THE RACING WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 153, 25 March 1925, Page 4

THE RACING WORLD.

(By

“Watcher.”)

R. J. Mason, best known these days as the trainer of the great Gloaming, but who in his time has trained more winners than any other man south of the line, including Cups, Derbies, classics, and handicaps innumerable, has never kept a record of his turt career. He has, since Gloaming began to make turf history, kept newspaper clippings and photographs in connection with some of the victories of the champion, but of the earlier years with other famous horses all he has is his memory. Mason is a man not given to talk. Perhaps that is one of the secrets of his wonderful success, but occasionally he will indulge in reminiscences of some of the good horses that have passed through Ins hands. He is at present at Trentham with Gloaming, maybe the last trip the great gelding will make to a meeting there, for he cannot last for ever, and the time must inevitably arrive when the public will see the last of one of the fastest racehorses of modern times. Is Gloaming the best, horse Mason has ever trained? Ask him one dav after Gloaming has bounded once round the track like a grevhound and has pulled up for the tit-bit that is never missing when his task is completed. Yes! He is really a great horse, Mason will say, deliberately, choosing his words so that one gains the firm impression of the great love the veteran has for the wonderful bay. “No other horse 1 have ever had was able to take on the champions like Gloaming has done and bent them all at their favourite distance. David, Beauford, and many others he has beaten when at their best, all the best horses of their time. Gloaming is a generous worker. He will always do bis best, is anxious to do so, whether it is a gallop or merely a work out. He is intelligent, too, for he knows just when he is wanted to go fast and when to do steady pacing. He will never run himself blind, although he would do so if called upon." . How would Carbine fare with Gloaming if thev could be got together? “Over a long course Carbine would beat him, but over a ' short course Gloaming would win Carbine was a great horse, and so was Lochiel. In many ways Lochiel was one of the greatest horses I ever trained. He won a Newmarket, ran second a year or two later with 9st. 41b. in the saddle, and then came out two davs later and won the Australian Cup, two miles and a quarter. He won the New Zealand Cup ami Auckland Cun. and was a wonderful horse. Meetings in those days were sometimes six months apart, not like they are to-dav, and horses were much harder to keep right. Races were also run over much longer distances on the average." Multiform? “Yes! Multiform was a very good horse. How good it was never really ascertained. He won all his races so easily. He was also a very beautiful dispositioned horse, and he had a great stud record.” Then the talk drifted back to Gloaming. What a great horse with which to finish a great career. Had it not been for the greatness of the son of The Welkin R. J. Mason would have retired some time ago. He will stav as long as Gloaminv lasts, which will not be long now. When the last call to the post is answered, ami Gloaming has run bis last race, Mason will rest with him.

“The Burnside vearlings, mostly by Solferino, sold well" (writes Mr. Ken Austin in the “Australasian”) “thanks, in a great measure, to the presence of the Riddford brothers, J. Donald and the irrepressible “Ngakanui Mac,” as the well-known racing man, A. Macdonald, is familiarly and usually called there. He bought the brother to Solfanello and Roseday, a very nice bloodlike colt for 1100 guineas, and secured the bargain of the sales to my wav of thinking in the Paper Monev 'colt, from Temba, for 350 guineas, despite rather a foalish pail of knees. J. Donald, who has recently forsaken the breeding of Friesians for perhaps the somewhat more difficult task of thoroughbreds, got a beautiful filly bv Paper Money from Grev Linnet, .whose blood will be invaluable."

“I do not intend to dwell on the racing I saw at Wellington, as all race meetings are more or less alike.” continues ■ Mr. Austin. “The absence of the roar of the ring took some getting over, as did seeing the horses sent out on to the course fully half an hour before the start. When I first saw the jockeys aftei their preliminaries pull their mounts up, get off and lead them back down the straight. I thought something was wrong until I was told it was the usual practice. The horses ate sent out earlv out of consideration foi the totalisator investors, but 1 should imagine it is only a matter of educating the public to make ip their betting minds a little more quickly, as we make them do in Australia. The time seems unnecessarily long, and it ccrtainlv cannot be good for Hie horses, especially the two-year-olds, but they all seemed wonderfully quiet and wellbehaved. Tn Mr. O’Connor, the Wellington Club has a heaven-born starter, and like that of Mr. Rupert Greene, his control over the boys and their mounts is wonderful.” New Zealand bred and New Zealand owned horses have seldom had as great a run of success in Melbourne as during the autumn carnivals at Caulfield and Flemington this year. Of the ,36 races decided at Caulfield and Flemington, New Zealand bred horses won nine, and of the £-14,172 distributed in prize money they won £12.864. Of that amount horses bred by Mr. W. G. Stead earned £8495 in recording five wins, a second, and a third. Following is a record of the earnings of New Zealand bred horses at Caulfield and Flemington:—

Total: 9 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third—£l2..‘lM. With marcs bv The Welkin in so much demand for stud purposes, it might at first glance seem rather surprising that jMr. I?. If. Ik Clarke would care to part wit l- of the fillies bv the Flving Fox •. especially with a sister to Glonn- ns happened this month when the yearling by The Welkin from Licht was scut into the ring and sold for 1500 guineas to a New South Wales breeder. But a little consideration is sufficient to shpw that Mr. clarke’s policy is the correct one (says n Melbourne writer). His paddocks at Melton are alreadv well stocked with voting brood mares bv The Welkin, nnd thev include at least two other sisters to'Gloaming in Refraction and Lightsome. One might easilv.bc embarrassed with riches of this kind, and Mr. Clarke is evidentlv unite alive to the fact that room must lie kept in Ins st-4>l for other blood besides that of The Welkin,* uudoubtedlv valuable. thoiKdi it may be in reasonable rmnntities. Besides there arc now filiv foals bv The Welkin as well as colts, ami thus if Mr. Clarke wishes to further add to this stock in his stud, lie will be tn a position to do so. Some day we may hear of Gloaming's sister, sold last week, being mated with, sav. Valais, ond 11’C result should be interesting. Refraction, anotlie’ full relation to the New Zealand champion, is represented this season by a two-year-old named

Straylight (by Wolawa), but the colt has not so far bucM seen on a racecourse.

The most notable happening of the V.R.C. autumn meeting was The Hawk’s extraordinary performance in the C. M. Lloyd Stakes (says the “Australasian”). In that race, when opposed to some of the best sprinters in Australia, he ran around the field two furlongs from the winning post and won easily in the Australasian record time of I min. 36fsec. Flemington is not a course on which records are easy to make or easy to break. Its long stretches and severe straight tend to slow down even the greatest of stayers or sprinters, and it is rather remarkable that in the list of record times for the Australian States and New Zealand, embracing as they do distances from four furlongs to three miles, not a single record prior to The Hawk's effort was established at Flemington. The Hawk now has the unique, distinction of holding two Australasian records, as in January, 1922, as a three-year-old in New Zealand, he ran six furlongs in the fast time of lmin. 9 4-ssec. The Hawk is probably one of the best, if not actually the best, milers we have ever had the pleasure of seeing in Victoria. Heroic proved himself a great three-vear-old, while The Night Patrol, Father’s Voice, and Quintus are a trio of great gallopers, and yet The Hawk ran past them in a few strides, and without apparent trouble. His action is the personification of grace and speed, and he has proved himself not only a weight Carrier above the ordinary, but his ganieness is unquestioned. His Essendon Stakes win on the opening day of the meeting was even more decisive, but for all that he is probably better over a mile than any other distance, and it is to be sincerely hoped that his owner will not dull his great speed in the effort to make him run distances that are really beyond him.

Racecourse demonstrations generally amuse me (writes “Pilot”), referring to the hostile reception accorded Dialogue on February 28. It is generally the pocket talking. As Dialogue was a red-hot favourite for the Jumpers’ Flat Race he was the most closely watched runner in that event. When he was beaten I did not hear disappointed backers take much exception to his failure, but when, later, with ,'lst. 111 b. less weight, he led throughout the Canterbury Handicap, and struggled home half a length ahead of Mount Erin, many of those who lost monev over his first run were confident there was something wrong, and hooted until he was taken away after his jockey bad weighed in. Going to the front early, Dialogue made the running at an easy pace for seven furlongs, with Mount Erin and Eudorean nearest him. They closed on him at the three furlongs, and Mount Erin looked to have his measure. However, served by his light weight, Dialogue kept plugging along, and beat the favourite half a length. The time was only a second and a half faster than that recorded in the. Jumpers’. Flat Race, with its high scale of weights. Despite the demands that Dialogue and his connections should be rubbed out, the stewards did not think the two performances warranted reviewing, which' shows they were quite satisfied everything was in order the first time. Never an upholder of the “after game,” that is also my opinion.

Tlie efforts being made in America to encourage international contests in liorsc-racing within its borders will no iloubt be marked with a vigour characteristic of the United States. Judging from comfnents in England, it may ho very much doubted if the matter will be regarded with enthusiasm in the Home country. "The Special Commissioner” of the ••Sjmrtsmivi” penned the following:—“The doleful adventures of Epinard in the U.S.A, should put a final stop to the promotion of so-called international ‘sports’ so far an horse-racing is concerned. Tlie Papyrus episode was bad enough, but he liad to run against one opponent only; and when the condition of the track on the dav of the race proved to be hopeless for any horse with ordinary plates. Basil Jarvis decided to ‘take a licking’ rather than risk liaving the colt shod with toe-clips and calkins. Consequently Papyrus came hack to England not much the worse for his ordeal, though it took him a long time to regain his best form. He did? in fact, regain it. as lie clearly showed in the Jockey Club Stakes, and no harm has been done —in fact, it is n distinct credential that lie emerged from such an enterprise unscathed. Epinard, with his more intimate U.S.A, conncfetions nhd his American trainer, would, it was thought, have much better chances of victory than Papyrus had. In the event it has proved far otherwise, for those connected with Epinard have by some incmice : viiMe folly permitted him in each of the throe races to take on several opponents, one nr other of which, accordin'' to American palters' own reports, ‘took care of him’ on 0""h occasion, and now. in yet another race, it seems bo bns been lamed, nnd thus, it mav l>o. incapacitated from ever retrieving h’s reputation as Papyrus has done. Surely, if anyone wishes to trv his horses out. internationnllv it is far better to send lliom to Fm'land and run for the Darby or Oaks, or at Ascot—or elsewhere —without any needless ‘booming’ or working nn big gate money as for a glove fight.”

I had an opportunity of seeing the Aga Khan’s training establishment at Maisons-Laffite in France the other day (says an English sporting writer). A delightful villa which serves as the trainers residence and an elegant range of stables within the grounds, are his property, being iet to his trainer, Senor Juan Torterolo, who, in addition to having the Prince’s horses, also trains for Senor Unzue (now the owner of the notorious Derby lailurd, Town Guard) and Mr. Guillermo Ham. In all, Torterolo must have between fifty and sixty horses in his care. Some years ago he was fairly well known in England, at the time when his fellow countryman from the Argentine, Senor Alvarez, trained Black Sand, Epsom Lad, and others for the present Lord Woolavington, and Gomez rode the horses. Torterolo’s brother, thirtynine years of age. is admitted to be one of the best jockeys in France, and he will ride next year for the Aga Khan, Tolterolo, by the way, is confident that had the horse been well enough to make the trip Town Guard would have Won this year’s Ascot Gold Cup, and not Massine*He never, he says, had such a certainty in his life. But then Gilpin thought that about him as a three-year-old for the Derby! To see Town Guard now you would not think much of his future as a racehorse, but his trainer has a tremendous opinion of him, and is very, hopeful that lie will bo able to send him across the Channel next season. The Aga Khan has one of the best two-year-olds in France in Sherry, a filly by Alaintenon —Sweetie. She certainly looks a racing machine, but I thought her rather on the small side, though, as St- German’s, Love in Idleness, and others have shown us in recent years, this is not necessarily against the career o'; a three-year-old. When she has finished racing in France Sherry will be sent t> the Aga Khan’s new stud in Ireland. The Prince thinks she will make a great brood mare with any luck.

1st 2nd 3rd £ *]’hr lift wk ... 3 I — 3569 — 3433 Father's Voice ... ... 1 — — 2600 Los Gatos ... 1 - » ■ » ■■ 1864 I'stunrv ... 1 — 1 518 Acamar ... 1 — — 300 Horoscope ... — 1 — 80