NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 15, 19 January 1910, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By Sir Bedivere.) Acceptances for the minor handicaps to be decided at Trentham on Saturday fell due last night, and although a large number of horses were allowed to drop out, many of these hold engagements in one or the other of the more important events. Ten is now the average numerical strength of the fields for the five races referred to, and as there is no reason to anticipate many eleventh-hour withdrawals, the position may be regarded as satisfactory. The Electric Handicap promises to provide a most interesting item, some of the speediest animals to be found in the country being engaged therein, and the presence of eeveral maiden two-year-olds in the Nur. eery Handicap will prove attractive. Among the horses entered for the Newmarket Handicap are: —Celerity, Wai-ila, Motoa, Pink 'Un, Don Hannibal, Gold Thread, Ngauruhoe, Beaton Dale, and Annapolis. Diabolo, who claims engagements in both the Australian Cup and Champion, Stakes, run over two and a quarter and three miles, respectively, must not be confused with the New Zealand horse of the same name. The folly of laying long odds on was aptly illustrated at a recent meeting at Newbury—the most up-to-date course in England, for the laying-out of which the famous trainer Join Porter was mainly responsible . There were only two starters in the Open Steeplechase, one of which was the crack performer Jerry M. Of course, it looked a pound to a gooseberry on his winning, and one rash punter went in search of his expenses by laying, as the race was being run, £1000 to £30, that he picked it. But there were still three fences in the way, and at one of these Jerry M., who hit heavily, lost his rider, and his opponent was left to win at his leisure. Cupbearer, by Orme, out of Kissing Cup, who beat Ard Patrick in the Pirince of Wales' Stakes at Ascot, but was subsequently distanced for interference, and ran second to Veles in the Cambridgeshire, has been sold to M. E. Veil-Picard for 8000 guineas. He is to take the place of Childwick, who died recently, at the Haras de Neaufles. When R. Wootton visited Australia some time ago he took away a couple of lads with a view to making jockeys of them, and another Sydney youngster, W. Huxley, leaves for England this .month to serve an apprenticeship to the trainer named. Little Huxley, whe will accompany Wootton's foreman, E. J. Phillips, on the Mooltan, cays a writer in tho Referee, is a son of the -wellknown ex-jockey and present-day trainer, E. Huxley, so, on hereditary principles, he should be the makings of a first-class horseman. He has had a little experience in race-riding, and, with the benefit of Wootton's tuition, he may have the opportunity' of making a name for himself in a few years' time. Huxley, senior, acted wisely in not missing the opportunity that presented itself for his son, as three or four years' success in England means a greater return than a lifetime's riding in Australia.