TUFTS OF TURF.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9386, 9 April 1896, Page 2

TUFTS OF TURF.

'[By The Editorial Scissors.]

Commenting on the Futurity Stakes being instituted by the V.A.T.C., the Australasian says : —lt will bring out a very large field, and with a lot of two-year-olds carrying small and incompetent boys there must be considerable risk of accidents. Then, again, foala are to be nominated by breeders. This is a step backwards. The V.X.C. and A. J.C. once countenanced this practice, but, finding it a mistake, they did away with it some time ago. Buyers do not like purchasing yearlings liable for forfeits. The amounts may be a trifle at the time of sale, but should the engagements be forgotten, the buyer may be run into a considerable expense. Breeders, too, are often put into a false position through nominating foals. When they sell the youngster as a yearling they take steps to transfer it, but it sometimes happens that the V.R.C. and A.J.C. will not accept the new owner. They know nothing of him, and will not consent to have the breeder's liability transferred. Then the breeder is in this position. He has sold his yearling with all engagements, and is responsible to the club for forfeits, but cannot scratch the horse. Quite recently a well-known breeder in New Zealand was put on the forfeit list on account of two colts on which the purchaser had failed to pay forfeit. We must say we are not very much in love with the proposed race, although we are glad to see the club cutting down unnecessary expenses and handing over the savings to horse-owners.

Who (writes " Asmodeus" in the Leader) aftet seeing the Champion Race, will venture to say the Australian thoroughbred has deteriorated ? As a display of speed, endurance and courage in the world's record splitting contest the performance was simply unique. Nobody who witnessed the notable duel could help admiring the heroic bravery evinced by the two combatants, both of which are worthy products of the famous St. Albans' paddocks. Our only regret is that the sires of both contestants left these shores 'recently tor the land of their progenitor, Musket, to whom the Australian, turf is under a debt of gratitude for having given it so many distinguished racehorses. A measure of consolation remains in the fact that although Carbine and Trenton ai - e expatriated, both have left behind them sons and daughters who bid fair to worthily maintain the host traditions and highest reputatiou of the illustrious house of Musket.

A racing man was (says " Terlinga") commenting on the success of the old horses in the V.R.C. All-Aged Stakes, and expressed the opinion that the two-year-olds never win at a- mile in March. They certainly have not done so since Major George's champion Nelson put down the flying Hortense in 1887, but just prior to this the youngsters had won five times in succession. For all that, the gentleman who was advocating the claims of the old ones is quite right. I have been looking back, and I find that the old horses beaten by the two-year-olds in the eighties were not equal in class to those which run for the race now. When Allander won in 1882 the best of the old ones was Napper Tandy. In the following years Fryingpan and Boolka were in the field, but Off Colour and Bafgo both beat them. The victories of Dunlop and Maddelina do not affect the argument, as nq old horses ran when they won. None of the animals I have mentioned as going down before the two-year-olds were as good at weight-for-age as such flyers as Carbine, Hova, and Titan—recent winners of the stake.

Many years ago, when the late Mr Ten Broeck's horses were racing in England, the American flag was hoisted on _ one of the stands at Doncaster. This produced a rather amusing, and certainly characteristic, note addressed to the Doncaster Clerk of the Course by Admiral Rous. It ran ,as follows :—" The members of the Jockey Club Stand wish to know why the American flag is hoisted over a Doncaster stand, unless the building is mortgaged to the United States.—(Signed)—H. J. Rous."

It may be as true that a good horse cannot be badly named as it is that a good horse cannot be of a bad colour (says a London exchange), but run over the list of English Derby winners and you ■will find very few with vulgar or inappropriate names, and yet it is only of recent years that any scholastic refinement of philology has been brought to bear on the art of naming racehorses. But the practice ia growing, due, perhaps, in part to the modern cultivation of acrostics and similar pastimes, and it is one not to be despised. It is a pity that the habit of naming foals and yearlings before their merits or demerits have been ascertained leads to the waste of many of the best names, while, again, names beautifully appropriate to the parentage of some foals are found to have been "pre-empted" for the description of others to whom the chosen appellation is in no way applicable, as when, the other day, it was found that a colt by Marauder, out of Bonnie Ino, could not be registered as Maraschino, and that a son ot the same sire and Lady Dalmeny could not rejoice in the name of Ladykiller. Disappointments of this nature are certainly vexatious, but it must be admitted that anything is preferable to the wilful duplication of names — a process that may well be relegated to the godfathers of trotters and shorthorns. It has been said that it takes a very wellinformed and highly-educated man to run his eye down the page of an English racecard and recognise the meaning and derivation of one-half of the assigned names, even when the breeding is given in a parallel column. As a means, therefore, of education the process is not one to be overlooked. If a lad knows that imported St. Blaise, the Derby winner, is a son of Hermit and Fusee, and that Fusee's dam was Vesnvienne, and Hermit's dam Seclusion, he has in his eye at once a family tree, connected by appropriate links, and surely there never was a better named horse than St. Blaise.

The Turf Field and Farm of February 21, gives an illustrations of a start "with, an Australian starting machine, and one showing the horses after the barrier was raised. The paper says : —The Australian starting machine was given a trial at Ingleside, Cal., on Tuesday, February 11, and the result of the trial will be noted with considerable interest by racing associations and turfmen throughout the country, and it is said that the machine is a success, if the teet given can be taken as a- criterion. The fourth race, a mile handicap, was selected for the test, and ten starters were drawn up in line facing the machine. The horses had scarcely been at the post forty seconds when the trigger was pressed and they were sent away in perfect alignment. It was the most perfect start ever witnessed in that section and elicited thunders of applause from the spectators. Mr Corrigan was warmly congratulated upon the success of the new venture.

The Breeder and SporUnmn of February 15th say* :— Atlngleetde Raoee on February

11th one of those incidents that wilt happen seven times out of ten when a starter leaves his stand and attempts to semi a field of horses away from the ground, occurred in the third race this afternoon, and three horses, one of which was a. strongly played second choice, were left standing still at the post. Although Providence, smiling as it always does on the righteous, so willed it, the Australian'starting gate was given a trial in the next event, and ten horses were sent away so quickly and on such a. parfeob line as to call forth a demonstration- of approval that was really' sensational. Then followed the last race in which only six contested and one, a well played 6 to 1 chance, was left. Is it any wonder that the public left the track thoroughly disgusted with the American system of starting and clamouring for the Australian starting gate?

The Australian starting gate has taken a firm hold upon the fancy of the race-goers here, and its success guarantees its use on nearly every race track of any pretensions throughout the country before a year has passed. The condition of affairs has changed so effectually as at once to take the matter of making a good or poor start out of the hands of the jockey entirely. Under the old system "jockeying" at the post was most frequently the cause of a bad start, and the fault being laid at the door of the flagwielder. With the new order of things this is changed. It is simply a question of get away or get left, and with, no reasonable excuse on the part of the jockey for getting left his efforts are concentrated upon thepurpose of getting away. They cannot "beat the flag," but they go when the others do, and will have to do so if they want to cultivate popular esteem. The barrier was used to-day again, in starting the first and last races, each at a mile. The. field of seven horses for the first event were lined up in a few seconds, the boys promptly taking positions according to numbers. Just at the spectators were settling themselves back to witness the modus operandi of this newfangled thing, there was a whirring sound and six horses bounded forward on their journey. Eddie Jones pulled Daylight up, but quickly realising that it was a go, was soon after his field, being about a full length behind the others as the wire was passed. The alignment was not absolutely perfect, but it was so nearly so that it wonld bs called a perfect start under old methods.