THE TURF.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 83, 5 October 1910, Page 4

THE TURF.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. (By Sir Bedivere.) The Auckland Racing Club has every reason to feel gratified with the support accorded by owners to the principal event to be run at the Spring and Summer Meetings. Practically all the best horses in the Dominion, have been engaged in one or other of the events, and if anything like a fair proportion of them muster iu> Ellerslie good sport will be assured. Master Soult *'s apparently to have a shot at the Auckland Cup, in which California is also engaged. Many of those entered for this event have so far performed but moderately, however, and it A-ill be distinctly interesting to see in what manner Mr. Morse attempts to bring the Held together. Though she is not to. compete in either the Stewards or Members' Handicap at Riccarton, Armlet has been nominated for the Railway Handicap at Ellerslie, and her omission from the big sprint event at the Metropolitan Meeting is thus somewhat difficult to account for < A patron of J. Oldfield's stable has purchased from Mr. G. P. Donnelly an untried three-year-old colt by Birkenhead from Gold Powder. The youngster, whose dam is own sister to Gold Dust, is highly spoken of by those who have seen him. A friend writes me from Sydney to the effect that Truganini managed to .get a nail in one of her feet on the voyage over, but is now practically all right again. Advantage landed in nice order, but Magneto looks as if she would be all the- better for a little extra- condition. Mr. M'Beth is disgusted w>h the ill-luck that has attended his mare, and swears by all the gods he will never venture across the Tasman Sea in quest of Australian prize money again — nob even for another Crucinella. Considerable interest is being taken in certain quarters in respect to the weights which Mr. Pollock will allot to the various horses engaged in the Shorts Handicap. Salute, Boanerges, Provocation, Penates, Naumai, Lord Soult, and Full Rate, are among those that the Wellington handicapper will have to deal with in connection with the five furlong "event, and anyone the least conversant »vith their form will recognise that they provide all the material for an intricate problem. Comedy King's sensational defeat of the supposedly invincible Prince Foote calls to mind a story in connection with the purchase of his dam. Prior to attending the Newmarket sales, Mr. Sol Green made a careful study of the catalogues, and decided that if certain mares whose breeding he fancied were anything like decent-looking, he would go to any price- in reason for them. Comedy King's dam was one of these, and on her being brought into the ring the auctioneer, Mr. Tattersall, asked whether anyone would put her in at 500 guineas. Mr. Green did not expect to be able to buy her at anything like this price, but he kept quiet, with the idea of letting somebody else make the running. < No one, however, seemed prepared to bid 500 guineas, and Mr. Tattersall thereupon called for an offer of four, three, two, and, finally, one hundred guineas. Still no one's head nodded, and as the mare was about to be passed in, Mr. Green bid a hundred, and, to his intense surprise, she was knocked down to him. Not long afterwards somebody approached Mr. Green, and after asking whether he would take 100 on his bargain, finally wound up by offering 500. Still, however, Mr. Green declined to part with his purchase, and it was not until he came to settle up that Mr. Tattersall called him aside and told him the true facts — this, subsequent to Mr. Tattersall himself having discovered that Mr. Green would not take even four figures for her. Well, to make a long story short, Mr. Tattersall told the mare's present owner that for the first time in his firm's history, so far as he was aware, a mistake had been made in relation to the reserve placed upon any lot; that in glancing over the particulars handed to him in respect to this mare., he had misread the figures, which, instead of being 100 guineas as he had supposed when selling her, was in reality 1000 guineas. "You have got a cheap mare, Mr. Green," said Mr. Tattersall, "and my mistake has cost the firm exactly £900."