NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 13 April 1912, Page 14

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By Sir Bedivere.)

The handicaps for the opening day's events at the Manawatu Autumn Meeting have evidently been carefully compiled, and there is no reason to believe that when acceptances close on Tuesday next the fields will be .very materially reduced. Many of "the horses engaged will be seen under silk next week at Trentham, however, and^'some will no doubt earn penalties. • The Wairarapa Racing Club has already erected forty-eight loose-boxes, gear-rooms, etc., at Tauherenikau, but the accommodation for visiting^ trainers and attendants is to be materially increased. An additional twenty-five rooms are, I understand, to be added to the present row of cottages, and a big sitting-room is to be built. The club, it may be mentioned, supplies forks, brooms, and padlocks free. Mr. Brough, the caretaker of the Tauherenikau course, has invented a new type of starting machine, which provides that any unruly customer may be placed in a kind of cage, ont of which it can only jump when the barrier is released. Trainers have already taken considerable interest in the appliance, and it is possible that Mr. Brough. may ask the Wellington Racing Club for permission to give, a practical demonstration of his apparatus: at Trentham a few days before the. Spring Meeting. If it will accomplish all it is expected to do, it will meet with much favour, for not only will it obviate ill-behaved animals interfering with others and causing delay at the start, but it should 'have the effect of causing them to relinquish undesirable habits. Horses that will line up steadily are <not interfered - with in any way by Mr. Brough's machine. Acceptances for the Marlborough Racing Club's Autumn Meeting are due this evening. Final payments for the Manawatu Stakes and Manawatu Sires Produce [ Stakes are due on Tuesday next. Less than an hour and a half after she had contested the Stewards' Handicap at Ellerslie, in which she ran fourth, Kaween was sent out to tackle Counterfeit in. the Great Northern Oaks. "Whalebone" comments on the race for the Great Northern Oaks as follows: I "Although Counterfeit successfully fulj filled the mission for which she wae sent from Christchurch, winning the Great j Northern Oaks, the daughter of Treadmill did not give tho impression that she was as brilliant as when she competed at. Ellerslie in the summer, and ifc was plainly evident that she was not tuned up to the same concert pitch. Though Counterfeit won easily at the finish, there was no doabt that Miss Winsome had her doing her best at the home turn, and. had the local filly succeeded in defeating the Southern crack, it is safe to Bay that the victory would have brought about one ot tha greatest outbursts of enthusiasm ever recorded at Ellerslie. Ac it was, when MiE«'Winsome ran up to her entering the straight, there was a subdued roar when it was seen she was holding Counterfeit, but it died, away when the latter drew out again, and when Counterfeit returned to scale it was a- ~very cold-hearted reception that greeted the Great Northern. Oaks winner of 1912." In a reference to Mr. William Brown, a leading breeder and sportsman of New South Wales. " Milroy," of tlw Sydney Mail, says: "Mr. Brown is & reputed millionaire. Be that as it may he is wealthy enough to provide himself with the best blood available, and evidently he has worked with that end in view in getting his very choice bunch of mares together. 'Mr. Brown breed* mainly for his own training stable, but, of course, he raises more horses than he can do with, and when he has satisfied the wants of bjs trainer he sells the others. He takes what h« thinks is best, and sells the balance. He is only 'betting on his own judgment, and so far the public have got the best of it. Well, at least the threo beat by Duke of Melton have been sold, and last year the Fairwind colt was kept in preference to Loch Amos, who went at one Md of £100, but that did not pr» vent him from being nearly at the top of the class for two-year-olds, or make any difference to a southern buyer, who vainly offered. £1500 for him. This year I Mr. Brown has reserved an extra fine youngster by; ' from Sans Peur.'i In the course of a conversation, with J- E. Brewer, the well-known writer "Terlinga" gathered that the returned Australian still thinks D. Maher at his best the greatest horseman he has ever seen in a race, but all round— that is, on all courses— he thinks F. Wootton his equal. Both axe great exponents of how to make the most of the American seat, and it is a great treat to me them fighting out a head to head finish. They ride on the -top of the withers, with knuckles turned upward, and in the last stride ot two the reins will be quite loose. Neither brings either whip or epnr into use, and yet Brewer says any horseman 'can tee that they have squeezed every inch out of the horse. Since he has been back in Melbourne Brewer has noticed that some Australian Sloanites get their hands down below the horse's neck. He does not see how they can do anything but retard the progress of their mount when their hands are placed that way. Amongst the mares that, perhaps, had not memory played me false, might have returned to England, says the "Special Commissioner? in writing" of tho Elderslie Stud, are Ronetta 19, by Bay Ronald 3 out of Frusquinetta 19, by St. Frusquin 22 out of Drill, and Marcobelle 11, by" Marco 3 out of La Belle, by St. Simon 11 out "of La Cloche, by Hermit, 5. Mr. Reid, we are told, held strongly to the notion that mares which had never been raced made the most successful brood mares, and, "therefore, fillies have been reserved and others purchased, with the result that a large proportion of the stud consists of mares that have never been broken in." This is a proppsitipn very much open to argument — f»w of us would hesitate to biwd from a> mare fchowing immediate strains of winniug blood, or closely related to ■winners, even if, for soma reason or other, she had never been in training ; but, on the other hand, we should, I think, certainly prefer to breed from mareu— not overrun or kept too long in training — but who had theinselvea shown their ability to win races, or, at all events** give visible proof of sound constitution*). Count G LehndorfT, than whom wn have seen few more enthusiastic or Xiractical breeders, is strongly opposed tobreedjng from tnurea which have been*

kept too long in training, and, in support of his arguments — with which, if I may so say, I am entirely in agreement — he often quoted the late Lord Falmouth's famous and marvellously successful stud, to which his mares retired at the end of their fourth year, if not sooner.. Other things being equal it is, I think, a sound principle in breeding to breed from young mares whenever possible, though there are plenty of instances of mares which have produced first-class racing 6tock even when advanced jin years. . PROSPECTS FOR NEXT WEEK. _ The acceptances havo now been put)* lished, and we can form a fairly eliwvd idea as to the strength of the company that will do battle at Trentham on Wednesday and Saturday next. Los Angelos, it is pleasing to note, still stands hie ground, but a number of prominent names are missing from the revised list of Thompson Handicap candidates, which now number seventeen. Equitas, Royal Scotch, Counterfeit, and Bronze are a, dangerous quartette out of .the way, and Masterpiece is also among the missing. Both the top-weight and Undecided must now be regarded as extremely dangerous candidates, and, although neither Lady Moutoa, Ngatiranni, nor Sir Solo can have much chance, the remainder of the field contains several possibilities, of whom Mira, Effort, and Khamsin are fancied. Byrcn is, at the time of writing, an uncertain starter, for all depends upon whether he changes hands. The St. Leger field will probably dwindle down to three, or, at best, four, j but the Challenge Stakes, for which ! Antnmnns, Bronze, and Ermengarde are eligible to compete, promises to be a jnost attractive item. Royal Scotch has no doubt been withdrawn from each of his engagements on account of his injured foot, and Gladiole is missing from the Railway Handicap .as the result of injuries from a barbed wire fence. Even in their absence there, is, however, ample material for a firstclass contest. With the exception of the Waiwetu Handicap, which, "more especially if Mini should be reserved for the Thompson/ will be contested by a. small' field, the •prospect ■ for , the remaining events may, still be regarded with satisfaction.