NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 134, 7 June 1923, Page 11

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(BI " BIS UXOBIOT.")

Handicaps for the opening day of the Napier Park Meeting are due to-morrow. Kohu was not engaged, otherwise he ■would have mads a good top weight in both the hurdle race and steeplechase.

- The Horowhenua Club.is one of those that has suffered through having its meeting cut down from two days to one. Its application for a second day has been approved by the District Committee. The club recently held a carnival, which resulted in £700 being raised towards improvements on the course. However, the amount named is insufficient for the purpose, and should the club fail in its application for a second oay, the suggestion made in this column, that the club should race at Trentham, may be carried out. Country clubs have found it impossible to make a financial success of a'one-day meeting. Kick Off, who has already had two trips to New South Wales without being able to run, has again been nominated for the spring. The trip to Sydney is very popular with New Zealand trainers. The successful sire Kilbroney was shipped South last night, and is to do stud duty at Elderslie for a season. The Franklin and Matamata Clubs, which formerly raced without the assist ance of the totalisator, have been granted a permit for a two-days' meeting to be held at Ellerslie next month.

Zero Hour is in the private sale list. After racing at Otaki, he was sent down to Trentham to J. Ayres, in the hope that a buyer may turn up in the meantime. •-■

Mr. Denny Donovan, owner of Kohu, is at present' on a holiday trip to the Old Country. He was formerly a wellknown horseman, and won the Hawkes Bay Cup and Great Autumn Handicap on Merganser. Kohu is trained by Joe Griffiths, who also used to ride over hurdles, and is father of Harold Griffiths, a well-known rider. Another member of the family had the mount in the Century ' Hurdles. Kohu, who is nine years of age, won his first hurdle raca at Hastings four years ago. He was a more than useful hurdler when he won at Riccarton in the spring and autumn the following' season. After seeing him run sixth in a field of nine in the Century Hurdles at Wanganui, the writer considered him unlikely to win a big hurdle race this winter. However, he was successful in his very next start. R. S. Bagby, who had the mount at Ellerslie, will have to take the credit for the gelding's improvement. That horseman had some practice over the fences previously on Volo. Kohu has a thorough Te . Mahanga pedigree, and had the Messrs. Douglas lived, he would no doubt still be racing.in their interests. His sire, Espartero, is by Torpedo—Espaniola (by Sheen), one of the mares purcha-sed by 'Mr. John Douglas in Victoria. Espartero won races in the colours of Mr. W. J. Douglas. Espaniola also produced Mecca and Whakaweira to Pilgrim's Progress. Whakaweira won the- Great Northern Hurdles, carrying a penalty for a previous win at Takapuna. Te Puia (dam of Kohu) is by San Fran—Black Ella, by Quilt—Waiau, by Torpedo—Cascade. Te Puia was a goocl winner in the colours of R. Brongh, the Hawera trainer. When his lease expired she went back to Te Mahanga, and won several races for Mr. Fred Douglas. T e Puia, who was not a prolific breeder, was sent into the sale ring at Hastings three years ago, and was sold for 30 guineas.

Considering that he was asked to concede First Born over three stone, and the fact that the going was heavy, Militaire, who slipped into one or two o£ his fences, did well to get third. P. M'Brearty had ridden him in his schooling work, and rode him for the first time in a race owing to his usual pilot being in Auckland. Had H. M'Sweeney been available, and lucked him out, lie might have been second, but would have had no chance of beating First Born, who was raised 161b on the second day, and won again. Militaire was backed by his owner and trainer.

The racing The Curragh had at Wanganui did him good, as he went on and won at Ellerslie. The Curragh is by Spalpeen," siro of El Gallo, from • Lady Gwendoline, by Sir Laddo—Lady Isabel, a winner at Takapuna. Lady Isabel is by Brookby (St. Leger—Reproach) from Lady Sterling (late Mayflower), by Sterlingworth—Lady Elizabeth, by Terenga —Ladybird. Lady Elizabeth is the dam of A.B. (by Musket), who won races for different owners.

The fact that Mr. A. B. Williams has nominated freely at the leading meetings in Australia may mean that, although Rapine and his stable mates have been advertised to be sold in a fortnight's time, there is a chance of the well-known Hawkes Bay owner continuing in the game as an owner. Independent, straight-going owners of the class of Mr. Williams are so few in the Dominion that he cannot well be spared. At the Queensland Meeting Mr. E. J. .Watt won the Stradbroke Handicap, of 1000 soys,_ with Lady Aura, by St. Anton—Princess Aura, who is regarded as one of the smartest three-year-old fillies in New South Wales.