THE TURF. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 142, 15 December 1908, Page 2

THE TURF. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

In connection with the Manawatn Racing Club's meeting, owners should remeirber that acceptances for the first day's handicaps close at 10 o'clock tonight. Also, at the same' time, a firsti payment is due for the Manawatu Cup and final payments for the Palmerston North and Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes. The final payment for the Manawatu Cup is due next Monday. The positions of the leading horsemen have not undergone much change since last week. Hatch, with twenty -three wins, is now leading Deeley oy three, and the Auckland jockey in his turn is two points ahead of Jenkins. Then 'fol« ldw — Oliver fourteen, Buchanan fourteen, Wilson eleven, and Lowe eleven. Luke Wilson has been riding quite a number of seconds this season, butf his luck may take a turn for the better at Ellerslie. The Dannevirke summer meeting takes place to-morrow and Thursday. . The first day's programme presents a great variety in events. There are races of a mile and a quarter, a mile, seven furlongs, two of six furlongs, one of four and a half furlongs, and one of four; also a hurdle event. In the Tiratu Dash there are no less than twenty-on& acceptors, and if they all go. to the post it will tax even Mr. Piper's talent; to the utmost to get them off in line. 1 Some gooof beginners amongst the above twenty-one are Stylish ' (credited with half a mile in 49sec on the morning of the .first day at Woodville), Maiora, The Samt, Hermia, and Cute.The Dannevirk© Handicap includes Aborigine, who has shown very consistent form 'this season in the classic events he has contested, having won the Wangarnii and Great Northern Guineas, and being only beaten in the very last stride in the Hawkes Bay event by Kopu. Mr. Watt's black gelding, however, failed in handicap company at the Auckland spring meeting. Aborigine has proved that pace is his forte, but he has yet. to convince his admirers that he combines the ability to see out a journey of over a mile. Moral has got a good horse's weight; Waitapu cannot be ready, and is probably just being raced in order to fit him for avents to come. In the Matamau Handicap Gold Lace will be given a run, and' from her showing will be gathered some idea of the prospects of Mr. Donnelly's smart filly , in the A.R.C. Railway Handicap. She will have_ two smart sprinters in Tum-u* and Shuja to thoroughly test her. It is a gpod thing for the open hurdlers at the Manawatu meeting that neither Master Douglas nor Don Carlos was nominated for the firsfc two .days' events : Master Douglas appears, however, amongst the entrants on the, concluding day in the Te Matai Hurdles. In the Dannevirke Hurdles, Master Douglas has to concede Don Carlos 121b. It. will be remembered that at Woodville on the first day the former failed to present' the latter with 161b, ■ but easily succeeded in making him a concession of , 61b on the concluding day. • , JdorsemanshjPj flxo,yt. agajij prove fco s bo the deciding factor,, »as-. at r to-n?orrow'a weights these two promising hurdlers are, oosn s paper., , exceedingly well matched- • ' - The nominations „for-t he Hawked "Bay J C. summer meeting include California and Kopu m the -President's Handicap of a mile, and a .quarter, whilst tho same two, along witb J Muskerry and Wiodhey, are entered in the Summer Handi. cap, once round. California is now no- ' minated for Auckland, Manawatu, Ashhurst, and Hawkes 'Bay. There is a final payment of 12 soys on Friday next for the Auckland Cup, and in the face of California's nomination for so many inland events it will come as a great .-surprise to find his engagement in the Auckland Cup continued. The Christchurch meeting will be - concluded to-morrow. The principal event is the Anniversary Handicap, hve iurlongs, in which Tikitere and Prism, who were first and third hi Saturday's ; big event, again figure. Tikitere has been raised 111b and Prism 31b. The latter, a mare by Pilgrim's Progress, wai going great guns on the tracks at Bio carton in the eariy part' of last month. C. Pritchard's team for the Christmai races will consist of the following seven horses : — Penates, Naumai, Mon Ami, Bravery, Te Ru, Aema, and Pikiho. Bravery and Pikiho are engaged in the Ashhurst Guineas, but the former, a little chestnut gelding by Daunt.^rom - Evenlode's dam, is scarcely forward enough to get to the end of a mile. J. W. Lowe, whose charges have been ' running with great success this season, will be represented at Dannevirke by Effort and Wharekura. Lasfc season the latter gelding was very erratic at the barrier, but Lowe has effected a considerable improvement in him. " " Mahoe was reported to have broken down completely after winning • the Cheltenham Hurdles at Feilding. Mr. J. Bull says that this is not correct. Certainly the Sou-wester gelding hafl a very unsightly-looking near foreleg, and the lump on the fetlock is as large as a goose egg, bufc it is hard and* callous. Mahoe is to be spelled until later on . in the season, when the going wiH be softer. Cardiff, a full-brother, to Mahoe, is again in full work at Palmer* ston, and is shaping well.