TURF NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 21

TURF NOTES.

(By WHALEBONE! ■ There has been no shorter-priced favourite for the (.rand National than I Conjuror 11., though several horses j have started at the same odds. Conjuror 11. had never fallen before, but i now he was badly interfered with by j a loose horse, and finally brought down at Becher'H Broorr. N. McLachlan won the first race at Kempton Park on April 21, beating his father. W. 11. McLachlan (the ex- : Australian jockey), who rode the second horse in the same race. Later in the . day McLachlan, senr., rode Evander, • who finished a dead heat for first place in the Queen's Prize. An unusual decision was arrived at by the V.R.C. Committee early this month, when P. Muschialli, a country ' jockey appealed against the finding of the Avoca Shire T.C. for having disqualified him for six months for allegedly not trying to win the Novelty I'ony Race on February 20. The official announcement was that "the matter had been referred back to the committee of the Avoca stewards, to be properly heard by a board of stewards iot interested in the race." The fact that Heroic having captured n stakes the sum of £8339 up to the | ipening of the A.J.C. Autumn meet- j ng, the imminence of a fresh two-year- | dd record was everywhere recognised. I "p till recently Thrice (by The Welkin) ield the leading position as a stake.arner in the juvenile division with j £8972. Herioc"s victory in the Cham-->agne -Stakes added £3370 to his total, ! ;o that he is well ahead with £11,709. iVlien bought as a yearling Heroic cost ISOOgns, so that he is to be entered A-ith high-priced youngsters that appropriately reaped a golden return for his -wner. On St. Patrick's Day, at New Orleans, Black Gold, a son of Black Toney and Useeit, by Bonnie Joe, carrying 126 : pounds, and giving away weight to every other horse in the race, easily won j the 15,000 dollars Louisiana Derby, j Eleven of the best three-year-olds that ' could be assembled at New Orleans Btarted in the race. Black Gold led from start to finish, and won easily by Bix lengths, thus enabling his right to be seriously considered as a potential winner of the great Kentucky Derby this montb. Mrs. R. M. Hoots, an Indian woman, from Oklahoma, is the owner and breeder of Black Gold, who, as a two-year-old started 18 times for j nine wins, five seconds, two thirds, and twice unplaced. Already Black Gold has won something like 50,000 dollars. One of the most important and most successful training establishments in j Chantilly is that presided over by the j young public trainer Henry Count, who has shown himself a worthy son of the famous, and now retired, Dick Count, who prepared Elf, Maximum, Gardefeu, j md Holocauste among other equine celebrities. Henry Count, vvho has close I ipon a hundred horses in his stable, leaded the list of winning* trainers last '. rear, both as to races won and money ' n stakes, since his 72 victories earned j . ver two millions of francs public money, neluding in his triumphs the Grand Prix ie Paris with Filibert de Savoie. Count, rains for the Comte de la Cimera, Vis- ! i •otint Harcourt, M. M. Goudehaux, Mar- [< |vis de San Miguel, the Count Le Mar-!; -is, M. Ranucei, M. E. Deschnmps, and ! J. Vissio. and moreover, has twenty j lorses of his own. Jennings, who headed he list of winning riders in 1923, is the j table jockey, and there is no one more i mpular on the French turf. , In Australia most racing men do not j are to be unpopular with the public, and vhen they have a horse in a race hat they do not intend to start they mmediately scratch it. However, the -.nghsh writer "Vigilant" does not agree nth the policy of taking the public into • •onfidenee, and he recently wrote: "It I las always been my opinion that as the j : nvner pays the piper he is also entitled! o call the tune, and if he is a bcttin«- j iwner, or his friends bet. the stable has l i right to the cream of the market. It ' f" for the industrious scribe to find out . •.-hat is being done at the clubs and leadng offices, and to give his readers the ; •enefit of his observations and cleverness the press man has no rights beyond those ' ns industry nnd cleverness give him I herefore. to pillory an owner who refuses !' nformation or declines to .be interviewed I "-i," -r ._-' l \ Rt dRf "- Tec ■* nf **'r-" Few people i rill, T think, agree with "Vigilant." While I idmitting that the owner pays the piper says "Pilot"), is not the public entitled I 0 some consideration? Also, few Sydney . iressmen "pillory" an owner, for "if he. locs not give at least a'fair answer to a air question be is promptly forgotten, md the loss of publicity only hurts one nan, and that is the owner. Commenting on the Lincolnshire TnndicauK won by the French horse, , »r Gal.TTnad IfT.. "Viligant" j n the | London Sportsman" says: — "There ' vas no particular feature in the ianter to the post, except that Sir i gallahad llr. appeared to be givim- I J-\eill some little trouble, and Stl ..ormac refused for a time to go down ' •enerally speaking, they were a well- ' jehaved lot at the post, and the barrier i ippeared to ascend to a perfect start. 1 base I picked out as prominent in the •arly stages were Overseer, Crave Fairy 3ir Gallahad 111., Jarvie. Milton, and Aostmead. but a furlong from home Tarvie was done with. „nd the favourite rradually forged ahead, while Evander tad improved his position. For a stride t two the latter kept alongside sir 'allahad Til., but ir, was obviou.sly only >n suftran.e. nnd O'Neill soon "let out i reef" to land the Frenchman home an sasy winner, amid the cheers of his . nany supporter-. Evander and Cray. Fairy gained second and third places -espectivcly on merit, though Sir Grey"tecl was travelling very fast at the ini-li. arid would have- been placed in - mother fifty yards. Of tiie remainder. ")ver..ecr nmi C'riibenmore did best, while Drake. Condover. and Soval can .' w said to have been never in the race, rhus did France. England, and Ireland ill the respective leading positions. Our ' riends across t'-e .'hannel engineered a i 'no roup, and S : r Callnhad's easy vie • ,orv fully justified their exceptional i ■onfidenee. The truth is. 1 fear, that I >or own horse*. nn tho whole, are i nodcrate. and we shall be hard put to l t to keep many of our principal prized * n the country this season." Jl

Jockey Club and other officials who subsequently have the task of framing the weights of English and French horses (says an English writer) wilt probably refrain from underestimating the value of the form across the water in the future. The percentage of French victories in big handicaps is becoming almost alarming, the win of Sir Gallahad HI. recently supplementing those of Epinard in the Stewards' Cup and Rose Prince in the Cesarewitch -"takes last season. Whatever the state of India politically at the present time, it is an earthly paradise for racing men, according to three jockeys, who recently returned to Australia, says a Melbourne writer. They are George Lambert, Mick O'Brien, and C. Ferkins. "It is not the white people who figure most prominently on the courses —the natives are the greatest gamblers in the world," said Perkins. "They punt heavily, and with a large amount of success." O'Brien thinks that racing in India is at a. higher level than in Australia. Their stay in Australia will be brief, as they have engagements for the Indian monsoonal season, commencing in July. George Price is sending The Cypher to Windsor to-morrow for a spell of a couple of months. That horse done well since being in Sydney, and althuogb. beaten, ran a good race in the City Tattersall's Cup. He is to be accompanied to Windsor by the two-year-old Whizbro. Windbag, another of Price's horses, is spelling at his owner's place in Sydney. Additions to h_9 team are Collaroi, who was purchased at Inglis* sales for floOgns, and Caveat Emptor (Magpie—Aries). Collaroi ought to be a good proposition if properly placed. Price recently purchased J. Burton's stables at Randwick, and he went into his new quarters on Monday last. Sir Gallahad HT., wbieh successfully inaugurated the French "invasion" at Lincoln recently by winning the Lincolnshire Handicap, won five times as a two-year-old, being beaten in his two first race 3 and winning the others. Last season he ran on thirteen occasions, four of his efforts being rewarded by victory. His most noteworthy achievement was that in the French Two Thousand, which he won, while later he was narrowly beaten by Le Capucin and Niccas in the French Derby, after making most of the running. He was greatly fancied for the Grand Prix de Paris, but he became entangled in the tapes after a false 6tart, threw bis jockey, and bolted. He avenged his defeat by Niceas at Deauville in the late surnmcr. Subsequently Captain Cohn's colt was easily beaten by Filibert de Savoie, was unplaced in the Gold Cup at -liaisons Laffitte, and then ran third to the crack two-year-old Heldifann. Lord Airlie, the owner -of the Liverpool Grand National winner, Master Robert, is better known in military than in racing circles. He was wounded in the Great War, was mentioned in dispatches, ftDd was the recipient of the Military Cross. He succeeded to the title in 1900, when six years of aire. Lord Airlie married a daughter of the Earl }f Leicester in 1917. The lion. A. -Tastings, who trains the -winner, will .est be remembered as the trainer and rider of Ascetic's Silver, who carried iff the corresponding race in 1906, while _c was also responsible for Ally Sloper, vho won in 1915, and Ballvmaca/1, who icored in a substitute "National" at Jatwick. Trudgill—who is also named lobert—has been riding for a long .ime, but has never been included imong the "fashionable" jockeys. The Grand National last March was far and iway his most important success, and o excited was he that he collapsed ifterwards and had to receive medical ittention. He soon came round, lowever. The Argentine has been the largest Duyer in the English blood stock mar_et for a number of years, and Argentine breeders buy nothing but the jest available horses. There the totalilator is the betting medium, and stakes ire very valuable. Breeders in the Argentine, as in the United States, .vould not be prepared to pay fancy .rices for sires unless they were cer*:ain of being able to get their money jack. The totalisator provides such rood stakes that owners are able to live big prices for yearlings, and race them with a profit without having to bet. In recent years Argentine breedjrs have purchased in England Tracery (£53,000), Cyllenc (£25,000), Cragaaour (£30,000), Jardy (£30,000), Val I'Or (£-28,000), Diamond Jubilee (30,000 g-uineos), Polar Star, Kendal, l'etermaritzburg, and Tonr Majesty. I'he cheapest of them exceeded in value any horse exported from England to any country where the bookmaker flourishes. The prices received by breeders for their yearlings do not suggest that the totalisator is likely to bring ruin to the industry, as some of it.s opponents claim. Last year one stud sent up thirty-seven yearlings, which made an average of £1253, and another thirty-three for an average price of £1144. and a third contributed seventy-seven to the sale 3, and received £971 apiece. The committee of the A..1.C. made a rod for it.s own back when it ojwned a special totalisator in tin: mctnliers' reserve I says "Poseidon"!. Nowadays there is no more crowded portion of the racecourse. The crush around the stand of the most popular bookmaker is a stately pro cession compared with the squeezing which is inevitable between the main stairway and the totalisat >r windows in the members' stand. The queues in front of the pay-out windows have not dwindled away before those which are formed before tho pay-in windows are in position for the next rare, nnd they make a hitman diagram such as we lave =ct up lor n game of noughts and •rossps. The queues arc as densely jacked as sardines in a tin, and are .nJerly enough near the windows, but -.award, their ends, what with people vho have invested trying fo got out, md those who desire to invest, wanting o get in. all is inextricable confusion. f twice, or even three times, the area vere available it would not be too niK-h. But thcre"s tiie nib— extra room ould probably mean a considerable mount, of reconstruction in the official tand. It. is a problem confronting tbe ommitt... which has to realise that its nost optimistic expectations as to the ■xtent to which the totalisator would •c used have been exceeded.