NEWS OF THE WEEK.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9811, 21 August 1897, Page 4

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

_*he Musket horse, Petronel, died in England on July 3rd. The death is reported from Sydney of Temeraire, sister to Dreadnought.

The Greymouth J.C. will give £1000 in stakes at their Christmas Meeting. The annual meeting of the Masterton R.C. will be held on the 26th inst.

Mr Gollan's Tiraillerie and Freda art to be mated with St. Leger this season. The Feilding Club has decided to proceed with the erection of a caretaker's house.

The will of the late Victorian jockey, Sam Davis, has been proved at £10,569. In future the Masterton Raciug Club will five at least £35 for every hurdle race. The racing at the Grand National Meeting was on all hands v&ted most interesting.

St. Evelyn, not to be raced any more, will this season be mated with Hotchkiss. The Alexandra Jockey Club's annual gathering has been fixed for October Bth. The V.R.C. has a membership of 1300, and 663 voted at the last annual meeting.

The death is announced of a well-known Wairarapa sportsman in Mr Henry Cwen. Dromedary is lame liehind as a result of her fall in the Grand National Steeplechase.

Tho Woodlands Hunt Club hold a Steeplecbasc Meeting at Danevirke on September 22nd.

Mr Fricker, starter for the Greymoutli J.C., was a visitor to the "National" Meeting. The sixteen that started for the Grand National Steeplechase is the record field for that event.

The large dividends affected the total investments iv the totalisator at Riccarton on Thursday. £400 to £100 was taken the other day in Melbourne that Aurum gets a place in th Melbourne Cup. The colt by Amphion from Sandiway, bought by Mr W. R. Wilson for 500gs, will be raced in England. The pa«.t season's racing is fully and completely recorded in the "N.Z. Turf Register " just published. The added money to the next Wangamii Cup will be 800sovg, and the March meeting a two days' one as usual.

The Australians, Maluma and Acmena, ran unplaced on the first day of the Newmarket First July Meeting. The will of the' late Mr James O'Connor, an English bookmaker, who died last April, has been proved at £121,090. Tho Kutnara Racing Club is communicating with the Westland Club before fixing on a date for its annual gathering. None of tho stablo connections benefited by the big dividend, £62 14s 6d, paid on Wedlock at Riccarton last Thursday. The Groymjuth J.C. have voted a bonus of sgs towards the expense of publishing the " New Zealand Turf Register," issued last week.

Frailty (dam of Trenton) and Onyx (dam of Nordenfeldt) are not in foal this season. The former is to be mated again with Hotchkiss.

Tho Manawatu Racing Club has voted £10 to the Feilding Club towards the law expenses incurred by the latter body in prosecuting bookmakers.

A well-known resident of New Plymouth took over £500 out of the totalisator ou the second day of the Grand National. Putting it on hi " fifties" was the order of the day.

The Ashburton Racing Club has decided to race on Boxing Day, and to hold a two days' gathering in the autumn. Mr Hugo Friedlander has been elected chairman of committoes.

It is said that two days before the Grand National Meeting a North Island bookmaker took 150 to 100 that the Grand National Steeplechase would be won by either Mutiny or Dummy. The Woodville District Jockey Club, at the annual meeting of members, voted the Feilding Jockey Club the sum of 3gs towards the expenses in connection with the bookmakers' cases.

Mr Frank Madden only saved his seat on the V.R.C. committee by five votes, a result, the Australian papers say, wholly attributable to that gentleman's hostility to the totalisator.

The judge's placings were, in several races during the "National" Meeting, palpably wrong. The mistakes were, however, corrected on the official's attention being called to the-errors.

On the first day of the Grand National Meeting the dividends were on the large aide; on the second the public picked the winners with persistency—there was not a £6 dividend all day.

Mr Thomas Logan, who was a prominent figure in raoing circles in Otago in the early days-died in Dunedin laet week. Mr Logan, who was a Cromwell miner, at one time owned Cloth of Gold and Dead Heat.

To see the two top weights in the Grand National Steeplechase fight out such a finish was a great triumph for the handioapper, Mr Henry, whose work on the whole throughout the meeting was of a high class.

We learn that Mr W. S. Lindsay, after the National Meeting, gave the erratic Armstrong to Mr Pitt (huntsman to the South Canterbury Hounds) who rode the horse iv his engagements at the National Meeting. Since January; 1889, the South Australian J.C. alone has distributed totalisator fractions to the amount of £2966 8s 9d among the Adelaide charities. Since the date mentioned the South Australian charities must have received about £8000 from the totalisator.

"Centaur's Index," giving the performances of the horses entered for the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups up to June 30th, ia to hand. This handy little Australian reference book contains other information of value to the sportsman. The night before the Grand National Steeplechase Levanter was quoted by the bookmakers assembled in Christchurch at 6 to 1. He paid a dividend on the day of £13 17s, nearly 13 to 1. Who will deny that it is not better to wait for the day.

Including the Otago Hunt Club Meeting— a Dunedin J.C. fixture —the Dunedin corr pondeot of this journal points out that the record for a season's totalisator returns was made by the D.J.C. in 1889-90, when £104*000 was put through the machine. Tho Auckland R.C. propose to give an additional £2700 in stakes this season, the added money for the Auckland Cup being £1000. From our Auckland "Special" it will be seen that nothing is so far settled as to a totalisator permit for the club's First Spring Meeting. Arnott, the rider of Dromedary, who came down in f the National Steeplechase, was unconscious all night, and his pulse was in such a low state that the doctor did not hold out much hope of his recovery. Arnott, however, walked out of the hospital the next morning, when he was apparently quite well

On June 30th, the brood mare Nemesis, by St. Gatieu from Musket's sister, Mosquito, with a filly foal by Surefoot at foot, was purchased by Mr "Wilson in England for oOOgs. A bay yearling colt by St. Serf from Stethoscope (half sister to the Oaks winner, Mimi) was secured by Mr W. Allison for Australia at 100 guineas. The tea kiosk at Riccarton during the ** National" Meeting was in great request. On the first day Mrs Freeman's army of attendants had all their work cut out to cope with the demands, while on the second day the cold weather made a cap of nice hot tea very acceptable. The comforts of the tea house are ranch appreciated by patrons of the OXC.

The Canterbury Jockey Club's executive might consider whether it would not be advisable to put up a picket fence along the inside of the straight run home on the Riccarton coars*?* This, with three or four gates, for use at proper times, would prevent accidents Hk6 that which probably cost Dromedary tho Grand National Steeplechase. She wonia hare at least got a place—most people consider she woukl have won.

Visitors to the Grand National Meeting were fond te their praise of the catering in the grandstand. It is generally accepted by those who travel and are in a position to judge, that the luncheon provided by Mr Burke (tho C.J.C. caterer) is not to be equalled cm any racecourse in New Zealand, There its _o doubt that on many of our courses race-goer*, hare much to complain of m this respect.

S. Lindsay, the jockey, cot judgment in a , "\5_L damages against a railway guard for ejecting him from a first date railway carriage to a second class carriage, for which he had taken out his ticket. Judge Kettle decided that the guard had exceeded his duty, M a* should ha~s gi*cn,pi_wU_"to«

chance to pay the difference between the two fares, and in case of refusal have reported him to bis superior officers, who could prosecute for breach of the bye-laws. Judgment was given for £1 and costs. At a meeting of the stewards the Masterton Racing Club held on the 11th inst., it wa3 resolved to have five days' racing (two two days' meetings) during the season, and that stakes to the amount of £1200 be offered. It waa further resolved that the dates for the Summer Meeting be December 9th and 10th, and for the Autumn Meeting March 17th and 18th, £640 being devoted to the first, and £560 to the second gathering. It was resolved to increase the secretary's salary to £50 per annum, and if the season should be a successful one to grant him a bonus. When Dromedary collided and fell in the Grand National Steeplechase, she was looking all over a winner. The accident, under the circumstances, was extremely unfortunate for her connections, who are to be commiserated with. We heard a wellknown sportsman suggest that the C.J.C. would be doing a gracious act by voting the owner of the mare a sum of money, to in some way recompense him for the loss of one of the prizes in the National owing to people being allowed on the course.