NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 78, 2 April 1914, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By Sir Bedivere.) Nominations for the New Zealand St. Leger, the Trentham Gold Cup, and all handicap events to be decided at the Wellington Autumn Meeting ' are due with Mr. A. E. Whyte at 9 p.m._ tomorrow. Second forfeits for the North Island Challenge Stakes must be declared by the same hour 1 . Final payments for the Easter Handicap, Great Northern Champagne Stakes, and Great Northern Oaks, _ together with acceptances for minor events to be run at Ellerslie on 11th April, must be in Mr. J. F. Hartland's hands by 9 p.m. to-morrow. Acceptances for all events to be run on the opening day of the Feilding Autumn Meeting are due with Mr, E. Goodbehere at 8.30 p.m. on Saturday. Mr. Sol Green received a message from Capetown, stating that White Star was having a good passage, and was doing well. Positano, who is to be offered for sale at Eandwick this month, is twenty-one years old. Frank Wootton left Melbourne on his return to England by the Medina, which sailed on 24th March. Dorando has recently been treated to swimming exercise at Wanganui. It is said that he is quite sound again, but may not be thoroughly wound up at the commencement of the steeplechase season. Rathlea, who is favourite for the Doncaster Handicap, was bred by Mr. T. H. Lowry in 1909. .He is an own brother to Bellah and a half-brother to Romola, dam of Master Theory and Tragedy King. The crack Australian 'chaser, Bullawarra, was safely shipped aboard the Runic, which left Melbourne for England on 20th March. It is said that he will be given some racing in England ere he contests next year's Grand National, which is his special mission. It is proposed (says an exchange) to hold in Melbourne a race meeting in aid of the Adam Lindsay Gordon Memorial "Fund, for the purpose of erecting a monument to the memory of the great Australian poet and sportsman. Senator Blakey, who 19 secretary of the committee, states that they will require £1000. There is now about £350 in hand. Pretty Polly was due to fall to Desmond on the 2nd of la-st month. She was to be mated with William the Third this season. The Special Commissioner annually makes a. practice in the winter months of -publishing 'a close analysis of the pedi* grees of prominent two-year-olds of the past season. Having gone through the list, ,he gives readers of The Sportsman what he terms his "Figure Selections" for the classic .events. These selections were published on l4th February, when he took The Tetrarch to win the Two Thousand, Derby, and St. Leger, and Torchlight to win the Thousand and the Oaks. Since then we have had newribv cable to the effect that The Tetrarch was more or less amiss, but a friend of mine who saw him race last season will not stand him to win over the Derby course in any case, being of opinion that, on account of the peculiarity of his action, "he would never successfully negotiate the sharp descent and turn at Tottenham Corner. In hunting back through the English sporting papers in search of Sunlock's recent performances, I came across an account of a race in which he took part at Warwick on 4th February. It was quite an exceptional affair, and some particulars preference thereto may prove interesting. The event in question was the Hunters' Steeplechase, of 100 soys, three miles. There were fourteen starters, and an allowance of 51b was claimed on Sunlock's behalf under rule 121, which provides that at bona fide hunt meetings all riders that have not won ten steeplechases or hurdle races shall be allowed slb in races of less value than 200 soys. Mr. L. G. Moore, who had the < mount on Sunlock, is not included iv the twenty-six "principal amateur cross-country riders in 1913," and presumably he had had little experience. Nevertheless odds were laid on his landing Sunlonk a winner. For the first mile Sunlock was not pioininent, but he then began to improve his position, and five furlongs fiom home he was lying lifth. The race resulted in favour 1 ol Hespeius Magnus (12.7), who beat Saturn (12.7) by a head, whilst Sunlock was four lengths away third. Mr. Bletsoe, whose mount Melon finished seventh, lodged an objection against thefirst six on the ground that every ono of them had gons the wrong side of a post, and, after going into* the matter, the stewards declared the race void. The result of this event can scarcely have prepared followers of cross-country sport for Sunlock's victory in the Grand National, and unless he subsequently did something better he must have been one of the rankest outsiders that has ever scored at Aintree. The alleged mix-up between Bend Or and Tadcaster seems to be of never-end-ing interest, and some new light has been thrown on the subject by Mr. J. Randolph Dyer, of Calgary, Canada, who recently wrote to the Special Commissioner in the following terms : — "This subject has always had a great attraction for me, and your notes brought to my mind a conversation that took place thirty-four years ago. 1 was in Newmarket one day at that time, and talking to the late James Waugh about it, 1 asked him which he thought was the clam of the colt we call Bend Or — Rouge Rose or Clemence? He said he had no doubt but that it was Clemence. He told me that Arnnll, the Eaton stud groom, came to Newmarket directly after Bend Or had won the Chesterfield, and went to see him. As soon as he saw him he exclaimed, 'That's not Bend Or ; that's Tadcaster !' 'Oh, no, 1 the others said ; 'that's Bend Or right enough.' '1 tell you it's Tadcaster,' replied Arnull ; 'the mar who took the yearlings to Russley must have mixed up the papers, and so a mistake has been made.' However, the subject was hush' ed up for a time, and nothing more was hoard of it until after the Derby. Sir George Ghetwynd, in his reminiscences, says that the main thing that ' spoilt Ai'uull'a evidence was that it whs given by tt man under notice to leave; but

here we have proof that it was really given long before there was any question of his Jeaving. As Waugh said, it was a pity that the mistake was not acknowledged and put right as soon as discovered, no fraud being intended, but it was concealed because they couldn't bear to give up the Chesterfield. I have little doubt, says Mr. Allison, that the above facts came to Mr. James Lowther's knowledge some time after the objection to Bend Or had been overruled, and he had them in his mind^ when he told me years later that al-' though he and the other stewards had decided according to tho best of their ability, he had learned something later on which had led him to believe that their decision, was wrong. The Pahiatua Racing Club, which wa6 deprived of its only two days' gathering by the Racing Commission over two years ago. and has been agitating for the restoration at its permit ever since, has decided to apply to the Minister of Internal Affaire for a permit to hold a uon-totalisator meeting in May. "Well done, Flashlight I"— "See him swing around the bend?"— " Yes, with these fine field-glasses. Only cost mo 17s 6d from O'Connor and Tydeman, The Jewellers, Palmerston North."— Advt.