SPORTING NOTES.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7567, 2 June 1890, Page 2

SPORTING NOTES.

By Spectator. Cuirassier has left J. Kean's hands, and shortly (foes to Australia, so report says. Kean goes there shortly himself, taking severafhorses Sir Julius has on a previous occasion paid backers a good dividend, but Monday's div caps the lot. The wonder is that the owner didn't participate in the J895 and dE4B divs. It would have paid anyone to have followed the in-and-out son of Betrayer. - „ Tabby, the pony that won the Galloway race at Heathcote on Monday did her owner a good turn. The Ashburton contingent profited to the extent of about half the machine money. Tabby is a daughter of Betrayer. My Auckland correspondent announces the formation of a trotting association there which will also control pony racing in Auckland and northern districts. The new association decided on affiliating with the N.Z. Trotting Association. Trotting —HI yet boom mNew Zealand. Jack Bae, who has been training and riding horses iv New Zealand for some ten years or more, and with a great amount of success, says Australia is a better field for operations, and is going to try his lack there. At the Wyndham races on the 17th Secretary ran second in the hurdles ..to Fair Saxon, Vinaigrette was second to Aureliusin the Grand Stand Handicap, and Audacity was in the same position in Mambourlne Handicap.. Returned visitors from Dunedin speak well of the way in which the meeting was conducted, though the starting was not up to the mark as usual, and the penalty of disqualification on Peters, the jockey, to ' January next ls considered a piece of harsh treatment* The last race on the first day was run in the dark, and this was the result of getting behind time. Harry Goodman, the Dunedin trainer, has been having a fair innings again, and his many friends will note the,victories of his horses st the D.J.C. Meeting with satisfaction. White.Mr Hammond's trainer and rider, considered the D.J.C. Birthday Handicap "a moral"-—bar the starting—for Catamount prior to the 'meeting, but the erratic pentleman was on his very worst behaviour, and was probably Well beaten before he started, his poor display. • Wolverine wouid : appear to have shown improved form tat Dunedin in Charlie O'Connor's hands, but this horse is evidently not the animal claimed for him last season, when he bad so many backers for spring engagements. T, Cameron* the jockey,while riding Mr J. G. Wilson's Doctor, at one of the meets of the Rangitikei Harriers, came a regular purler over a big gorse and ditch and bank fence "a regular yawher," says " Pelham," my hunting correspondent. The horse had been jumping well up to this time and looked very fit. Cameron soon got oyer his shaking. . The scratching of Auckland for his "Wanganui engagements caused a few small-ackers here some disappointment, as threes and fours to one had been accepted about hia chance in the chief event there. He was also backed for the Great Northern Steeplechase during last week on the strength of his Hawera performances, in which there was perhaps more merit Chan appears on the face of it; At TattersalPs Club Grand National Steeplechase Meeting, Sydney, Hilda, Paddy, Audacity, Repose, Tekaum, Antelope, and Pretender are entered for the Plying Handicap. In the Grand National Steeplechase, Recruit, Melrose, andßossiterare the New Zealand nominations. Escutcheon, and several of the New Zealand horses entered in the Plying Handicap are in the Winter Stakes. The Meeting takes place June 7th. At the Sydney Rosehill races on the 17th, Williams—- expect it is Alex. Williamsrode Paddy unplaced in the Austral Handicaps which Repose, started first favourite ran third. Paddy Nolan was up on Dick, who finished third in the Open Hurdle race. J, Gallagher rode for Mr Allsop on Papua In the May Handicap, and Parker was on Neotsfteld. Paddy Nolan was second on Castawayin the Maiden Hurdle race, and Tutt and Williams, pupils from the same stable, were unplaced on Binebeard and Warwick respectively. Nolan was second on The- Drummer in tbe Steeplechase, but Melrose, the Auckland horse, ridden by Tutt, was leading when he fell. I At the Heathcote Meeting on Monday ! pencUlers were betting totalisator prices i with the usual £10 limit op. the Dunedin events, and some of them got struck to a Siodtune. The other week I heard that arion had returned from Dunedin very lame, and consequently would not fulfil her engagement at, the meeting, but at Heathcote the connections of the. stable gave all the pencillers a turn for as much money as they cared to lay on the conditions named, and some discomfiture was experienced as the bookies compared notes. It appears that Marion did come back this way; but from a quarter where I least expected I learned on Saturday that she waa sent back again, and that her ¥arty lost money goes without saying. • hen, again, some of the clever folk got to know about Bobby, an aged Dunedinowned nag, that I thought something of, but became tired of tipping, owing to repeated failures. Only last week, if I mistake not, he was being driven through Cashel street by the wire of a prominent and shrewd jockey, and was about the last horse I should have expected to make the journey from here. Old Bobby, like wine, appears to have improved with keeping, for he has lowered all hisprevioua records, and put up a creditable performance. As an instance of how unreliable the time test sometimes is in connection with trotting maybe cited the running of the gelding Joe at Heathcote. He had a narrow and somewhat lucky victory over High-eld in the Maiden, the mile occupying three minutes seven seconds. Later in the day, when put back .five seconds for that victory, he won the Mile Handicap in two minutes flftr-fonr seconds, showing speed equal to thirteen seconds better than he trotted his first, mile in. He only just got home in both." Victor, too, had been doing great work up, to the day, but he did not come within tea seconds in the Mile of what he has done in public before. Sonny, on the other hand, showed vast improvement in pace; indeed, his trotting on Monday will not looking at through his Rangiora form, which was all too bad to be true. It Is these frequent reversals of form whichmake trottingraces look suspicious. If Joe had been beaten ux the Maiden he wonld ha?« had an easy win in the Mac Handicap, and have paid perhaps a much better dividend thari he did, but the chances are his rider would have had to have gone before the stfwards and would have ran the risk disqualification, for suspicious running. While stewards should exercise strict authority, they have frequently very P*-**sU_g cases before them, and often very great injustice has beeat done, by■ a too hasty decision. These reversals of foranmwt be the means of forking in the direction of al*as trotting, aad my only surprise is that l

each of our trotting clubs seem too anxious to have all their races handicaps, * Te °i*b_ Maiden races being made handicaps. Why not have two class races, at least, in every programme, and as an experiment a race for winners during the past and present seasons would be ext improvement. "Pelham, & Northern hunting co-res-pondent sends mc the following Interestfag paragraph:—" Among weff-auth©|j*l-cated high jumps the following deserves a place, though not a world beater by any means. However, five feet nine laches overavery solid gate is not so mean a performance. It was accomplished byajilg grey gelding belonging to Mr D. G. Riddiford (Master of the Rangitlkei Harriers), who purchased him a snort time ago in Canterbury." I believe that I am in a position to correct " Pelham" about the locality from which the grey gelding mentioned comes. While at the Marton races Mr Riddiford, in course of conversation about hishU-iterPia-0.-remstrkedtornethat he thought of giving that animal a run for some of the steeplechases this season, only he had not been able to get anything to carry him. At the same time he asked mc if I thought I could secure a suitable substitute in Canterbury. I told him of a big grey horse by Early Bird from Onepu s dam that I had seen in Wanganui a few days previously, and which I had heard was a wonder over gates and wire fences. Next day the gelding was transferred from Belcher's stable, where he had been taken in hand with a view to steeplechasing, to Halcombe, Mr Riddiford having decided on taking him unseen. This will no doubt prove to be the same horse, and I only hope that he will prove to have some pace as well as jumpfug power, in which case the coveted Hunt Cup at Marton this yearjmay Ifall to the second grey string of the popular master of the Rangitikel Harriers. There are more unlikely things than this. A nag that can jump sft 9iu over a stiff gats must have some courage. The rider, whoever he may be, hides his light under a bushel. ' ! . ' • __ I notice that at the Newmarket Craven Meeting early in April the Salyatorr— Madrigal coit won a £100 selling plate, putting down a great pot in L'Abbe Morin who started at 9 to _ on. L'AbbA Morin won the Payne Stakes at Newmarket on the 23rd inst,, beating Blue Green and others, so that when Kirkham and Narellan badly beat the Madrigal colt in their trials, tbe tackle was not quite as inferior as the English writers made out. A correspondent writes:—" Pelham's " hunting notes, from the Rangitikei districts, are faithful records of the sport we are having. The grey horse purchased by Mr Riddiford some two months ago is now" bunted by Mr J. G. Wilson. He Is a first-class hunter aud back, aud without exception the big/zest jumper I ever knew, and such a heart. What a pity distance so far removes hunting enthusiasts. It would be interesting to See members of various hunt clubs out together, mounted on their best steeds. There are good ones studded about all over the country. The Amberley Flat Race Meeting, which I had the pleasure of attending last week, provided a capital outing as the weather was,delightful for this season of the year, and > the racing about as interesting as could well be, from the class of horses that were entered. The meeting is reported elsewhere, and there is very little to add. unless to descant on the merits or demerits of the horses and their riders. Of tbe hurdlers, Bloodsucker has pulled mc through more consistently than any horse this season, for on every, or, perhaps, to be safe, I should say on almost every occasion on which I have tipped him to win, he has come to the front at the right end, and proved a most useful animal in his own class, aud place, but that he can be E laced badly and outclassed was proved by is running in a flat race during the day, and he pulled up none too well. His jumping was far and away the most methodical, ana this won him the race, though had Iroquois, a rather gentlemanly and--to coin a word—park hack! fled looking son of Norseman, fenced anything like as well, the result would certainly have been different, and his indifferent jumping was due probably to want of a thorough schooling. He looked very fit, more than can be said of Isodore who was too light, though he showed form sufficiently good to make an interesting finish. Walls was blamed for waiting too long with Iroquois blithe had, I should say, a father awkward ride. With schooling Iroquois is capable of better things and at the same weights as were carried here f would consider it only a -matter of going straight and standing up for him to beat Bloodsucker. This pair, of-torses are likely to be entered for the Grand National meeting —so report says — but 1 should doubt Bloodsucker standing the ordeal of a winding up. The back hurdle candidates, with tbe exception of the winner, Domino, who has a bit of the hunter cut about him, were on their wornt behaviour, and though Sir John would perhaps have won had he gone straight, I failed to see anything promising in any one of the trio s ** that Is for the jumping game. The flat racing produced one genuine surprise, and that was when Silver Pine, a plain, not to say common-looking sou Of Hornby, and that once useful leatherflapper Kaituna, got home In the Maiden Plate, from another outsider in Maria, a mare, little, if anything more than a galloway, that I selected on her Heathcote running of nearly a year ago to win, and I think she must have landed the stake had she been handled as well as Silver Pine, on whose back Cusden appeared in his best form, aud who achieved two other successes during the day. Bob Derritt rode the favourite Dolphin, a half-educated grey, with ao pretentions to'running on form, and who showed a disposition to temper and partially succeeded in getting Off the course. Booby Ray appeared to make too much use of Black Pine, a thick set little black son of Fleur de Lys whose stock I heard well spokea of ia the district. The Cup Race did not show Count D'Oraay ia his true colours. Derritt made the pace so mournfully slow on him after Flash had been indulged with the lead for half a mile, and virtually there was no racing until the straight run home was reached, and Harkaway, who perhaps possesses most pace, then had the best of the deal, and even a more vigorous horseman than .Derritt could hardly have done any more with the Count under the circumstances, but had the pace been forced by the Count the chances are that he would have done with Harkaway what he has on several occasions done before, on no very materially altered: conditions on the score of weight. Harkaway looked very well and is now trained by Mr Hugh Vallance in whose name he figured on the card. He started with odds' of two to one Qn him in the machine, though one wouldbe backer called out an offer of 20 to 10 ou the Count as the'horses turned for home, an offer which so many appeared anxious to close with, that nothing actually was done. In the Teviotdale Plate Gold Spec, a neat little handful, was out-weighted, and Dragon's want of condition and overweight, more than lack of quality, accounted for his -defeat at the hands of Marie, ''who is showing improved form under Sam Hlggot's 4arai_lhg. The Vicar looked better than I have seen him, and was going well at the end of seven furlongs, where Dragon headed him. and It is just on the cards that the Vicar would have won had he not In some way so injured One of his forelegs! as to cause him to return limping to the paddock. Of the jumpers, Sankey, Bloodsucker, , and Iroquois, which started in this race, the latter was fancied very nearly as much as Marie and Dragon, who ran first and second, but while Sankey looked formidable at the turn, Iroquois did not get into a position of prominence, and Silver Pine finished just outside a place. The Farmers* Plate was a one horse affair for Loiter, who gave-Bobby-Kay his only win during the day. Cusden had three winning brackets,' Lyford one, Mr Claridge one, and T. Murfit one. It was in the Maiden Trot that the Stewards discovered suspicious circumstances to warrant an enquiry, and they met shortly after the race, and though the brothers Murfit seemed anxious that the enquiry should take place there and then, no evidence further than the bare statement Ot E. Murfit was taken, and the stewards decided to have an enquiry on Monday, meanwhile having ordered the paying out of the dividend oo Strathalien, which amounted to £S 2s. As the stewards seemed to think that matters had been prearranged, the course adopted of paying out on Strathalien was perhaps ill-advised, . Early in the race, it may be remarked, Bob trotted very indifferently and would not settle to his work; on the other hand Mystery soon after settling down forged ahead, but when leading broke badly, and before being pulled down to the trot again was a long way to the bad. In the second mile Bob, whose condition looked good, got to the front, and odds of ten to one were actually offered without takers that he would win, but all at oflce he commenced to "mix" his pace and breaking, was overtaken by Strathallan, who. keeping to her work and showing more stay, seemed to fairly beat Bob on his merits, io the last half-mile, meanwhile Mystery had made up a lot of lost gr___d, and -fnlahed joist outside the placed division, which came in at intervals of about two seconds, the time of tho winner frftipft fttnin, fl3a__, that of Mystery about

emin 40_ec These times are unofficial, and I am not aware whether anyone acted on behalf of the club. _'■___,__ E. Murnt, who had ridden Mystery in the race In question, said bo waa oonfident Strathallan could hava beaten Mystery , had the latter not broken during the race, and he issued a challenge to trot Strathalien against Mystery over tbe same ground, with the result that it was accepted, and Lynskey rode Mystery, who went to business smartly and having nothing to press him and being on his best behaviour all the way won the match in Gmin 2-iseo, Strathalien doing a few seconds slower than her former time. This made matters look worse than ever, though it proved nothing really beyond tho want of judgment or discretion of & Murfit, who lost his money by riding a-tare that wan manlflestly unfit against his own horse whose condition seemed good, and it went to convince others, as well as myself, that had Mystery trotted iv the same form at the first time of asking there was nothing else in the race, an opinion held by mc when I selected him to .win. The totalisator indicated that Bob was the better ot the pair, which were said to have been tried together, but the totalisator is not always a faithful indicator of what should win. Visitors to the meeting backed Bob simply because theysawmoney goingonfromwhattheyconsideredtheright quarter, and they backed other horses, and one horse In particular, for one of the fiat races for the same reason. It is not I surprising to find people so easily turned | from their own fancies and backing horses ! about which, perhaps an hour before a race they had never dreamt would win, simply because they see "the right people" rushing the money on ; but the good things don't always come off, and then punters want to know why. The average racing man will soon get over his disappointment, but your Johnny the flat takes no time to discover while under the belief that he has backed the only live one in the race that he has actually backed the only dead one of the lot. He thinks so ana says so, and generally makes a noise, but is very often entirely wrong in his deductions.

At a recent meeting I overheard a conversation between a horse owner and a steward of a race meeting. The horse owner had been asked what he thought of the racing and he replied in a tone quite audible to most people standing near. " I don't think' the— race was a straight affair—never tried to win it. If he had let —— go he would have! won, I feel sure of that,-and the —•— race was a fixed up thing, and ——' rode a shocking bad race in tjj e . Why, any stable boy could have done better than that," The steward evidently did not see things iv the same light, judging from the way he expressed himself. Later in the day toe before-mentioned owner had a nag running, and his display of fori- was any thing but brilliant, and bis jockey was all over the animal, and,at the finish was nearer the hag's ears than his proper place. In turf parlance the lad was a thorough "hay-maker." The average stable lad would give him stones and a bad beating. The regular race-goer Is quick to notice a poor, display of generalship, and such remarks as "Pull up, you've got a bite," "That bloke's fair on the job," " What sort, Charlie," and such like uncomplimentary calls, are made by the larrikin element at the unfortunate passenger, who poses as a rider, but who is really at the mercy of his horse. I don't know whether the owner heard any of the opinions ot his jockey's capabilities, but if so his ears must nave bean tickled, and his feelings: somewhat ruffled, but remembering how freely he had criticised certain other riders when talking to the steward, I thought it would have been a capital joke to have called on him for some explanation about the jockeyship of his own nag. There is plenty of time for the lad to improve, and plenty of room for improvement, but had he been put up on a favourite instead of on an outsider, there would probably have been an attempt made to keep him out of the pigskin for the rest of his born days. About the time of the Wellington meeting In February I dilated upon the breeding of Sir Garnet, the jumper, who won the hurdle race there on the first day, and who on Saturday last got home In front of Oddfellow In the Wanganui Steeplechase after a good race. He is a son of southern Chief from, a Don Juan mare, and thus has a double strain of the good old Riddlesworth blood, tils former owner, Mr Donald Frazer, of Rangltikei, when writing to mc some time last spring, said that this gelding would when given a lair chance prove a good one at the Illegitimate game. He is a grand fencer, and would appear to be developing staying power that some good judges thought ha lacked. He runs in the assumed naoie of, Mr Lamb, but Murtagh, ?f Harkaway — Black Prince, Angler ame, trains and rides, and is generally credited with the ownership of more than one hair in the "lepper's "tail.

The Wanganui Steeplechase country was for many years regarded as a stlfQsh one, and the timber jumps, made of solid pine saplings, were responsible for many a heavy fall, and many a sigh of relief has come from backers, after seeing the nag they have backed land safely over the last hurdle jump in the straight run home. In course of time the riders, by continually complaining, succeeded in bringing about a modification in respect to the strength of the jumps} but with a change of custodians came a change in the nature of the made fences, such as tbe substitutes for live gorse jumps. I had occasion to visit the course there soon after Kangaroo's win, „Whlch was in a year which proved disastrous to most of the horses engaged at the meeting. I was surveying the fence leading from what is known as < the cricket ground luto the course proper, and which was then the second to last fence. It was a solidly set down mass of gorse, very nearly six feet high, with a ditch In front, and a most formidable-looking Jump, indeed—one, in fact, calculated to make a faint-hearted jock think of his j maternal relative, and to make even the : stoutest-hearted and ablest jumpers hesitate. While thu3 engaged, and wondering whether the builder of the obstacle would have the pluck to ride at it, I waa s accosted by the individual himself, none other than a hardy looking son of Erin's Isle. In reply to my suggestion that the jump was a rasper, he said, "A tidy kind of a lep j ust." I queried, " Are there: any more jumps like, this one?" when came the answer, *♦ If you want to see a proper lep go down to the other side of the course." This proved to be perhaps a trifle ihore Inviting, because there was no ditch on the take-off side, but it was fully higher than the other one just looked at, and somewhat wider, and very solid; Indeed,the jockeys declared that one could walk along the tops of these jumps without making any Impression. I understand that the country has been reduced In size, and with much reason; but, notwithstanding this, some of the fences proved effectual In stopping or bringing to grief some of the contestants there last week.

.- After the way in which I wrote about the jumper Gladias, on the occasion of my last visit, his poor display in Wanganui may have occasioned some surprise. The owner, Mr J. Baldwin, was some time ago offered £150 for the gelding, but was not tempted with It, but he is evidently running the fine looking son of Gladiator thoroughly out of form, as from a correspondent i learn that he was too sore to gallop let alone to jump. A rest and spring grass, is, I should imagine, the most likely means of effecting a cure. Evidently debility or muscle soreness is present, and if the latter, continuing to I work the horse isnot likely to improve aim. Soreness becomes chronic, aud many of Gladiator's stock, after racing, showed signs of stiffness, which baffled their trainers to account for. I am sorry to note Gladius's unsatisfactory condition, lor I regarded him as one of the most likely horses this season to furnish mc with a Grand National tip]; but the prospect of him being entered, or at the post, looks remote. .. My correspondent, writing from Pleasant Point, says <* There were between three and four hundred people present at the sports and races there on Saturday, Mr John Stevens acted as starter, Mr Fred Medllcot as judge. A large number of the visitors were from Timaru and I Temuka, and spent a most enjoyable day. The horses were run simply for their own entrance fees. Mr J. Heffmann's Fanny beat Mr F. Fielding's Tamarisk and three others in the six furlong flat race.. The two mile trot, for ponies under 14 hands, went to Mr Johnstone's Lucy, J. Whitake/s Dinah second. The mile and a half steeplechase fell to Mr,C. Wright's Charlie, Mr Yelche's Never Mind second; • A mile flat race was won by Mr Sherwan's Wasp beating Will-if-1-Can and Daylight. Mr Veiche's Never Mind, carrying list 71b, beat Mr Acton's Never Did (list) in the 2 mile steeplechase. Intoxicating drinks of any kind were strictly forbidden, both at the races and at the ball in the eveulng, and in this revpect we considerdt was a day's enjoyment well worthy of imitation, and if others were held on a similar plan it would go a long way to remove the urejudice existing in some minds against "races." This Is unadulterated sport $ruls_> but I don't think the majority of oui'turf men would care to race for bare entrance fees, and some of them would miss their champagne and claret. The wantc-iasUmuJantonarftC©-cocrae hi so often falfc. jroa btv. .; -