TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 107, 5 May 1917, Page 17

TURF NOTES.

By "ACTAEON."

I According to th.- Par„ correspondent • of tuo i.o.iouii ".-i'ortoiimii, racing is i lv nc rueuuiuu at CliantilK this j *<__ou. i lie common opinion heid . some time ago was, However, tiiat rac- { uig would uol be in lull swing again in ' trance until .he Germans were driven' (tux oi Hie country. As showing the straits to which Eng-: lish trainers are reduced in these abnormal times, it may be mentioned that the stables at I liilton arc so short-handed that some of the lads have to ride out four or live times a day in order to get through their work. frequently the principal horses in the teams do not conic out until the afternoon—long after the huur at which they would make their jppennine. unuer ordinary circum-: •tanccs. The ex-New Zealand sportsman, Mr.! Spencer Gollan, still races in Kigland, and he recently paid Lingfield a visit in ' _■. .cr to mc his "uoi'sc .axon run. and this fine Australasian spurns-nan and sculling enthusiast must have been highly pleased , with the style in which the sou'of Poly-! melus accounted for the opposition. : When he was first schooled. Saxon gave . his trainer no end of trouble, and it was some weeks before he could be induced to go near a hurdle. Patience and perseverance, however, prevailed in the end, with the result thai Saxon is now qualified for the title of the champion young hurdler of the season. Though not a big-boned horse, he no doubt derives his ', class from the fact that he is by Poly- : melus out of a St. Simon mare. j There was a keen contest between the books and the tote at the recent Bathurst races, and the result was that pun- j ters enjoyed the most liberal odds ever . offered on the course, or, in fact, on any I other course in the West (writes a corre- ! spondent of a Sydney paper). In the j first race, in a field of eight, 7 to 2 the | field was on offer right up to the rise of ! the barrier. The fourth race, the Mem- j hers' Handicap, was a most remarkable betting event. There were seven start- j ers, three horses standing out most prominently. Nevertheless the betting | was 3 to 1 the Held for a long time, but Last Trumpet eventually finished fay- j ourite at sto 2. So liberal were the \ odds that it is dou-tful whether any of : the books could have shown a proiit. no . matter what horse won in this race. The j second horse, Ausenalt. paid a tote divi- ; dend of £2 IC/6, against £1 8/6 paid to backers of the winner. Lord Walla. ! With the hooks Rusenait was marketable at 20 to 1. The Flying Handicap ; was another splendid betting race, in which the bookmakers could not have ! been accused oi" cramping the odds, ; although a comparison between the quotations of the pencillers and the divi- . dends paid on the tote is somewhat difli- ! cult, as the latter paid first and second. It was a great battle 'between the two j mediums of speculation, but whichever i of these was victor, the real winners were the public. It seems probable, from tho comments ' that are being made in some quarters. ' . that the introduction of the totalisator into New South Wales has by no means settled the opposition to the machine. The proprietary clubs were never in favour o*f it, and there is a fear that they will niicw no chance of preventing the public taking a fancy to the machine. According to the "Australasian."' these proprietary tracks are not giving the totalisator a "fair deal." At a pony meeting to which it makes reference the totalisator was in use, but ' the machine wnfi a tin-pot affair, with j only two receiving 'indows. and there was no chance of getting money on at the finish. Backers were forced to go j to the bookmakers. Tlie.se proprietary ; people are taking a big risk. Mr Hoiman is at the back of the totalisator, I and may be relird upon to see that it eventually ;;ets fair play. Mr Flolman is making no sign at present, but prob- i ably the proprietaries, which do not j do their bert to make the totalisator welcome, will hear from him before Ion;;. ; The Australian Jockey Club is spending ' about t-.-in.ooo in putting up suitable ' totalizator buildings at Kandwick. where the totalisator will be used for the first i time in September. It is the Oovern- I' ment that is going to make the profit | : out of the totalizator, not the Austral- ; ian Jockey Club, but the cluh will still get a iair revenue from bookmakers. All • tha nourses which want to keep details « of their profit,-, hidden, and remain in the good books of the Government, ! should do what they can for the totalisator, «nd overcome their predilection for "bookmakers only." as a safeguard !* asain.n curtailment and the stoppage of j all netting by bookmakers on a race-! ! course. The dentli is announced from England'; l of Lord Rosebcry's well known brood I made. Chelandry. "Foaled in 1594. she was ' by Goldfinch out of liluminata. by Rosi- ] crucian, and carried his lordship's colours " for three seasons on,the course. A bril- ! ' liant two-year-old. she won the Wood- . 1 cote Stak, s and Croat Surrey Breeders' ! Foal Plate at Epsom, iN'ational Breeders' \ Produce Stakes "at Sandown (the richest ' race for juv-.-uil-s i„ England), and the ' Imperial Produce Stakes at Kempton • 1 Park. In the two races she lost she was • beaten by at Kempton. and was. 1 unplaced fcr the Coventry Stakes at' ! ■Ascot, for which. Eager finished second. At three years she won the One Thou- * sand Cuine.as. beating into third place j ( Goletta, who had accounted for the; 1 Coventry Slakes, hut in the Oako the j ' odds betted on her were upset by Lima- , ' sol. and she was afterwards runner-up to ; * G&ltec More for the St. Leger and third ! ' to Love Wisely and Velasquez for the ! ' Jockey Club Stakes. The following sen- j ' sen her four essays were failures, but she j again ran third" for the Jockey Club ' stakes-., when Cvlleno and Velasquez were ] •n front of her. Sent to the stud, she I w a_ the dam of several good horses,!' among them Skyscraper. Chelvs, Tra-1 1 onair. and Neil Cow. The last-named, j' ■t will be remembered, copied the exam- j ' P'e of his ,lam by winning the National i; Breeders' Produce Stakes and Imperial!' produce Stakes, and he also took the | ' Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, and as ;' athree-vear-old was the winner of the ' graven Stakes at Newmarket, the Two i J Jnousand Guineas, and ran a dead-heat | ' with Lembere; for the Eclipse Stakes, but i ' "i tne Derby won by Mr. Fairies colt he |' wuld only get fourth. Traquair was a[ ! smart juvenile, and he. curiously, alao j 'on the National Breeders' Produce j f "•takes at Sandown Park and Woodcote l wakes, as his dam had done, but was j' °- successful after his juvenile career, j an<l waa eventually sold to go to I' Australia. * I'

Relative to the fact that racing men ira .England attach little import-Mice to the time test. "The Field" has the following: "it is not only impossible but J altogether futile to attempt a compari- : son between the great horses of our day I and those of another., for there is no sort ]of line to go by, and the time test is of I very little value in this country. On I this head it may be remarked that on grass tracks the conditions vary from I day to day, and are hardly ever exactly j alike. The going may be as lmrd as iron !or very soft, or it may hit the happy medium. Jt may also bo 'good going' and yet rather soft, an-d on this point the only thing one knows for certain is that those horses that can stride out freely o>l a really hard track make the fastest times. Thus at Epsom in a dry Derby week very fast times are frequently made, as they are also on the somewhat similar down hill track at Rrighton. Times at Newmarket in the . spring and autumn are. on the other I hand, generally speaking, much slower j than those at Epsom or Brighton, and jwe arc inclined to think that on the whole the slower times are made on the courses which are flat or nearly so. and Ihe faster ones on undulating tracks— l>ut. of course, only in dry weather. Wind , nml atmospheric conditions have also to !be taken into account, and on an ex- : posed plain like Newmarket TTeafch the ■ wind is often high either helping the horses along, or, if a head wind, retarding their efTnrts. Cut the lack of value of the time test in this country is to a great extent proved by the fact that good times are frequently made hy moderate horses, while horses known to ,he of hierh class will occasionally make ! very bad times. Anyhow, no times which j tire many years apart can be of any I value." ! lie commenced his three-year-old ! career by capturing the Two Thousand ■ Guineas in runaway style, beating Velasquez by four lengths, and followed this !up by cantering in front of hi.? field in j the Newmarket Stakes. 100 to (5 being laid on him. In the Derby the same tale i has to be told, for with 4 to 1 betted ; on him. he beat Velasquez in a canter by I two lengths. At Ascot he had no diflii culty in winning the Prince of Wales' : Stakes with odds of 33 to 1 on him; ' and at Sandown Park, being only op- , posed by (.'ortegar in the Sandringham Cup. gave him 17lb. and a rare hiding. \ln the St. he was again unbacki able, as bookmakers asked for 10 to 1. He had an opponents Chelandry. St. i Cloud 11-, Silver Fox and Goletta. but 1 neither could live with him at the finish. ■In the Sandown Foal Stakes in October he had another easy task, finishing three lengths in front of Cortegar. though : carrying lOst. Entered for the Cambridgeshire, he was given the great , weight of 9st. 61b., and few people expected that he would he seen at the. post. He took his chance, however, ani i was. moreover, favourite at 9 to 2. He. i failed to get placed in what was un-',. donbtcdly a strong field. Comfrev win-, ning from St. Cloud 11.. Sandia and Cor-., tegar. heads dividing the first four. Thi> finished bio racing career, for in the next season he was sold to go to Russia for 20,000 guineas. He sired many good animals there, including Irish lad. the champion of 1803. Coming into the possession of the German Government, he continued getting rttock, and liLs progeny i won almost all the principal races in that country. Amongst the be*t of his descendants was Fervor, who was out of Kftetn. a well-known mare in England. Fervor, amongst other races, won the German St. Leger, Berlin Grand Prize, and Hamburg Grand Prize. Orehklee IT., another of his get. won the German Oaks and St. Leger. Altogether hie fltoek during nine years won races worth nearly 110,000 soys. A Canadian trainer on a visit to England recently wrote on the question of horspp-anship to the London "Sportsman" as follows: I once heard the greatest American jockey since the days of Garrison make the following remark: "There i« nothing in race riding, anyway. All a boy has to do ie to get off well, take a good hold of his horse's head, rate him along, and sit etill." Of course, there ie more to it than this, anil no one knew that better than Garrison, but the points he mentioned an- essential for successful rape riding. I left thifi country in the early eighties, when race ruling was at its zenith, and there were such artists as Archer. Cannon. Fordham. Webb, Wood, Watts, and a host of others, all of whom could ride in the style then in vogue. This is my first return to England since those early days, but during my absence I have been with the thoroughbred, and have faced horses iroin Vancouver to Cuba, and from Montreal to Mexico, so have seen racing and riding under many conditions and in many places. Leaving England at a time when nearly all the jockeys were indeed race riders I had a very high opinion of English riding, but was surprised and disappointed at what I caw last season, and while watching a race from the stand at Newmarket the remarks maJe, half in jest, by Garrison co long came to my mind, as I noticed that the English boys as a rule ca-anot get away from the post, and that it is about even betting that any given horse is, left, or gets away so badly that he is beaten right there. In the next place, they do not take a good hold of their horse's head, and this accounts for all the swerving and boring we had last summer; they know very little about ''rating" a horee, and many of them ride their race in ''spots,"' and as to sitting etMI, very few can do this even when out in front. The greater part of this bad riding is, in my opinion, caused by trying to imitate the American style, which ie a scientific system of riding that they know nothing about. Others try and mix what they are pleased to consider the American style with the oldfashioned English style, and the result is disastrous. Another reason for bad riding is the nunrber of "old men" who get mounts. By old men I do not mean olrl in years, but jockeys who have lost their racing nerve and are now riding on a reputation made sorrie years ago. Of course, rich English owners can afford to be sentimental and put these boys up, but in America when a jockey cannot "deliver the goode' , ' he is scrapped to make room for those who can. A look at the list of winning jockeys of last year should convince anyone as to the bad riding, for out of all the boye riding only two got a percentage of a little over 20 per cent, of winners. One of these was riding- for the best stable in England while the other had only a few selected mounts. What a "King Pin" Danny Maher must have been amongst them," for in the ten or twelve years he was riding in this country his percentage of winners averaged over twenty-five for the whole time