SPORTING ITEMS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9887, 18 November 1897, Page 6

SPORTING ITEMS.

ROUND THE WORLD.

" Weekly Press and lleleree.

Says " Terlinga " :—As the Caulfield C'.ip was run Parthenopceus stayed well enough, but I doubt if it was a really true race. The first half-mile was fast, and so was the last, but in the middle half-mile the leaders were all fighting for their heads. lam aware that the time was good, but, then, the course is faster than it was. A few years , back a mile and a quarter in 2min '.17sec on the course proper with shoes on was considered an exceptional gallop. Now I feel certain that a good horse would knock 33-c off this record. However,, there is every reason to believe that Parthenopaeus Was not favoured in the race. He was on the rails all the way, and was a long time in getting out. On getting off the scale young Fielder protested against Amberite for interference, but no sooner had the ominous word " Protest " been run up on the blackboard than the objection was withdrawn. Mr Fielder, sen., may have been disappointed at the defeat of Parthonopreus, but he saw no reason for protesting against Amberite. Speaking of Merman in connection with a gallop he executed over the Cesarewitch course, the " Special Commissioner " of the Sportsman wrote :—«- He clambers somewhat in his action and seems to dwell between his strides as a boat with a bad crew ia it does between the strokes. But I know from his late owner, Mr W. R. Wilson, that Merman will never really let himself go in home gallops, and it was easy enough to see to-day that he does not care for unnecessary exertion. He went pounding along though as if another two miles at the same pace would not have stopped him, and be his action what it may it seems to get him there all the same. That he is one of the soundest horses in the race cannot be disputed, and not one will have done a better preparation if all goes well with him up to the day, but I must repeat the warning that he has never started in a race of longer distance than one mile and a half, while on September sth last year he won the Rosstown Handicap at Caqlfield over five furlongs and a half, beating a field of sixteen. On that occasion he carried 9st 2lb, but the distance was anything but a Cesarewitch one. All the same, I should be prepared to take Merman's stamina on trust, and a really more serious question is whether he was really backed for the stable last Friday, or whether it was a case of forestalling. My business, I am glad to say, does not involve tackling the inscrutable problem of betting, and so I will not attempt to further unravel what I may style the Merman mystery. Indeed I should not allude to it at all had it not been brought to my notice in a fashion which suggests that caution on the part of intending, backers of the horse may still be advisable.