SPORTING.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 108, 30 May 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPORTING.

Ttjbf Notes bt Vigilant. Tho flat racing season of 1884-5 may be eaid to have closed with the Birthday meetings, and a brief retrospect of its principal features may prove of interest to my readers. The first thing that strikes us on looking back is the great prosperity of the large central Eaoing Clubs at Dnnedin, Christchnroh, Auokland, Wellington, and Napier. In spite of greatly increased stakea and heavy expenditure, all these c'.uba have developed into wealthy corporations, with well-paid officers, aplendidlyappointed courses on valuable properties, mostly unencumbered, and substantial f andß at their bankers. Tho balance-sheet of the Canterbury Jockey Club, presented at the annual meeting last Monday week, lies before me as I write. This club has paid away in stakes daring tho past seapon .£9624 16a, against 3i in 1883-4, and .£6676 8a io 1892 3, and yet it wns never so well off as it in now. Tho total disbursements roaobed £10,835 143 9d, bat to meet this a revenue of .£12,123 12s 7d has come in, and the profit on the season has consequently been .£1235 17a lOd. These aro big figures, and a few years ago would have appeared impossible. The totalißator has, of course, boon the mngio talisman whioh has caused this rapid financial development of the various clnbs thronghont .tho colony. In tho Canterbury Club the receipts for ' tho season from this source alone have been .£4178 3s Bd, while in Dunedin, although tho figures are not to hand at thin momont, it ia qnfe to say that the amonnt has been inn oh largar. Wo are confronted with this singular fact— that the leidingNow Zoaland clubs ao now obtaining moro money from this new source than thoir wholo revenuo amounted to a few years ago. I have already expressed my opinion that they must, in return, show even more liberality than they are displaying at present to both the publio and horne-ownera. '1 his they would be easily able to do were they to work their totalisators with the same regard to ooonomy and business- like management as they observe with regard to their other branches of expenditure. To allow two or three persona to receive X3OO or iJ4OO for a oouple of days' work and tho use of two maohines, as some of them do at present, is simply wanton extravagance. If the maohines were managed properly they would be able to be worked on a 5 per oenfc. commission, instead of 10. In the direction of making expenses of horseowners lighter, it would not be a bad step for the wealthier olub3 to build stabling on their property, whioh they could let at a nominal figure to the proprietors or trainers of competing horces up for their meetings. All these are matters which certainly deserve detention But to continue onr retrospect. Parallel with the gratifying development of the central oluba has cropped up a mushroom growth of email suburban dubs, the existonae of which is in every way objectionable. They are mostly started and conducted by irresponsible persons, who know little of, and onra nothing for, the recognised rules of raoing, but who regard the " running " of the ' club as simply a means cf making money by the totaliaator, and in any shady way they can. I am glad to see that iv Canterbury and Auokland the metropolitan clubs have recognised the necessity for taking action to prevent the malpraotices whioh are so flagrantly indulged in at the meetings of these baitard sporting associations, that they have lately booome a orying scandal. I should not at all wonder if, during the coming session, legislative assistance is invited to eooure the repression of these turf exoresoonaes. Groater oiro in the issue of totaliRator lioenses in tho partial means of cure at proiont to hand. The season in Wellington has been an unusually oventful ono Opposition, that great incitement to onterprise, haß been introdnoed with marvolloua results. The Island Bay Park Company having formed a capital raoing traok within easy walk of the city, held its first meeting under the auspices of its associated Jookoy Club in November, taking for its fixtnro the day immediately preceding the two days of tho Raoing Club's spring mooting. Unfortunately, owing to oauses whioh if is not necessary to revive, the oompotition of tho tiro olubs was not earned ont with that good feeling on both sides whioh should be one of the essential features of honest Knglish rivalry. The reßultof the fight, all too severe as it was. has oonduood in a romarkable manner to the renewal of nport in Wellington. The Island Bay Club is being re-organned under conditions whioh will, I believe, render it a successful and popular institution ; while the Raoing Clnb, roused out of the apathy of the past, has burst from its orysalis state into the activity and fair proportions of tho fully developed busy bee. Tho branch railway from Petone to the course, talked of for ten years, is an aonompl'shed faot, built in six weeks— the rjuiokest bit of railway construction in the colony's history; great improvements, inolnding the oreotion of a new stand, have boon carried out on the Hutt Park conrso ; tho olub has already held seven highly sneoeasful days' raoing this soas>on, and is to give another day's sport in July ; stakes have been increased, the publio convenience oonsnlted in the lowering of admission oharges, and in numerous other respects — in fact, the change is wonderful. We have energy and push and progress where we so long had just nothing but a jog-trot motion. With tho present management, it is iv every way probable that this satisfactory condition of things will oontinuo. In one respect wo have not made progross. We are still without any looally owned good class racehorses, and I am afraid wo oan only look to time and oiroumstanoes ts supply the dofloionoy. Tho cquino hero of tho season has undoubtodly been tho Hon. Mr. Robinson's Vanguard, by Traduoor— En Avant, who has worthily upheld his dead sire's reputation by winning tho two great handicaps of the yoar— the Now Zealand Cup and the Dnnedin Cap— betides other minor events. It is a curious faot that with these brilliant exceptions the owner of Vanguard has soaroely won a race this season. Oadois, whoso early form promised great things has not; been brought out, while Liverpool, Wizard, and Manchester have not come up to oipeotatiions as vet. I oan hardly think, however, that the squire of Cheviot has taken his team over to Australia in disgust at his treatment in New Zealand. My opinion is that he loves to play a big game, and having won the highest prizes hero, he has made up his mind to have a dash at the rioh stakes and bookmakers of Melbourne and Sydney. Next to Vanguard, Weloome Jaok has been the prominent figure among tho older horses. The taotios of his owhor have not suited the publio, who have lost over " Jack" and his numerous scratchings a great deal more than they have landed by his victories. But ho is a grand horse ; and he, too, has gone away in search of greater oonquests, aooompanied by the game old jumper, Clarence. Tasman, in tho Wellington Cup and Raoine Club Handicap showed us that he still maintains the same dash and |vigour that brought him home first in the New Zealand Cup of 1883. He baj done well for his owner, Dan O'Brien, who has had two other useful strings to his bow in Buoina and Trenton. The mention of the last-named brings us to the three-year-olds. The Bon of Musket and Frailty is probably the best of them, for although not by any means up to the mark at the time, his performance in the Dunedin Cup was a brilliant one. The only colt whioh might have beaten him had they met, both fit and well, was Blaok Rose— by Antoros— dam of Red Rose. Those who were at Christohnroh on the memorable day when ho flashed past the post in front of the grandoat field that has ever started for the Canterbury Derby, will not easily forget the onthusiasm which greeted the success of Mr. Henry Redwood's colours. Blaok Rose, from his frame and conformation, might have been, and may still be, the best horse ever bred in Now Zealand, and there is no doubt Mr. Redwood thought him better than Lnrline. But he had a brief career. After a sooond brilliant performance in the Wellington Jookey Club Spring Handicap he devo'oped "a leg," and although he started in tho Bame club's Gold Cup in February he was nowhere, and pulled up Buoh a oripple that he had to be thrown out of work for the si-a=on. I hope to see him able to throw down the gauntlet to Trenton in the Canterbury Cup next November. Of the two-year-olds Mr. James Marshall's Thunderbolt, by Musket— Looket, has been facile princevs. He has never met anything vary good, but he has won all his engagements in such slashing style and his appearance is so commanding, that, taking his breeding into consideration as well, he needs must be Al. I have just heard that he is to go to Melbourne, and it is extremely likely, as he is engaged in the V.R.C. Derby, while ha is not entered for the Canterbury Derby. If Nordenfeld, Matchlock, and Thunderbolt, were all to start fit and well for the great Victorian three-year-old event, Musket would stand a very good chance of being again accredited as the sire of the winner. Next to Thunderbolt, in my estimation, oomea Mr. Redwood's Alpine Rose, by Baraa Rama— Blaok Rose's dam; Stonyhurst, by King of Clubs— Watarsprite ; and foul Shot, by MusketSlander. The last-named was very highly tried early in the season, but disappointed his backers very tnncn when he met Thunderbolt in the summer. lam told, however, that he was not nearly himself then, and that he will yet prove a clinker, as he should do if pedigree and looks go for anything. Other horses whioh have distinguished themselves during tho season are Turquoise, Administrator, Poet, Speculation (late Hippodamia), Marion, Russley, Neoklaoe, Wapiti, Nelson, Captain Webster, Ac. July has been going to do a lot, but it has not yet oome off. Among owners the Hon. Mr. Robinson Mr. Dan O'Brien, and Mr. John Marshall, of Auckland, have scoured the plumß of the season. For the next few months eteepleohasing

will be the order of the day. The " Grand National" and the Wanganui Meetings are already things of the past. It _is quite time the former dropped its grandiloquent title, for it is neither "Grand" nor "National." Fancy the Grand National Hurdle Race resulting in a walk over. At Wanganui, I hear from some who were present, the racing was very good. Director was a good thing for tho Steeplechase, it appears, but went wrong with fever in the feet a few da; a before the race. Druid was th« only one of the candidates in the big race who neither fell nor refused. Coutchouo and Nukerau are both said to be good-looking horses, who are likely to be heard of again. Diuid's win waa immensely popular. On the Ist June the weights for tho New Zealand Cup are due, and their appearance will be the signal for a large amount of speculation. On tbe same date the entries for the Melbourne Cup will be received, the weights in this caae being due on the 27th June. Under the circumstances these will also be lookei forward to with interest The English Derby will be ran next Wednesday. As up to the present favourites appear to bo winning all the great ovents at ¦Home, I should not be surprised to see Paradox add tho blue ribbon of the turf to his Two Thousand viotory.