SPORTING NOTES-

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7362, 15 July 1889, Page 2

SPORTING NOTES-

Bt Spectator. Mr Dan O'Brien left Chriatehurch on Tuesday for Melbourne, where he goes on business. Chantilly by Apremont—Miss Flat, was sold last week privately by Messrs Matson and Co.

By an error ray Wanganui correspondent was made to say last week, that there -were two proprietary clubs there. It should have read no proprietary clubs. A challenge has been issued to back Silver Cloud to trot anything in Australia In harness, the besfc,two out of three mile heats, for £500 a side. Wapiti's sale was completed last week. Mr Ben McCaul, owner of Izaak Walton, of Wanganui, is the purchaser. Wapiti (King Cole—Realization) is bred well enough for anything. The sale and purchase were effected by " Spectator. The pools and totalisators on American racecourses are taxed for the benefit of agricultural societies, says an exchange, and in this way last year nearly £10,000 was derived: and under the law this money was distributed among various societies for prizes for stud horses. According to report, poor old.Commotiqn, once the most popular horse in Australia, is In a very bad way. He got on well for a time In his new home In Gippsland, but lately he has been ailing, and it is quite likely that the grand old son of Panic will not be able to serve next season. Little Minnie, tbe N.Z. Auckland Galloway now in Sydney, had 6et 81b in a Galloway handicap which was to have been run on Wednesday last; Sst 121b was the top weight. It is about time Little Minnie won. The sale ot Mr Broughton's Mueket mareKariri is reported. It will be remembered that after the PalmeretonManawatu Meeting in March last I mentioned that £300 had been refused for her. It ie now reported that she was parted with to our old friend Mr C. C. Murray, of Melbourne, formerly of Napier, for about £200. If she can go under the stand she is warm property. When the authorities at Randwick talked of raising the fences for their winter steeplechase, many good judges declared that their absurd dimensions caused horses to fall, as careless jumping was the result. The fact of the matter is that there are few jumper? of a big country about Sydney side. The Hunters' competition for a sixty-guinea cup three years ago was a farce. " All that glitters is not gold," even on the English turf. Australia is the horseowner's paradise by comparison, so far as the cost of competition in proportion to the value of the stakes is concerned. This, says an exchange, may be judged from the fact that this season " Mr Manton's " (the Duchess of Montrose) forfeits on the three-vear-old stakes run from the middle of March till the end of April, or a period of six weeks or so, are said to have reached the respectable sum of 1600sove, while those or "Mr Abington" over the same races amounted to 1340sov«j.

The Hon. Jas. "White's supposed " dead bird " Singapore has just appropriated the July Stakes at the winter meeting of the Australian Jockey Club run at Randwick, Sydney. Thie colt carried Bst arid beat Re, a fair performer, and Ellerstone, easily running the seven furlongs in lmin 30secs, very good time. He is engaged in the Melbourne Cup at Bet 121b, and has been well backed fop Cup and Derby. As backers are apt to attach too much importance to these victories ft may be as well to state that there are several colts in Australia and here at our very doors that could have done all that Singapore has done. The colt won cleverly, but the opposition was not strong. Our old friend Peter Osbeck won the A.J.C. Winter Steeplechase of 300 soys on Saturday last. Singularly on the last occasion when he started* he was winning, but fell at the last fence. This time allbut one of the competitors came to grief. It may be remarked that thefences were put up to four feet since the last meeting. From an Australian paper I learn that Artist, Shillelagh, Kangaroo, Don, and the other horses shipped to Sydney had a very rough passage and were much knocked about. Shillelagh and Artist (Williams') were engaged in the same race as Peter Osbeck, but Alison's Artist must not be confounded with the New Zealand gelding of that name. Mr Harris, well known in connection with- tne working of the totalisator in Queensland, got into trouble at the recent meeting at Maryborough. According to the Queenslander, he has since been proceeded against by Messrs Ward in the Maryborough Police Court on a charge of obtaining money under false pretences. The information was laid against him on the ground that he presented at the pay window of the totalisator and received payment for a ticket, the number on which had been fraudently changed from brie to ten. The defendant appeared before the bench on Friday last, and after two or three adjournments was onTuesday com- | mitted for trial at the District Court on two charges. The Dunedin pony Zora has not been long in scoring in Australia. Thus Asmodeus, in the Leader, writing on the Elsternwick meeting:—The Grand Pony Handicap brought out nineteen starters, and after a little finessing the New Zealand representative Zora was Installed a prominent favourite. Her appearance quite justified public confidence, she being a remarkably handsome thoroughbred daughter of Le Loup, and bearing*-on a small scale a striking resemblance to her sire. Zora showed a determined disinclination to go to the post, and, had to be led down . riderless. Backers iof •„ the favourite felt some alarm as she was seen to get badly away from a straggling start, Molly shooting off with a strong lead. Zora, however, had the assistance of a capable horseman in little Myeri, who, making up lost ground gradually, ran to the front at the turn for home, and smothering everything for pace in the straight, won easily from Oscar and Molly. The race wa» worth 7550t0. and a 25sov trophy. Zora ran the five furlongs and a half in lmin 23aec It may not be generally known that Chemist is a really well bred 'an, being by Painter from Waipuna, a Peter Flat mare, to be found injthe Stud Book, dam Psyche, by Sir Herculea—Psyche; was bred by Mr leely and imported from New South Wales by Mr Henry Redwood, " the father of the New Zealand Turf." Oranpeman, it may be mentioned, is alao from a Peter Fiat mare, and his sire, Endymioo, is by Manuka. Afcatea is by Puriri, and claims a daughter of Peter Flat as. his dam. The only daughter of Peter Flat now alive, co far as I know, i 3 Verbena, owned by Mr J. Allwell. I saw her in that, gentleman's paddocks at Cambridge, and recognised, her, though I had not seen her for over fourteen years. She was foaled in the year 1870; and though believed to be in foal when I saw her, has never bred. She is from the imported mare Sweetmeat. Many of the best horses abont the Wanganui districts trace back to Peter Flat and Pacific. These horses were own brothers.

A fanny incident came under my notice at Moonee Valley on Saturday, says " Asmodeous." It happened thus.—There were two horses in one race whose jockeya wore jackets of similar colour, though in some minor respects, not easily noticeable at a distance, the liveries differed. While the horses were at the poet the trainer of one of theae two ran up to the steward and begged their attention to the fact that the boy on his horse was evidently not trying to get away as he had never left the mark though several false starts had occurred. The-stewards promptly " piped" the supposed offender and apparently agreed with the trainer that his boy had been " nobbed," and. when at last he succeeded in getting badly away and failed to improve his position, a warm time was In store for the snpposed unfaithful jockey on whom the eyes of authority and those of the infuriated trainer were concentrated. Suddenly, however, as the field swung into the straight the letter's representative was seen to be in front, and there he stack to the nnisa.landiag stakes and bete handsomely. They had all, trainer included, been barking up the wrong tree while the supposed delinquent had been straining every nerve to win and had succeeded. Now the most peculiar part of this strange chough true story 19 that the tzainer of the horse that had really so persistently stood still on the mark expressed no indignation at all, being no doubt a considerate man, and as the stewards "passed,"

instead of "ordering him up" nothing more was heard of the affair. But what I can't understand is why the stewards sudden!v forgot all the terrible things they intended to do. had the laggard been really the horse for which they had mistaken him. A f ter the winner's trainer had realised his mistake the earnestness with which he apologised for it was not the least amusing feature of the affair. In my notes last week on " Old Wanganui," in which ateeplechasing In the old days at Aramoho formed the chief item, I had intended to include a word or two about the first horse I ever raced over fences called " Happy Joe." It is something like eighteen years since I sold him to Mr Bullock, then of Nelson, now of Christchurch, and from whom I learnt a few weeks since that the old fellow, who is about twenty-five years old, is doing station work on Mr Mcßae's property at Culverden. where he wae sent after being in constant work in this and the Nelson districts since the time of leaving my hands in Wanganui. When I parted with him he was slightly lame from a bruised foot, and clever folks tried to persuade Mr Bullock that he was broken down, but the old fellow, who has done many a good journey since, is still as sound as ever, and 1 am told looked as well when he left Christchurch as when Mr Bullock got him, and if opportunity presents itself I am to renew acquaintance, and have a ride on my old favourite once more. " Happy Joe " is by the loner-since defunct sire Pacific, from a mare called Kiwi, who was not unknown to fame as a steeplechaser in the early days of Wanganui. I could tell more thau one good story about thia horse. He was the only horse at Aramoho that succeeded in clearing the water jumpat one meeting. On another -occasion in Nelson, so frightened were the owners of the other horses of him, that all but one scratched, and this one's owner started to enable the owner of Happy Joe to get all and not half the stakes. Joe who was one of the straightest goers over fences known, took it into his head on this occasion, and stopped at the first hurdle, and the other nag won, much to the eurprise of its owner. On one occasion I lent him to a friend to go to a country ball. Next day I found another animal iv his box, and it was some time before I had my own horse restored to mc. It turned out that a horse had been given on trial to another friend of mine, aud he had gone to the ball too, and had taken Happy Joe home In mistake, and had been so pleased with the way in which ho was carried, that he struck a deal and paid the purchase money, remarking that ou the way to the ball he bad up his mind not to purchase, but he had formed altogether a good opinion of the horse on the homeward journey, and had decided to have him, aud lost no time- in clinching this deal. It mast be explained that he got the first horse over night. Imagine his disappointment in having to turn up such a catch. A horse that has been something like twenty-oue j'ears at regular work besides racing, would have been a cheap £3 worth. An Australian in England, writing to "Augur" on turf matters, aays:—Jn your very interesting " Turf Gossip "of March, while commenting on Musket's greatness as a sire, you say you would like to see some of our wealthy Australians import such another animal. That it all very well as far as it goes; but I don't believe there is a good well-bred two-mile horse running in England at the present time ; and I do not very well see how you can improve the colonial breed of horses while you have Nordenfeldt, First King, Trenton, Carbine, Chester, Lochiel, Malua, Commotion, and many others to choose from. The only two-mile horses running in England now are Exmoor and Humewood, and neither of them would be within 301b of any of the above-named colonial celebrities even supposing they could be brought together. Beudigo was a real good one, but has now gone to the stud. His near relatons are all good stayers, andsome of them might be worth looking after by Australian stud masters. Ayrshire, last year's Derby winner, was essentially a nonstayer, as was proved by tbe way he curled up when Seabreeze tackled him in the St. Legor and Lancashire Plate last autumn. Tissapfaernes, who has won the Metropolitan Stakes at Epsom two years running, is good-looking, but not a real stayer. They cantered each year for about a mile, had an easy gallop for another half mile, and raced for six fnrlongs only, as is proved by the time, 4min 40seo for two miles and a quarter. Nearly all the races over here are five, six, and eight furlongs, and it is quite an exception to see a mile and a-quarter race In a day's racing, and a variety to see a mile-and-a-half race. So, as long as you have in the colonies such good stayers as are at present running and at the stud, I do not think you can improve your breed; while the tendency over here is to do away with horses who can really stay two miles in a strong-run race, unless you look out for some Isonomy or Ben Battle stock ; and if Mr White is successful in the English Derby with one of Chester's sons, may I be there to see, and also to see him follow him MR with one of the Musket or Nordenfelflt breed in the following years. An English bookmaker told mc not Ve"ry lorig ago that he was sure no Australian horse would win anything good over here, as, he said, your horses are of an inferior class.' Well, little Ringmaster is over here now, and I will soon, I hope, prove what the Australian horses are capable of; and when Mr White has won the Derby in years to come we may possibly find the English studmasters purchasing colonial scock that can stay, and replace some of the weeds that can only go five or seven furlongs, and which, in their innate and insular egotism, they think are of superior class to such as Malua, Commotion, Carbine, First King, Trenton, &c—Yours faithfully,—Rhodanthe,"