TUFTS OF TURF.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9988, 18 March 1898, Page 2

TUFTS OF TURF.

[Br the Editorial Scissors.]

A regulation regarding the carriage of racehorses by rail appeared in the New South Wales "Government Gazette" of February 18, as under :—" In future a free second-class pass wiil be allowed between Sydney and Melbourne, and between station in New South Wales distant over fifty miles, to one attendant accompanying every three fully-loaded four-wheeled horse-boxes, on condition that the whole of the horses in the vehicle are the bona fide property of the one owner. Iα addition to the above, when three such horse-boxes are sent, return tickets at the single fare will be issued to the above attendants (not exceeding eight in number), provided they travel in the ooxes with the horses. If less than three full horseboxes are sent, single fare for the return journey, up to the number horses conveyed will be allowed'to the attendants. Where three horses, the property of the same owner, are conveyed in one box between stations within the colony, a reduction of twentypercent. will be allowed on the charges for ,the horsea. The tickets issued to stations within the colony will be available for two months, but those issued between Melbourne and Sydney will be available for six months."

Again is the steeplechase question cropping up, and the farcical business now for so long passing as such being justly denounced, says a London exchange. Year after year haa the burlesque continued, yet hitherto . without the semblance of a prospecfc of an improvement;. Nor can one see how the difficulty is to be got over even if the National Hunt Committee were at once superseded. The evil is of deeper root than this, and, like our soft breed racehorses, may be at once traced to our present system of racing generally. For some score of years we have all but ignored long-distance racing of all kinds. The return of the present year shows 1,533 races of a mile and under, and but 287 of a mile and over; the races of two miles and upwards numbering butsixty-sevenoutof nearly 1,900! When we compare this with the fact that 1,500 two-year-olds ran during the/year, and that the " four-year-olds and upwards" division were fewer than ran seventy years ago when "Ruff" first opened his pages to us, we hardly need wonder at our present " soft" breed of English thoroughbreds. Unfortunately, our present kidglove and drawiug-room methods, agreeable as are their social surroundings, are not conducive to the "improvement of the breed," arid what we gain by the one we lose by the other, we most of v* know this but dare not admit it, since the giant has become dangerously strong, and doesn't care to pick a quarrel with " big 'uns." The fact nevertheless remains, and is just now being pretty generally allowed, that we have entirely wiped out the steeplechaser, have all but seen the last of the two nailer, have this year but one high classic, not a single two-year-old of any pretension, and in at least a brace of our principal handicaps have been beaten by foreigners.

Bookmaking, if properly carried out, is a profitable business. The illegal laying of totalieator odds is also a source of considerable profit to those who indulge in it, but probably what the most successful of the New Zealand bookmakers made in the ring would not be considered much in the Old Country, judging by the following from the pen of Mr John Corlett:—Some time ago we commented on the common fallacy that all bookmakers are rich men, 4f)d that it is necessary only to lay the. odds in order to reap a, rich fortune far beyond the dreams of avarice. We drew attention to what we consider the convincing fact that the wills of only two or three bookmakers have been proved, over £50,000. Since then little Irish O'Connor has died, and to the general surprise it was found that he was worth £100,000. He was a man who all his life lived in a very humble manner, and possibly he made money by other pursuits. Taking it, however, that he made it all by betting, how small the amount is as compared with fortunes made in other walks of life ? Mr E. Green, whose death took place a few days ago, was-one of the magnates of the ring about the same time that Munday was, and neither died worth a shilling. The greatest name that we can call to mind in connection with bookmaking is Davies the Leviathan, and yet all that he left behind him was £60,000. He had gone before we knew the turf intimately, and the great figure of our early days was John Jackson, of FairSeld, who stood out far more conspicuously in the ring than any bookmaker does now. The fortune he left behind him was only about £30,000. Many a man that we have seen laying the odds in " thousands," we have atterwards lent half-a-orown to to purchase the necessaries of life. Mr Green was a leading operator in the palmy days of the betting ring.. He was a very excitable man, and consequently did not always act with judgment. After making a large sum of money he got into low water, when, if we recollect rightly, he went into partnership with the late Mr " Sam " Hopkinson. who had a very businesslike head, with the result that he ran into £80,000 oe more, all of which he subsequently lost.

Apropos of Mr Green's death the same writer says:—He is not the only,owner of a big winner that has died penniless. Within our own time we have in mind the owner of a St. Leger winner who died insolvent and in exile. A winner of the Two Thousand was buried by his friends, and a double winner of the Chester Cup in its great days is now a timekeeper in an omnibus company. The winner of the Oaks of 1861 died proprietor of a small beer-house in his native town, and the owner of the famous Ben Webster and Pretty Boy had scarcely enough left at last to pay for his bed. Still more sad was the end of the owner of the Derby winner of 1832, who dild of starvation in a garret at Newmarket.