SPORTING NOTES-

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7190, 29 October 1888, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES-

By "Hkrmit." Haxtable has joined Mr James Redfern's stable in Victoria. Although, as I mentioned last week, the entries for the Spring Hurdles and Criterion Stakes compare unfavourably with those of the previous year, the nominations and second acceptances for the other events of the Metropolitan Meeting far more than make up for the deficiency. The progress payments and nominations received on Saturday night include the names of 265 horses as against 222 last year and including the falling off of fourteen nominations in the Spring Hurdles and Criterion Stakes, there is a total increase of 23 horses engaged in the eighteen races of the meeting. The principal increase is in the two Selling races which closed last year with only eight entries between them, and this year they number 32 horses, an addition of twelve to each race. Then the Juvenile Plate and Spring Handicap show an increase of eight norsee each, and the New Zealand and Canterbury Cups an additional four and five respectively, so that the prospects of the meeting are now as bright as can be desired, and it only requires good handicapping to ensure its success. The next matter to engage attention will be the publication of weights on Saturday for the Spring Hurdles, Criterion Stakes, Selling Plate, and Riccarton Welter handicaps, and then on Saturday week Ihe acceptances for these events, and the final payments for the New Zealand Cnp, welcome Stakes, Derby and Oaks, and we shall then know for certain what class of sport we are to have, at any rase on the first day of the meeting. And I would here suggest that the C. J.C. would consult the interests of the public by making, in future, these acceptances and final payments some time early on the Saturday afternoon, instead of at night, so that they could be published in the evening papers all over Sew Zealand, instead of having to wait nntil Monday morning—a matter of thirty-six hours at least. Owners and trainers are of course the first to be considered in such a natter as this, and so long as they had *11 the Saturday morning to work their horses aad consider their chances, I do net think thpy would object to the arrangement, and it would certainly be a popular move as far as the public are concerned How ttii>ny of the nineteen hones in the New Zealand Cup will pay up tie final 10 soys on Saturday week it is impossible to guess, for besides that three owners have between them eight horsee in the race, and that there is likely to be some weeding out of the Cup candidates trained from Chokebore Lodge, there are the inevitable accidents attendant on those winding up gallops which no foresight can prevent and which inevitably discover tfce weak spot in a horse. And then six out of the seven Derby horses are at present engaged in the Cup, some of whose owners will in all likelihood drop the Cup engagement in favour of the due ribbon. It is noticeable, however, that only four Cup horses are engaged in any other events on the first day, these being Lorraine, Escutcheon and Engagement in toe Criterion Stakes, and Son of a Gun in the Riccarton Welter. Nor will the field be weeded out as it was last year by the result of the North Canterbury Cup, for an this occasion there is only one Cup horse, Son of a Gun, left in that race, and Snapshot is the only Cup horse engaged at the Tiinaru meeting. The results of the North Canterbury meeting should arrive in time for insertion in our late news column, and will I expect return Son ef a Gun as winner of the N.C. Cup, and not unlikely of the Flying Handicap also. Premier wiH be bad to beat over the two miles of tt»e fiorjnthian Handicap, but I prefer the chances of Mamtnoc and Mainboom to hie m the Hurdle race. Normanby is my pick for the Hack Hurdles, and Duchess of Albany for the No\"«ei j»ee. ~,.,. On the same evening that the C.J.C. received their genera* entries the nominations closed for the Dunedin Cup, Publicans' Handicap, and Marshall Memorial ! Stakes. So far as the Cop ie concerned they do not compare favourably with those of previous years, as will be seen by the following table of nominations for the last seven years. 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 18S9 58 49 *0 49 51 4* 35 Nor are the Cop horses much to boast about in the ot quality, and it can't help being ivjticed that Mr Stead has only no."uinfl*ed the outsiders of hi* powerful teasi, Beresford, Rainbow, and Enid for that race, reserving Maxim and Lochiel for the Marshall Memorial Stakes, and Sextant., Russley and bierra for the Publicans' Handicap. Just over half the entries for ±he Dunedin Cup are three-year-olds, andfit looks from the eJaes of horses in the race as if some of these would head the list When the weights are published, unless the dark horse, Ldrraine, should torn out the clinkerhe is represented j by some to be. Bα t, as against all this, the entry list for thi; Publicans' Handicap ! is above the averagje with its 40 nominations, and the Mars hall Memorial Stakes must have, I think, some four or five times as many horses engaged in it as in the average of former y ears. This is no doubt owing to ihe distance being cat down from a mile and a quarter to six furlongs, a distance better suited to the majority of horses, and, moreover, it lets in the two-year-olds, eight of which have taken up the engagement. The acceptances are to hand for the Sonfch Canterbury Meeting and promise some fair sport at Titnaru next week. There are five horses in the Hurdle race, and Master Agnes at the head of them with lls t- 91b, a weiglit which he is perfect master of in any company, but he w se , tender on his forelegs that I doubt hie h standing the jumping if the ground is at all hard, ana shall tip Premier to win. 1 Amongst the c.'cd* acceptors for the County Plate there a« sereralhorses with which I am unacquainted, but of those i which I do know I like KJoaberley and Doubtful beet. Either Quibble or »ermitage should win the President Handicap, end perhaps Evening Star or DotfWlUj may i>ell off the six fnrioag Welter Handicap. Idalia has dropped a bay or brown oat to 6L George; Watersprite and Mrs Raw ion have each a bay filly to the same sire,w'hile Flattery has a chestnut colt by Anretn- "*nt» £scala de's foal is dead. ._ . - The suexjese of Chicago in the CaulfieW Cup shoa.Vi call attention to his full brother Wa tatipn, who was bronjcht over here when a j marling, byMrPilbrow. Up to the present tfme Wakatipa has not been a very luckT Jwrse, » iC H den and a couple of Co>'«wi»f ton Han <* i 9 B Pf being the extent of bis » IB f" n fV ba ! „*»• has shown several tin*? **»■**•«»£ gallop a bit. He is now- in it«e possession of Mr F. W. Dtilamai-n, who, hovwever, doea

not care to take an active part in tnrf matters again, and the colt is lor sale. He is at present located at the Rink stables. Watattipu'e and Chicago's pedigree is as follows:—Got by The Drummer (imp) bom Corisaade by New Warrior from Io by Sir Hercules from Flora If'lvor. &c Thus it win be seen that tbere is a lot of fashionable blood flowing in their veins. The Drummer, who was by Rataplan from My Niece by Cowl, was a racehorse of more than average merit, as he ran second for the City and Suburban, won tbe Metropolitan, ran third for the Derby, and was only beaten bya head for the Grand Prix de Paris. His stock all run, and in addition are rery sound legged «n<«"fli*, but do not come to maturity very early. On the dam's side it is well known in New Zealand that the daughters of Sir Hercules and Flora M'lvor have been great racers and wonderful brood mares, Zoe, Flora, and Waimea being noticeable examples of this. There was not a great deal to be seen in tbe way of sport at tbe Canterbury Trotting Club's Meeting, bat the finish between Bachlieu and Moonlight made up for the indifferent contests that preceded that race. The owner of the chestnut wanted to start hie nag in the Maiden Plate, but not being allowed to do so be sent him for tbe race for which he was eligible and the horse just got home by a neck, though I fancy this would not nave been tbe case had Moonlight been more judiciously ridden. There are some curious discrepancies at trotting meetings. At one a pony will not go under the standard, and at another it is paused without a single dissentient voice being raised. Qoeenie is a case in point She cant pass at Heathcote and she can at Addmgton. It ■was a treat to see that game good little mare Betsy, better known as Our Pony, show such a return to her old form as she did on Saturday, and now she has begun to win again she will probably repay her owner or owners some of the money that must have been lost over her during the last two or three years. She is oneof the best animals of her inches ever seen in the Colony, aadior those who are interested in the breeding of trotters, and believe in the strong infusion of the thoroughbred strain, I may mention that she was sired by Ake-Ake, a son of Towton and Miss Bowe. The present position of the telegraph board at the Show Grounds is an awkward one, and it should be erected at a different angle to which it now stands, to give the public a chance to observe the numbers hoisted. The Judge's box also strikes mc as being in an awkward position, as tbe winningpost is situated just on a sharp turn. By placing the winning-post twenty yards # to the westward the horses would finish in a straight run. The course requires fencing too as it appears an impossibility to keep it clear, and the nags have to trot through a crowd of spectators who obstruct the track to such a degree, that it is wonderful no accidents had to be chronicled. The racehorse Strenuous arrived from the North Island on Tuesday morning per the 8A Maraxoa. Tenebreuse, the French mare that won the Cesarewitch, carried Bst lib in that race, whilst Millstream's weight was 6st lib i and Trayles had 7st lib to carry. | The Sportsman (English) has the following paragraph : —The New Zealand Jockey Club Rules do not appear to establish that the decision of the stewards at race meetings is final and incapable of being attacked before a civil tribunal. The Supreme Court at Wellington, N.Z., on Jnly 23 last gave judgment in an appeal case brought by a MrM'Coll ngainst the stewards of the local racing club. At a meeting in February, Fabrication, owned by the appellant, came in first in theSellingßace, but was disqualified on protest for boring. In the Civil Court M'Coll had sought to recover the amount of the stakes, but the Court gave j adgment for defendants, and from tnat decision plaintiff appealed, on the groan ds that the majority of the four stewards who voted was incompetent to determine, the matter. His Honour ruled this was not a valid objection and dismissed the appeal. Watts had seventy-live wins to his credit when the mail left, and F. Barrettseventyone. S>. Loates was third with fifty-four. The celebrated American jockey, J. M'Langhlin, who has been for many years first jockey for the Dwyer Bros., the most successful owners on the Transatlantic turf, has left their employ to ride for a confederacy that run their horses under the head of " The Chicago Stable," Benzou's horses were to be sold on the Ist October Meeting at Newmarket,