THE TURF. NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24, 30 January 1911, Page 2

THE TURF. NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By Sir Bedivere.) T. Wilson, who trains ai Awa,puni, has disposed of Toanga, and the chestnut gelding will be under G. Delaney"» guidance in future. Toanga was racing into form at the Christmas meeting and should prove a welcome addition to Delaney's string. In view of the promising form she showed at FJleislie, Soultona's success in the Takapuna Cup was fully anticipated. She hails from a family nearly, every member of which has more or less highly distinguished itself, but theorigin of which, m common with that of many others in Australasia from whom great winners are descended, is unfortunately untraceable. Pretoria, tho dam of the Takapuna Cup winner, is aai elder sister to Winsome (dam of Taimanupo, Kakama, and Auckland's crack two-year-old, Miss Winsome), having been got by Cuirassier from Winnie. Sha is thus half-sister to Belmont (Great Northern Hurdles-), Pansy (dam of winners), Ladybird (dam of Melwood), St. Simon, Record Reign, and Up-to-Date. Their dam, Winnie, was either half or full sister to Cygnet, the dam of Romeo,- who met with* fatal injuries whilst contesting the Grand National Hurdles at Riccarton. All that is known of her is that she was got by Kingfisher (Fisherman — Fanny Fisher) from Dolly Varden, by Pacific from Brunette, by Van Tromp from a mare that was imported from New South Wales by tho late Major Lusk at the time of the Maori War. Her obscure pedigree notwithstanding, Winnie proved a veri-lh table gold mine to Pretoria's owner, Mr. James Roulstan. of Pukekohe, aild, peeing that her descendants in turn are producing good ones, there can be no doubt as to tho purity of her origin. The date of liar birth is unknown. She was put to the stud in 1884, however, and between the following year and 1902 she only failed to produce twice.' Condamine, who won the Calliope Handicap at Takapuna on Saturday, is a neatly turned, but small, daughter of SoulU and Catherine Gordon, who used to carry Mr. H. Friedlander's colourswitJi success in hurdle races. At the sale of the late J. B. Williamson's horses, held in June last, she was* knocked down to Mr. Pattullo at 295 guineas, but it was generally known that the Wanganui studmaster, Mr. G. M. Currie, was the buyer. Soultoria was not the only descendant of a suocessful family, the back linesNof which are buried in oblivion, that scored at the North Shore course on Saturday. Wee Olga, who won the Maiden Plate, is a daughter of St. Olga (own sister to St. Clements, St. Paul, St. "Ursula, and othe>r celebrities), whose dam, Satanella, was by Traducer from Slander, dam of Billingsgate and Foul Shot. Mention of St. Paul reminds ma that when the late W. Percival neard 1 that I had given £300 for St. Simon— then an untried three-year-old— he asked me why I had not come to him and bought a better one. Naturally I asked what better one he had for sale, and in reply he offered me St. Paul there and then for £250. Unfortunately for m«> 1 did not close, and Mir. Percivai thus retained, and I lost, the possession of a horse that won a small fortune. Such is the luck of racing. J. H. Prosser has signified his intention of starting Lady "Medallist in tha Haw-era Cup and Playmate in- the Hurdles. Needless to say, the presence of his brilliant filly will prov-e a great attraction* tt> the west coast meeting. It is reported from America that Mi. S. Hildreth's colt Novelty, winner of the Futurity, will be sent to England to be trained for this year's Derby.

Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, in hia speech at the Gimcrack Club, said that it was in his mind that the .best jockeys he had ever seen were Fordham and Archer. On this head Mr. Corlett is at one with liiin^ and writes that "we can say this without in any way belittling Malier and Wootton. of whom the younger generation in thirty or forty yqars' time vfill be saying what we now say about Fordham and Archer. All the older men of our younger days declared that tho equal of Jim Rooinson had not been seen, and never would be. Fordham was the first to weaken them somewhat in this view." A.I- Leicester last month, in the Belvoir Steeplechase, Kippeen was knocked over, and Baker's Lad fell. J. Nightingall, the rider of the latter, induced one of the mounted policemen to let him get on his horse, and sit in front of him to ride back, instead of walking through the slush. They had not gone far when the spurs of Nightingall pricked the horse, with the result that lie dashed forward^ and this unseating the policeman, he parted company" witli his mount, but the officer clinging to Nightingall a double fall was the result. The heavy policeman being uppermost, the jockey had his shoulder somewhat hurt, and both received a good plastering of mud in addition to having to walk back.