THE TURF.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 143, 16 December 1908, Page 2

THE TURF.

♦ NEWS AND NOTES. The most experienced trainer now and again finds it a difficult . matter to correctly sum up a horse's condition. Is it quite wound up? Would it be all the better for another fast gallop or two, or would it be all the better without one? Success or failure often rests upon a right answer to these queries. \\ hen, however, the services of a jockey of the first rank are enlisted, the problem is greatly simplified. Endowed with a kind of sixth sense, an instinctive louch or feel — it is hard to describe this faculty — a naturally great horseman learns all he wants to know about his mount's character, tempers ment and condition in one gallop, and a hint dropped from him in invariably, worth following. This faculty of touch distinguishes the first class from the best of the second class riders. It enables a rider to accurately gauge with hands and knees the measure of hia mounts' vital forces, and many a failing horsts has been "nursed" first past the post by riders gifted with this, intuitive power, that differently handled would have finished 'down the straight." The old school who rode long were-popu^ larly bupposed to tell by the touch of. the knee when their mounts were failing, but there can bo little doubt that present day horsemen tell by their hands. The horse is felt to be coming back to you ot as Hewitt phrased it after Solution had failed in the last bit of the Flemington straight in Poseidon's Melbourne Cup, "she just died in my hands." Tangimoana's case is a puzzling oue. The San Fran mare has been running as honestly as ever, yet without "showing that dash at the right end which assisted her to win so many races last season Possibly weight has stopped her : also it is feasible that the fast time recently put up would preclude her victory Still she is not the Tangimoanaof the Autumn. She looks light, and is skittish at the post. Now that Jenkins has ridden the mare in her last three engagements, it is -afe to assume that King has ascertained what is wanted. Once that careful trainer gets her as well as she was last May, the mare can be relied upon to improve upon her prese it season's record which reads seven starts, without a single win, a third at Hastings and a similar place at Woodville being the best she has done. An Australian exchange in referring to Motoa, timidly ventures the opinion that if decently treated by the handicappers, the big Conqueror horse mi^ht pay his way on Victorian suburban courses. H'm, yes: he might. Again, he might not. When Motoa is acclimatised and in commission, the Melbourne suburbanite galloper will wonder what she is chasing. Mischief, an own brother to Miscast, cantered away with the Queensland Champagne Stakes, running the six furJongs with 9st 31b up in lmin 16 3-ssec. Mischief is quite a champion over there, and his sequence of victories will direct the attention of Queensland sportsmen to New Zealand-bred horses and buyers from that quarter may in future be expected to support our yearling sales. Patris who ran second to Mischief is a half sister to Mr. W. Smart's Tuponu which mare, by the way, is under offer to a Christchurch owner. Prophecy, by Phoebus- Apollo—Problem, won the , December Stakes— a iweight.for-ag© event^T-sat- Perth recently, and is considered' to be quite the best mare up to' a mile and a mile and a half now racing in Australia. Prophecy has 9.H ,in the Perth Cup, and 10.8 in the Railway Handicap; Tulkeroo, who .ran gallantly in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, being top weight with 10.3 and 10.4 in. each event. Mason is training a half-brother to Prophecy an Acrostic, who was bought by Mr. Greenwood at the Yaldhurst sal© for 700 guineas. Prior to winning the Cambridgeshire Marcovil had not started since ha accounted, for the Alexandra Handicap at the Gatwick May Meeting, 1907. Early this season he was bought by Mt. Luspombe for 930 guineas at the sale of the late Duke of Devonshire's horses, and at that time it was considered doubtful whether he would stand training again. On the day of the race he looked &boy« himself, and, taking all the circumstances into consideration, it is not surprising that he went out at 50 to 1. Not one bookmaker in twenty even wrote his name, and. since Bendigo, another 50 to 1 chance, won in 1883, th^ result of the' Cambridgeshire has not so greatly favoured the layers. However, the fact of Land League (second), and Succour (third) bo-ing well backed for places, left th© "books" with something to growl about. Marco, the sire of Marcovil, is by Barcaldine, who sired Bonnie Rosette, Signor's maternal grand ' dam. Solution, who now belongs to th« bleeders of Poseidon, and Orcus, has produced a very fine colt foal to Challenger. The colt lacks nothing on the score of breeding, for Challenger, a most commanding and masculine looking horse, is by the great Isinglass (winner of the 2000 guineas, Derby, and St. Leger) from Meddlesome, a daughter of>St. Gatien from Busybody (winner of the Oaks) by Petrarch. Robert Sievier, proprietor of th* Winning Post newspapeir, is a busy man these days. Ho is suing J. B. Joel— who recently prosecuted him on a charge of blackmail — for libel, claiming neavy damages, and the engineers' union is going at him (Sievier) for libel in his paper, the Winning Post. With Sievier the plaintiff, and Joel defending, the recent position will be reversed with a vengeance. Sievier revels in law, and enjoys himself in th© witness-box. A lato Attorney-General of England describes him as the most powerful witness he ever encountered. H© came to this conclusion after a bout with the redoubtable "Bob" over the ''Duka case. " Owners and trainers are reminded that acceptances lor all events and entries for the Trial Plate, to be decided at the Waikanae Hack Racing Club's annual meeting on New Year's Day, close on Friday evening. Nominations for events at the Wellington Summer Meeting close on Fri« day evening.