RACING NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 10

RACING NEWS.

STABLE AND TRACK GOSSIP.

(By WHALEBONE.)

SEASON'S FIXTURES

June IS, 10—Napier Park K.C. Winter. Jnne 2o —Hawke's Bay Hunt Meeting. June 25, 26 —Hawke's Bay J.C. Winter. July 31—Christchurch Hunt Annual.

Entries for the Australian Jockey Club Derby of 1027 number 610, for the St. Leger 577, for the Champagne Stakes next season 577, and for the Sires' Produce' Stakes 536. Of these, hi above order, there are New Zealand entries numbering "55, 41, 31, and 30 respectively.

The Dunedin Jockey Club has altered 7 the weights to be carried in the McLean Stakes of 1026. Colts and geldings will carry 8.5, fillies 8.0. Previously the figures were 8.0 and 7.9. The alteration will enable owners to put up more experienced riders than have at times been procurable at the lighter scale of weights; :

Horses by Phalaris are doing so well in England that there should be no lack of patronage for the Phalaris horss Shambles, who is commencing stud,: duty in the South Island this season. Shambles won the last race in which he started, the 76th Triennial Produce Stakes at Newmarket, in which he beat Pantheon, a horse since to show good form in Australia.

The £30,000 second prize in the London Stock Exchange sweep on the Derby: went to Miss Farr, daughter of a retired bank accountant. It was in a picture show, says a Sydney "Sun" cable, that Miss Farr learned of her good luck. The result of the Derby was thrown on the • screen. Unable to sit any longer in a. cinema show, she went out and bought. ' a cup of tea to celebrate the event. Miss Farr states that she intends to travel i the world later. She is described :ag young and extremely pretty.

A discussion in England recently on. owners having more than one representative in a race recalled a story told byBaron Brampton, better known as Mr. Justice Hawkins. He had sold a hopeless horse, bridle and all, for the sum of £15. A few weeks after this horsey known as Dreadnought, won at the Bromley races. He was the rank outsider ia the field of three runners, yet the owner won many bets over him. Hawkins asked the secret of the success; he was told that the other two runners also belonged to the owner of the winner.

Prior to racing at the autumn meet* ing of the Wanganui Jockey Club, Nadarino was under offer at SOOgns to a South Island owner, says a Christ? church writer. An invitation to reduce the amount to £300 lost valuable time, and in the meantime /Nadarino's trainer 1 was not then over-anxious to sell, as it certainly looked as if tbe would-be buyer was only half-hearted about the deal. However, no sale resulted, and an excellent bargain was lost, for the son of Solferirro won each day at the Wanganui meeting, following these successes up by winning at Woodville the week following, while at the recent Auckland meeting another £500 was won by the gelding. Now an Australian buyer is said to be in treaty for him.

The remit from the Canterbury Jockey , Club for the Racing Conference, suggest-. ing that the dates committee prevent . from clashing race meetings containing - classic races unless they be set down -' for public holidays, revives the Auck-

land versus Canterbury argument, and is aimed-at the Auckland spring meet-

ing, which clashes with the New Zealand Cup meeting (says a Wellington writer).

This and Auckland's own pet remit concerning its levy to the conference, is ■sure to generate some heat. It is freely rumoured in the Nortel that the Auck; land Club is prepared to exceed the limit .. if the other delegates will not see the Auckland way. The rest of New Zea- . land should know there is only one way of looking at anything —the Auckland . way. RACING OFFICIALS. The business of racing is of such magnitude nowadays that it calls for : better and more complete management as each succeeding year passes. There are many official positions of supreme importance which are tilled in the most casual manner that it is a matter of supreme regret that the Kangitikei Racing Club's remit to the conference in 1924 lapsed for want of a seconder (says the Wellington writer, "Vedette"). In effect it was proposed to license the following officials annually by the Racing Conference: Handicappers, clerks of scales, starters, judges, and assistantjudges. Further, it was desired to make it a rule that no two offices be held by one person. Mr. J. H. Perrett, in moving the above as a new rule, said that it would not be interfering with the domestic arrangements of clubs who would be at liberty to appoint their own officials, but those officials would have to hold licenses from the Racing Conference. The president of the conference also pointed out that the suggested new rule was a rule of the Jockey Club in England. It is obvious that had the rule been passed some incompetent and undesirable elements would have been kept out. At the present time there is a serious shortage of competent judges I right throughout the Dominion, and » few experiences of late in this island have shown that the public have a still ' greater task than the mere selecting of winners. To err is human, and there ia no more trying position on a racecourse than that of the man in the judge's box. At the same time there has been an un- ' reasonably high average of error. The question of assistant-judges is to be disj cussed at the next conference, and while j it is agreed that every judge should have an assistant, just how the duties are to be divided should be left to the senior oflicial in the box to decide. Tn ( effect, what is required is not so much an assistant-judgp as a judge's assistant, a distinction with a difference. Haiidicappers are judged by results, and "i these officials the Dominion is in the main singularly fortunate. The work iof the recognised starters varies a good • deal, while many clerks of scales do not realise tho importance of their task: but in their rase the work is overlooked < 111 nearly all occasions by Hip stipendiary j stewards. It is ton late this reason fW j the matter to b e made one <>f a racing rule, but some pooil prmmil work could be undertaken at the: annual conference by those who realise that the licensing I of officials and a consequent sifting out ■would be for thp wholesome good ol ■ g racing.