SPORT AND PASTIME.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1908, Page 14

SPORT AND PASTIME.

The Turf. RACING FIXTURES. SEASON 1908. May 25 — Wanganui J.C. Winter. May 23 and 25— Takapuna J.C. Winter Meeting. May 23 and 25— North Otago J.C. Winter. May 30, June 3 and 6.— A.R.C. Steeplechase Meeting. / June 3 and 4 — Dunedin J.C. Winter. June 3 and 4 — Otaki Maori R.C. Winter June 17 and 18 — Eawkes Bay J.C. Winter. . . . June 24 and 25-r-Napier Park R.C. Win- ■; ter. July 9 and 10— Gisborne R.C Steeplechase.

The Otago Racing Club has received splendid nominations for its winter meeting, which takes place on 3rd and 4th June. The Raukawa Cup has 28 and the Huia Handicap 33 nominations, and' class is distinctly good. In the former/event, which vs run over a mile and a quarter, there are quite a number of .winners entered, including Waitajm, Mahuta, Riflemaid, Cross Battery, Signer, Aboriginal, Kairoma, Bourrasque, AIL Red, and Arclight. .This little lot,

among other events, has secured this

season i he Manawatu, Feilding, F^xton, • Masterton, Taranaki, Napier Park, and Ashburton Cupa. Mr. (Pollock's handicaps are due next Tuesday.

The weights for the first day's handicaps ai» Ellerslie next Saturday have , been issued. . The Cornwall Handicap is headed by Uranium and Raupahara, each with 10 stone. The former, carrying three pounds less; was successful in this event last year, and Auckland critics consider her remarkably well treated. Uranium is a most consistent mare ; stil£ she nas been set a fairly difficult task to concede the Hawera winner, Maharanui, twenty-one pounds.

The Racing Conference will meet in Wellington in July. It is almost certain that Mr. Nolan will once again bring up the matter of the appointment of stipendiaiy stewards, and it is not at all unlikely that he will obtain morfe support- than has been his experience in the past, for the idea is rapidly growing in favqur. The late Mr. G. G. Stead was one- who disliked the idea of employing stipendiary stewards. He objected to ' the vesting of extensive powers in their hands, and he enlarged upon the possible x'isk to a straight-going owner in: th'ej event of" his horse running inconsistently.' . Another objection was the impossibility - of getting the right type of official. The success of stipendiaries .in New South Wales, Victoria, and West Australia, however, shows that the straight-going owner has nothing to fear. As to the J second objection, there are just as cap- ' ' able men here in New Zealand as -in Australia, where no difficulty was tfound in getting applicants of experience j^the real -difficulty lay in the selection.

From 1891 down to the close of his iife-the late Mr. G. G. Stead purchased over sixty yearlings at an outlay of something like £21,000. Horses carrying the yellow jacket, black cap; ' won in the same period over £100,000 in stakes. ,The largest sum expended in any s one season by Mr. Stead was in 1889-1900, when he bought Menschikoff (210 guineas), Royal Artillery (1400 guineas), Cruciform (325 guineas), Siege ' Gun; (650 guineas), Field Battery (525 guineas), San Patricia (110 guineasj, San Remo (725 guineas), and Knight Errant (225 guineas), totalling an outlay of 4180 guineas. Though the two last named horses proved downright failures, and Menschikoff and Royal Artillery retired at three years old, the, combined stakes captured by this collection ran out to £15,073, of which sum ■ Cruciform was responsible for £7268 and Menschikoff for £4290. Mr. Stead secured MuEiform at 215 guineas, l and his winnings with the bay were £7380 in stakes in three seasons. Multiform was sold for several ttiousands to go to England. The price • received ' from Sir Ernest Cassel for Multiform, has never transpired, 1 ' but Mr.' Stead made a fortunate move when he subsequently secured , Multiform again by giving Screw Gun in exchange. > Nightfall and Noctuiform were got;, by .Multiform from La_Notte (who. only cqst-?2do guineas), and their earnings in" stakes! reached £7854. As "Noctuifoarm was sold for £5000 and Nightfall .was also quitted at a good figure, ' f the . .alliaiice , of Multiform and La Not^e brought a rich return.. ' i -

About the first American-bred horse to race in England was Prioress, who won the Cesarewitch, in 1857* •' There > ,was a magnificent finish for . the '-'race, i - and Prjoress, El Hakim, and " Queen' Bess ran a dead heat. It was decided , (to run it off, andFordham was v substi-, tuted for ' Tankseley on Prioress, / and \ Bray replaced Little on El Hakim/ who \ started favourite in the run off. Prioress, however, won easily. Parole was. the next American-bred horse of any note to figure on the English turf, and after beating the great Isonomy at • Newmarket, hejbeat a strong field in the City and Suburban in 1879. It was Parole's success that induced Mr. Pierre Lorillard to take Iroquois to England, and after being beaten in the Two Thousand Guineas by Peregrine, Iroquois ,won the Derby and St. Leger. Last years' 'Derby winner Orby, is out of an Am-erican-bred mare, and so is Rhodora, the Dewhurst Plate winner. This year the Americans have"* begun the season well, as Rubio won the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase, and now Norman 111. has been successful in the Two Thousand Guineas, and Rhodora in the One Thousand Guineas. The American invasion began over half a century ago, but this is the first occasion on j •which the-Americans have won the Two i 1 Thousand. Norman 111. was bred by Mr. August Belmont, a leading member of the New York Jockey Club, who paid £25,000 for Rqck Sand a couple of seasons ago.- He s^ill owns Norman 111., and his success would be popular, although unexpected. Last year the form of the colt was moderate, two small races being the best he could do, but, like Orby, he evidently improved •with age. It is somewhat unusual to find an important winner in England ,without a strain of Galopin in the pedigree, but Norman 111. is the exception. His sire, Octagon, was a great performer in America, where he twice won the Toboggan Handicap for Mr. Belmont. He has been a great success at the stud, and in addition to siring Norman 111. he got that great filly Beldame. Octagon is a son of Rayon dOr, a French-bred horse, who won the St. Leger in 1879. Norman 111. is out of Nineveh, who goes back to Old Diamond (sometimes called Duchess), imported to South Carolina before the Revolution. Old Diamond runs back through Lady Thigh to D'Arcy's Black Legged Royal mare, the tap root of Bruce Lowe's No. 5 family, Nineveh's sire was The 111 -Used. He was so badly knocked about in his first three races, when he ran as the Breadalbane colt, that Mr. Belmont named him The 11lUsed. He was a great stayer, but strangely enough his stock were sprinters rather than stayers. He was practically a brother in blood to Epigram, the sire of Le Grand, as he was by Breadalbane from Ellemire, whilst Epigram was by Breadalbane's brother, Blair. Athok

The French colt Seasick 11., who rules as second favourite for the Derby, will be ridden by the American jockey Bellhouse, whose brilliant finish on Ob on the occasion of that horse's first win in th<; Lincolnshire Handicap stamped him as an artist. American riders during the past seven years have been successful on six occasions in the Derby, Lester Reiff having steered Volodyovski, J. H. Martin Aid Patrick, and John Reiff Orby, in addition to Maher's threo triumphs. In fact, the only Englishman to break the sequence was Kempton Cannon, who rode St. Arnaut for Mr. L. de Rothschild through the never-to-be-forgotten thunderstorm which raged in 1904.

"Javelin." of the Melbourne "Leader," remarks that ho has often with justification" deprecated the lack of euphony displayed in the naming of Australian racehorses, and goes on to say : "However, when one reads that Seasick 11. is second favourite for the English Derby one feels almost disposed to pardon even such atrocities as Enibrac, Redavni, Nahpro, and Teksum. As an English writer rightly observed, it would be a calamity for such a name to b& inscribed on the honoured roll of Derby winners. Seasick is a French colt, and if they had called him Mai de Mer it would not have been so bad, because probably only about half tht? British sports who heard or read his namu would have known what it meant."

Tartan, who has been definitely retired to the ' stud, won 8537 coys. in stakes on the Australian turf, though , he did not ra.ee until he was a four-year-old. , '

<J. Earnshawfhas sent Poseidon for a couple of. month's' spell prior to entering on his preparation for his spring engagemfents.* , '

Certificates of the following horses bred in New Zealand • and now in Victoria < have _been accepted by_ the Victorian ' Racing Club as satisfactory on the application of D! J. Price: — Ataahua, by Mahaki — Basilisk; Maui, 'by Mahaki— Jeuzrail ; and Idealist, by Birkenhead — Ideal. ,

Mr. F. Douglas Pennant, owner of the .Liverpool Grand National winner, Rubia,' writes : — In view of the many inaccurate stories about Rubio, I send a -short account of his career. He was bought as a yearling at Newmarket by Mr. S. Clarke, who accompanied my brother, who i. bought another yearling at the same tinie. Both these colts were booked in my' brother's name. I bought him as a four-year-old as a hunter from Mr. * Clarke, and no man -could 'ever want 'to ride a better. He never fell but once in his •'life, and then with a strange jockey up in 1907. I rode him hunting one season, and then sent 'him to Mr. B. Bletsoe, at Dentoh, to be trained. Afi,er" which his performances can be seea from the calendar. I moved him to Mr. W. H. Moore, at Danebury, in 1904, shortly after which he broke down. His recent success, to a great extent, is due to the treatment he received at the hands of Mr. W. Hazelton, M.R.C.V.S., of Buckingham. I determined to give him two years! rest, and, with a view ,to hardening his legs, I had him driven in harness, and lent him" to the proprietor of the Pomfret Arms, Towcester, for about' two months. He then didj^two months' ioad work, when my hunters were being conditioned in the autumn of 1906, and was sent back to Danebury, where he remained till- Mr.' W. H. Moore went abroad. I then sent him to his present trainer, Mr. F. Withington."-

Tne Melbourne "Australasian," in referring to the effect of the Gaming Act in Victoria, says : — "If it were not for the mischievous provision which pre,venta" newspapers from letting the public know how horses stand in the betting, 7 the Victorian Gaming Act would be a very sensible piece of legislation. It has driven the hundreds of people who used to spend racing afternoons in the,, unhealthy atmosphere of crowded betting dubs out into the opea. They may go to the racecourse and get fresh air there, or perhaps some of them, have taken to work ; but in any case, there seems ,no doubt that the Gaming Act has put down betting shops and sly totalisator& m Melbourne."