"SPECTATOR'S" NOTE BOOK.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9704, 17 April 1897, Page 4

"SPECTATOR'S" NOTE BOOK.

, An impression exists that the Canterbury Jockey Club intend coupling the names of horses the property of one owner on the I totarisator, but this is not to be, the comi route having decided otherwise. Persone_jy, I am in favour of the coupling idea, and have -frequently advocated it, but it is one to which some owners and non-betting owners, too, who are in the habit of racing their 1 horses out, strongly object, one of the jstoundstbeing that it is not necessary for the clubs to make such a proviso if they carry out their duties and see that owners who have more than one starter in a race, run their horses out in accordance with the rules.

One,of tlie subjects that the Committee of the>Canterbury Jockey Club had under discussion at their monthly meeting last week was a letter from the Associated Bookmakers Betting forth terms upon which they were prepared to compromise with the Club, a suggestion having emanated from some members'that this might be done to avoid the expense that must necessarily arise out o- litigation. The claim of the bookmakers iaon&.or alleged wrongful removal of certain of their number from the Riccarton racecourse enclosures, and the action is still pending, being set down for June next. It is an open secret that some of the members of'the O. J. C. Committee were favourable to an arrangement being made for the admission of-the bookmakers under certain conditions, but others were opposed, while others preferred that the case should be allowed to go on, which course was the one ultimately agreed upon, As the case is really a friendly test oue, in view of all the circumstances it is wen perhaps that it should be settled in a court of justice. Each side wiU then be sure of their position. . Once the Easter meetings are over, the breaking up of the racing season of 1896-97 will be said to have commenced, and there will hot be a particularly heavy calendar outside the steeplechase gatherings of a few leading clubs to be got through thereafter. The outlook for the autumn meetings is certainly one which should afford satisfaction .to the various clubs, and there is every prospect, so far as I can judge, that they will be of quite as an attractive character as t-wse of previous seasons. Indeed the past season, with its limited number of race meetings, and fewer days racing, is one that will probably be remembered as one of the pleasantost and most profitable to the racing clubs throughout tho colony during the last decade of the century. It may safely be said that a majority of the clubs of the colony were never in a more prosperous condition, and racing generally never, more healthy. Contemporaneous with the Canterbury Jockey Club's Autumnal Meeting comes that of the Auckland Racing Club, which will be dividing most attention; At the same time, the minor fixtures held on the West Coast of the North Island, at Feilding, where some good prizes am offered, Patea, Waipukurau, and in the Wairarapa, at Kumara, on the West Coast of the South Island, and at Fairli-e Creek, Riverton and Beaumont have to be discussed, and are sure to prove attractive to large sections of the racing community. During week I took a run up as far as Yaldhurst, and waa shown over the horses m traimnt-rand those to be immediately put into work. Mason, as usual, has his boxes full. I have .seldom seen a team at this season of the year looking better. The two-year-olds Gold Medallist, Mndt-form, StCyr and Beauty Sleep, each look ac well aa anything likely to oppose them at the meeting, hut shows sign of WEork. about the legs, and his heels have been occaaioning his mentor some trouble, but •therwiise he is in-great fettle ; and his stable companion, -Suit-form, notwithstanding that be.has done a great amount of work, and a good deal of travelling for a two-year-old, woks surprisingly wetl. St. Cyr is a oolt that may be a good three-year-old, if he -houid not indeed be within measurable distance of the pair I have just referred to. Beauty Sleep is lengthening out as she grows older, but she will probably be found as farbebind the Medallion—Adulation fiUv, Bracelet, as many of the colts of the same age are behind Gold Medaltisfc. It is seldom that a oolt and a filly such as the pair just refe-ted to are seen out in one year and claimManohcher having been so long nr -r-toement may not be seen to such aavwatage next week as if he had done *°°**_ wmg, but he does not strip **W. and, though naturally one of sort, it is evident to mc w***t ho has done some sound work to be cot __ J^ZS d __-N_-t "^P*** B - I »fe»U m* be earpraaa. should he run proniinec-ly in *_ v of th. events in whieE Firefly i« reckoned tho dalSsafe OM^Tthe k SftA*^t_r_i_SS

j She may race better in public this autumn than she has done previously this season. In the spring, when running in the Juvenile Plate, she was, I know, fancied in preference to her stable companion, and ran very disappointingly. She is a rare shaped one, but she does not look equal to doing a big thing in a strong field, there being so little of her. Bellicent was turned outin a paddock opposite with Blue Fire, having failed to stand winding up gallops for her autumn engagements. Cuirassow was running in another small paddock, and the yearlings home-bred and recently purchased arc being given turn and turn about in the handy little paddock enclosures on Ik. estate. To these I shall refer again. The nominations for the winter meeting of the Egmont Club arc very good in moss of the events, though it is rather unaccountable why so few horses are engaged in the open hurdle events. Levanter is the best performed of the 'cli-sei. aud there is nothing high-class amongst the flat racers. Some of the best hacks on the coast are engaged, and the meeting is, from the indications which now present themselves, likely to be attended with a fair measure of success.

The Wanganui Jockey Club have no reason to regret the substitution of the Wanganui Guineas for their old established Derby race, and a mile contest will, I think, be more popular than a mile and a half so early in the spring, certainly more are likely to be suited by the shorter course. Thirty-eight i 3 a very fair nomination, and the entries received for the two-year-old stakes for next autumn meeting," numbering thirty-four, may be accepted as encouraging, though I should like to have seen a still greater number of ownere represented in the list. A glance at the names of the nominators, which occur with such regularity in these classic events, will indicate pretty clearly who are the main supporters of classic racing. On Thursday morning, at Enfield, the thoroughbred stallion St. George, by Yattendon —Lady Chester, while galloping in the paddock where he has been daily turned out for exercise for a couple of years past, slipped and broke one of his legs, and had to be shot." He was insured for £100 in the New Zealand Stock Insurance Association, but this does not represent the value of the horse. It is only a little over two years since Mr H. Thomson, who bought St. Georgo at the breaking up of the Middle Park stud, had an offer of £700 for him. St. George was the sire of numerous winners, including Merrie England, Loyalty, Saracen, Au Revoir, Erin-go-Bragh, Morpheus, The Shah, Quibble, Exchange, Ich Dien, Mount Royal, Magazine, Kent, Strenuous, Marlborough, Free Lance, Red Ensign, and some forty others. Some of these horses were undoubtedly good ones, though we never saw the best of either Merrie England or Loyalty. Quibble and Erin-go-Bragh lasted a long time, and the winnings of St. George's representatives for many seasons placed hira well up on the list of winning sires in New Zealand ; indeed in the year 1893-4 he waa at the top of the tree, having St. Leger and Nordenfeldt immediately below him, while in the year 1892 he ran the same pair close for leading honours. St. George cost the Middle Park Stud Company's commissioner 1300gs when purchased as a yearling from the Hon. E. R. Cox, of Fernhill, New South Wales. When first put to stud work, having no racing record, Traducer and King of Clubs monopolised the cream of the mares during the first few seasons. Prior to 1886-7 Quibble, Strenuous, Nemesis, Winchester and The Shah had done St. George some services but his list-of winnerwas not a very large one, probably representing less than £2000, np to the season of 1888-9, from which I date the table of his records si-joe-i—

£21,371 4 0 It is more than probable that up to the. present date Sb. George's stock racing within the colony, won upwards of £25,000. Taking into account the fact that he had to divide with other sires the choice mares of Middle Park, and really only got the best of chances for two seasons, the horse did fairly well, and bis record is altogether a very creditable one. Whether any of St. George's sons will prove as good "as he himself has proved has yet to be seen. Some of them should, with fair chances, make a name for themselves, but so far those chances do not appear to have- come to any of his sons. Some of his daughters are making useful stud matrons, and the blood of Yattendon may show up prominently through the female line. St. George was never raced, but his own brother, Chester, was a champion in his time, and, given every chance at the stud, proved an undoubted success. Monmouth, another brother, with fewer opportunities, has not distinguished himself greatly, though he is the sire of a few fair horses. Clieveden, another son of Yattendon and Lady Chester, is in one of the leading Californian studs. St. George was twenty years old last foaling, and was purchased in 1879 by the Middle Park Stud Company, so that ho has been at the service of breeders a considerable time.

And yet another death amongst equine celebrities has to be recorded, the latest being that of the young sire Dreadnought, the sultan of the Hon. J. D. Ormond's stud at Karaunu, Hawke's Bay. It is not three weeks since I saw the evenly made and substantial looking son of Chester looking the very pi.ture of health, and one would readily have taken a lease of his life for many years to come. No reason is as yet to hand as to the cause of the death of the horse, but Mr Ormond, who set great store upon him, and was giving him every chance to make a name for himself, will feel the loss of his favourite sire greatly. Though Dreadnought had not so far sired any really high-class oolts, still he had done much better than most young horses in the same given time, This season he has seven -winning representatives in the two-year-old list—Sir Lancelot, Defiant, Daunt, Bold, Valiant, Miss Rose and Wakelyn—five of those being bred and raced by Mr Ormond, the other two being from public mares. Sir Lancelot, it will be remembered, divided the Welcome Stakes with Multiform, while from amongst the first crop of Dreadnought's stock, now three years old, Dauntless won the fourth Challenge Stakes, beating Epaulet and Uniform, last year, and Defiance and Daring won between them five events, and the two just mentioned with Dare Devil have won several races this season. Mr Ormond's only consolation is that he has a large number of yearlings rand* foals and older ones coming on by Dreadnought, while most of his best mares are stinted to the same horse. Dreadnought was indeed a first-class racehorse. His achievements indicate as much, and he is one of the few horses that succeeded in beating Carbine more than once. His best performances were probably when he won the Australian Cup as a three-year-old, running the two miles and a-quarter in the then fastest time on record (3.59£) in the colenies.

The general entries received for the Auckland R.C.*s Easter Meeting are indeed highly satisfactory, and I should say constitute a record therefor, though I have not made comparison with entries previously received. . The acceptance for the Easter Handicap should ensure a good race, though seven is not a big field. It is satisfactory to note that ten have made the second payment for tlie Autumn Steeplechase,, an event which never fails to raise the enthusiasm of the racegoers of Auckland. The acceptances for the chief events of the Feilding meeting show rather unsatisfactory results, for which the handicapper cannot be held responsible. New Forest dropped out of the Feilding Handicap in favour of his stable companion Lotion, and, like The Brook, it is presumed is being spelled for soreness; Boreas has reached Riccarton, Sylvia Park has been accepted for in the two shorter races, Primula is engaged at Waipukurau, and Monte Carlo has declined probably because he is not doing well. His weight was no bar. A probable field of four for the 200sov stake, the same number in the Winter Oats Handicap, five in the Hying Handicap and six in the Hurdle Race, is very discouraging to the club, as the stakes are good. The acceptance- for the hack events are not any better as the nominations ia the first instance were not good.

1888-89 «." 1889-9. _» 1890-91 _. 1891-92 _. 1892-93 . „ 1895-9.1 -, 1894-95 • 1895-lfo «p £ s. d. „ 1955 0 0 -. 1946 13 0 _. 2779 11 0 - 2545 3 0 .. 4250 19 0 -. «0_5 7 0 .. .150 11 0 .. 1700 0 0