in the home o.£ the light-iarness sport. He has won one race over two miles and a-quarter; five races over two miles, his best time tieing 30sec; two races over a mile and a-half; and one race over a mile and a-quarter. The last race was itiio Fyee-for-AU at Aldington in November, when no-.covered the distance -in-2mia 41:2-ssec,.which works out at 2min..lQsec to. the mile. In the event qf Our 33*orpe being sent to, America, it ■would be interesting t« know what class he would be eligible for. He has no .anile record at all, and therefore it might be urged that he was qualified to start in races open to horses with no records at all If, this contention be correct, it is almost certain that the ■horse. would •win races, especially if his connections secured the expert, know,; Jedge available on the spot regarding £ho, placing of the New Zealand horse. Many prominent bookmakers in Australia have a decided objection to admitting there is any money in the business, and I have, says a writer in an exchange, heard some go so far as to claim that anything they made was due to their astuteness as backers. This, to the average punter, may sound amusing, but Australian bookmakers have no monopoly oi the "nothing in the game" complaint. The cry is the same everj'•where, which causes "Quercus," in the Dublin "Sport," to remark': "There is no doubt all bookmakers must have had immensely wealthy fathers, grandparents or avuncular relations, for after years of close study and research I have failed to discover one who lias ever admitted he has won. Their place in creation is i evidently disbursing cash gifts, and they must have an interminable supply of minted samples, for year in and year out you see the same faces laying the odds." Which reminds mc that on one occasion when an Australian bookmaker's son and a friend were discussing bookmaking possibilities, the latter remarked: "Well, your old- man "has' iiot done badly at it." it might seem not," was the Teply of son, whose bump of humour was evidently greater than of parental reverence.' "but it was bad luck for mc that' lu* -ever-took up'the game:" "Why?" was the rejoinder, in a tone of astonishment. "Well,"- was the answer, "after listening to Ti'is'tales of losses at nearly -every meeting for the past twenty years, I'm satisfied father must have commenced bookmaking with about half a million,-and he certainly hasn't got that much now."

Relative to. the form in England of first-class, two-year-olds when they .raced the foliowfng season,'"Rapier" writes as follows iiy the "Illustrated'S. .."and D. News?*:'; \the', ten years, from 1900 to 1909 the colts and fillies who had been tlje test pf,their season all won classic races, with ji eingle exception, and, even this does. not fully represent the state of the case, for the reason- tliat the two bracketed" together as the beat'in the last-named, yejir were both ".'. classic winners. Furthermore, these mine -won a remarkable number of classics'between them. rVolodyoski took the Derby and lost the Leger by a neck; Sceptre.took four, of the five; Rock Sand the three" for which he was "eligible; PrettyrPblly th'e'three for which she started;' Cicero the Derby, Jardy, bracketed with him, being threr-parts of a length behind;; Flair the One Thousand; Slieve £iallion-the -Two Thousand, Lcsbia ■was solifary" failure. ' Bayardo won; the Leger, anS-' was , undoubtedly the best of his year; Bernberg the Derby, and Neil "Gpw the" Two - Thousand. Thus i.i the ten years' they won' no fewer than seventeen classics, Mushroom and Seaforth'are bracketed in 1910. The former ■was not .entered: for any;of..the classics, bo it is |mpqssii)le.;,tq.iay' whatihe might have done.. Qne thing : he was to beat the Leger'. winner, Prince Palatine, for the Midsummer '-'. Stakes at Newmarket, giving him,Vmoreover, 101b. As for Seaforth, after \f inning his first race as a twio ; year-old, he went to pieces; but it cannfli be said that he lost his form. BeJjgsTl.e' : ia anothef'of the excep-. tions —at lestst/;. ; .sge; did not retain her capacity. Craganour won the Derby, though he did not get it, and The Tetrarch was unable -to run. As for; Jfriar Marcus, rated as the best- two-year-old .of, 191,4, he scarcely trained on, it is true,, and his weak point is his inability to stay. From all of this, however, it will appear that the owner of a. really good two-year-old is extraordinarily unfortunate if he bas not a good three-year-old also."

Trotting in Germany seems to 'be going, great, if not Krupp, guns. At Berlin Mariendorf. on October 20, there were no fewer than 25 competitors for one of the races and IS for another. They were single-heat events. For the second time since the retirement of Frank Wootton and D. Maher from active service in . the saddle, S. Donoghue has taken the honours of premier rider on the flat in England. His record for the season just ended is 378 mounts ior li 2 wins; and F. llickaby comes next with 30 wins, being level with the ex-Victorian horseman, F. Bullock. The Kensington lad, \V. Huxley, had 18 winning rides, and his younger brother, Ernest. 11. The ex-New Zealander, L. Hewitt, had one winning mount. Lord Seogtovo had something to say recently on the question of remounts as applied to horseracing. His lordship referred to the fact that, as races were not favourite amusements of his, he could not be charged with interested motives in saying that steeplee&asing should be permitted this season in England. He referred more particularly to Cheltenham races, and said he iiad ever supported them as being calculated, in his opinion, to be of advantage to Cheltenham, and otherwise on the ground that they were the popular national games of' England and of public utility. Indeed, he was convinced our cavalry force would never have maintained that superiority for which it was conspicuous during the last war had it not been for the national breed of horses havingbeen kept up, principally in consequence of tic encouragement and stimulus afforded to the noblemen, gentlemen, and breeders of England through the means of races. Few jockeys riding to-day are capable of telling an owner or trainer what actually takes place during a race, says an English writer. Danny Maher was very observant in this respect, and Frank Bullock is a jockey of the same typfi, but most of the boys scramble home us best they can, and know little about racing tactics. I wonder what would happen if one of them got into a dangerous position, as Harry Constable did in Bend Ors Derby. When coming round Tattenham Corner on Ercildoune, he lay immediately in the track of Bend Or, ridden by Archer. Ercildoune, when fairly set going at the top of the hill, made the descent at a great pace, and for a few strides, getting slightly the best of his jockey, was actually "galloping with his near foreleg right between the two hind ones of Bend Or. Constable saw this, but, being closely pressed by other horses behind him, could not pull back, so he called out to Archer: "Keep your horse as straieht as you can, Fred; don't pull him either way! or we shallboth be fetched down." Archer then put On full steam, and got clear of the other horse. A bad accident must have occurred but for the nerve and coolness of the two jockeys. •Owing to.the war and the. restrictive , conditions imposed by the Government in confining racing during the past season to Newmarket, the volume of sport in England for the year 1015 has been greatly reduced, and the closing down on such important fixtures as those of 'Epsom, Ascot, Goodwood, Kcinpton Park, and Sandown Park deprived owners of the opportunities afforded by those meetings of securing substantial stakes; while the losses to trainers, jockeys, and stable employees were very heavy. The list of winning owners for the year is headed by Mr. L. Neumann, with 413,540, to which the principal contributors were Lanius (winner of the Jockey Club Stakes), Snow Marten in New Oaks, Figaro in the July Stakes, and Argos in the Middle Park Plate. Mr. Sol. Joel follows with £11,336, for the greater part of which he is indebted to Pommern, whose victories entitle him to rank with the winners of the "Triple Crown" in ordinary years, for lie won the September Stakes (a substitute for the St. Leger) at Newmarket after his successes in the Two Thousand Guineas and the New Derby. These were the only two owners wnose winnings ran into four figures. Mr. J. B. Joel comes third with £0031 10/. followed by Mr. E. Hulton (£8742), Lord Rosebery (£8009) Sir J Thursby (foGOS), Lord Derby (£4802) Lord D'Abernon (£3004), Colonel Hall' Walker (£3780), and the American sportsman Mr. August Belmont (£2900) while the King's share of the winning amounted to £975 ' '

In commenting on the dosing of the racing season, an English writer says — Hi Jones does not ride so frequently as the majority of his contemporaries, and as a natural consequence he does not usually figure in the top half of the jockeys' table when the statistics coin to be published. Nevertheless, no horseman , can boast of a more distinguished career.' To have been first rider in turn to King Edward and King George is a record of which Jones is naturally and justly proud. The "King's jockey" came into prominence more or less by accident, as one might say. Everybody knows that Diamond Jubilee, owned by the late King when Prince of-Wales, was a downright good colt, but he also had his peculiar ways. Neither John Watts nor Mornington Cannon could do anything with him, but Herbert Jones, then comparatively unknown, could, and this circumstance gave him his opportunity of achieving fame. Jones became the regular rider of the son of St. Simon, and thus had the satisfaction of winnin" , the Two Thousand, Derby, and St. Leger on the colt. Nine years later he won his second Derby in the Royal livery, and those present at Epsom when Minoru got the better of a great finish with Louviers and William the Fourth on that particular May afternoon will not readily forget the enthusiastic scenes which followed. Jones also won the Two Thousand on Minoru, and was also associated with the victories of Vedas and Gorgos, as well as that of Diamond Jubilee in the first of the classics, so that he must retain pleasant recollections of that race. Another notable triumph was that on Cherry Lass in the Oake, but so far he has failed to win the One Thousand. Like the rest of us, Jones had hoped, if not expected, that Friar Marcus would have provided him with further Royal triumphs in one or more of the past season's classic events, but that was not to be. However, the somewhat disappointing son of Cicero carried Jones to victory on the final day of the .season, mucn'to the delight of his rider, who had undergone much privation to- get to the weight. And now that there is no further opportunity of riding winners for the King Jones has decided —to use his own words —"to fight for him." And good luck to 'him!