SPORTING.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLIII, Issue 4, 14 July 1916, Page 8

SPORTING.

Thfl Racing Conference Accident Fund shows (that the receipts to January 26 amounted to £21.385 0s lid. The principal .terns of expenses were claims paid £2586 18s 9d and salaries and sundries £558 Us lid. The statement shows a credit balan.-e of £18,210 lis. Of this amount £SOOO is invested in Chiis-tchurch Cty Council delientures, and £10,500 is on mortgage. The fundi, which h?.s only been established a few years, has grown to considerable proportions. Probably another effort will be made at the coming conference to do awayi with the fee of £1 per horse at present paid by owners: TTio trainers and jockeys' provident funds, in the care of it'll" different metropolitan clul>s. mostly show a swlwtant:al balance. The Auckland Club has £IOOO inve-ted in Auckland Harbor debenture; the Canterbury Jockey Club has £6ll 17s s<l on deposit; the Duncd'n. Jookey Club bias £IOBO invested: the Grt-viiiotith Jor-kev Club a bank b.ilanre "of £92 13:;; the Hawke's Ray, Jockey Cub £6OO on deposit; the Taranaki 'Jockey Club £750 4s lid; the. Wanganui Jockey Clu<b a ciedit of £1374 17s 6d; anil the Wellington Racine Club £361 on fixed deposit. The highest weight ever allotted any horse in a Melbourne Cup was in 1869. when The Barb headed the list with U. 7. Carbine'.-* weight in 1891 was 10.12, but he d'd not start, and the last place-getter with 10.0 or over was Wakeful, which had exactly 10.0 when she ran second to Lord Cardigan in 1903. Poseidon was the hist horse to run in the Mell>ounvo Cup with over 10.0, his weight beitm 10.3 (inclusive of 101b penalty). The Canterbury Park Trotting Club its evidently well' satisfied with its officiate, all of who n were re-elected at the annual meeting. As a mark of appreciation iHMVUseK were given them as follows:—Secretary. 30gs. treasurer 30gs, handicapper 15gs, starter 15gs. and caretaker 10g>. -. An interesting statement was made by » speaker at the annual smoke concert of the Canteilmiy Owners' and Breeders' Association, tliat should go a long way to silerfee the carping critics of racing who are constantly raising the selfish call to curtail the number of rate meetings. Since war broke out. nearly two years ago, the racing clubs of New Zealand have directly contributed towards the various patriotic funds no less a Hum than £56.000 in cash while in taxation the Government had collected from the clubs appioximately £300,000. It is well to reaieiuber that in connection with this source of revenue, the State is at practically, no cost in regard to its collection, as the racing clubs pay over the various amounts they are re s 'oonsible for directly the money is available. It surely must be conceded that the sport of racing has responded' splendidly to the patriotic movement that has been so universal throughout the Empire. The Berlin police, who a year ago cleared for action against all "enemy;" phraseology, especially English, has evidently not yet pureed the racecourses. At the opening spring meeting in Hoppengarten-Bciiin lately the two principal races were won by horse* Lady Love and Irish Gal. Another winner was Baccarat. Patriotic susceptibilities were doubtless soothed by the victory! of Tannenberg over 17 rivals, which "included such .seduousiynamedi animals at Fortinbras, Swift, Milton. Mars la Tour, ami Mustang. Ait Cluifctchurch on Friday last William Pollock was charged with a breach of section 2 of the Gaming Act. 1905. on May 5, by betting in a train, and also with transgressing the railway bylaws by gambling on a special race-train runnrin'g to the Ashburton races on the same date. The witnesses for the pro.secution were Messr* W. Curryi (stipendiary steward) and W. F. M. Buckley (president of the Canterbury Jockey Club). The .former gave evidence that he had seen Pollock distributing in the train cards which he thought were betting cards and also as to seeing money pass between Pollock and a passenger. In cross-examination the witness said he could not swear that the money passed was in relation to a bet; the cards resembled those usually used in betting. Mr Buckley said that on the day- in question he had seen Pollock give betting cards to two of witness' friends, similar to those used in betting. Mr Hamlon. who appeared for accused, argued that bet- j ting with racing cards was not, in law, the offence of gambling .an ( ] the rail-1 way by-law only provided for gambling on a "train. So that even if betting were proved on the train, the second charge of a breach of the railway bylaw* should fail. Decision was recerved.

The Xetv Zealand Cup entries number 66, the name number as the entries two years ago. Last year the nominations totalled -50, while in 19(H) the record entry of 86 was reached. In 1910 the number was 46, the smallest ever received for the Cup. As usual, the four-year-olds and five-year-olds are the most numerous, there being 16 of each age engaged. During the past season the Racing Conference received the sum of £364 2s for the registration of colors. Registration of partnerships bi ought in £49 and assumed names £l3l os.

Wholesale .stealing of thoroughbreds is at present going on in some parts of Queensland. From Charters Towers comes word that Mr A. M. S. Thompson, of Fairlight, recently lost 16 of his stud mares, with foals ai fout bv the imported Eurasian. The levy on racing elnbs in connection with the Stipendiary Stewards' Account for the season IM4-I.J amounted to £4137 is lOd. Of this amount r-alarics. deputies' fees and travelling expenses reached £3142 lis. A donation of £(si)o to the Sports (ProtectK>n League brought the total up to £3742 lis. '

WLXXIXt! A SWEEP. The syndicate of Four'Mtijr.,, which won the first prize in Tattcrsall's Xo. 2 Consultation on the Winter Stakes" consists of four Wentwonhville residents, who have been subscribing weekly for the purchase of tickets istates the Sydney 'Sun'). They had two .Is tickets in this consultation, and each for his 2s 6d outlay has drawn £1244 13s RJd. One of the four, a city business man was asked yesterday what it felt like to draw; a sweep. "I didn't get the least bit excited," he said, "fn fact, I expected weeks ago to win the first prize. It isn't my first win by any means, and I drew two other prizes of £-5 with friends as well. Jt eeejns a strange thing to say, but I felt I was in a winning vein, and over a week ago I offered to bet a city Friend a champagne supper that it would come off. I just felt we were going to strike it—the first prize, mind you—and -when I got the news I didn't tell the bat \*% them see. the

figures for themselves. And I had some j fun over it. What I lacked in "excitement they made up for. They are all married men. I can't tell you their names, because I don't want thorn to be pestered like I was when two years ago I won second money by drawing ■ ißorder King in the Rosehill Cup. One of thi> chaps in cur syndicate had been doing a wild dance on his verandah for ; an hour or -o before I got home. Another found out niter I ltad gone to i bed, and came and woke me out of j sweet slumber to tell me something I j had known hours before, and the third, | who was sick with influenza, forgot he ; had it. I believe news of his good for- : tune nearly cured him. One -thing I I am pleased with is that they are all steady men, to whom the gift from , Lady Fortune will he very welcome. I Last work I said to the other three, ' before t'lie results came out, 'You',j better pay up your dough, because we're going to win the first prize.' They laughed and hoped I was prophetic, and they paid up. 1 didn't lose an hour's work or an hour's sleep over it. I have been remarkably fortunate in Taft.'s sweep?. Several times I have drawn horses and small prizes. I dreamed that Piastre would win the Cup that lie did win. but I thought so little of it that 1 did not back it. I dreamed also of Posinatus' win, and I. put £3O .on it with an unregistered bookie in Victoria and he scaled me. I lost my £3O even. That was a bit of the other luck." Asked if he had received anv begging letters, the head of the Mugs' Syiuli" cate said: "Not yet, but to-morrow I'll have a pile that high. When I won with Bolder King two years ago I got heaps of letters, nearly all begging. One was from a woman who said slie was the mother of 17 children. Another person wanted,me to buy an oil- i painting of the winning horse,' but the ' majority were just unashamed cadgers, j One gets heaps of new acquaintances j when a little bit of fortune comes his ', way." j