FIXTURES.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 20

FIXTURES.

November 23 and 89—Feilding J.C. Spring. November 30 and December I—Takapuna J.C. Spring. December 5 and 6—Woodville District J.C.

Summer. December B—Bay of Plenty J.C. Annual. December B—Methven R.C. Annual. December 12—Dannevirke R.C. Summer. December 12—Taumarunui R.C. Annual. December 15—Waipawa R.C. Annual. December 26—Walpukurau J.C. December 26 and 27—Taranaki J.C. Christmas. December 26, 27, and 20—Manawatu R.C. December 26 and 27—Dunedln J.C. December 2U and 27—Westland R.C. Exhibition. December 26, 28, January 1 and 2—Auckland R.C. January 1 and 2—Stratford R.C. Annual. January 1 and 2—Wairarapa R.C. Annual. January 1 and 2—Hawkea Bay J.C. January I and 2—Marton J.C.

Th« Ashhurst Racing . Club had everything in its favour for a-successful meeting. The weather could not have been improved upon. There was, inconsequence, a large attendance, which was reflected in the increase iii the gate takings, and yet there was a falling-oil in the totalisator turnover, compared with the previous meeting. Visitors were courteously treated by the secretary, Mr. .Mr. A. W. Trass, and' Mr. Dick M'Donald, the club's president, had charge of the arrangements, which moved without a hitch of any kind.

After riding Country Life in the Hurdles at Ashhurst, E. Copestake caught the Auckland mail at Palmerston, and went on to Cambridge to school Bright Light and Bitholia. Megan was allowed to forfeit her engagement in the principal event at Ashhurst, but has been paid up for in the St. Andrew's Handicap at Feilding. Black Ronald is being galloped the reverse way at Tauherenikau in view of the Great Northern Derby, in which he is likely to meet some new opponents, among whom are Razzle Dazzle, Miss Egypt, and Reremoana.

Toa Taua was sore after the fall at Ashhurst, and he will in consequence not race at Feilding. D. Kemp is trying him up for Woodville. During shunting .operations at Ashhurst on Thursday of last week, the horsebox carrying the racehorses March On and Sensible went off the line. Fortunately, the engine was still attached, so preventing the car from toppling over, and the horses were quickly unloaded. Both horses had figured with success at the Pahiatua Meeting, Sensible being a, dual winner, and it would indeed have been unfortunate for their owners had the animals suffered injury. March On is owned by Mr. A. G. Havill, and Sensible by his son, Mr. A. J. Havill.

Two winners at Ashhurst were .successful on their second appearance. They were Hytinus, who failed in open company in his first start, and Velociform. The last-named • is one of the Guianforte breed, owned and trained by H. Rayrier at Waverley. ■ Hallowroz is racing consistently,- but without any luck. She acted as runnerup to Bonnie Heather on the second day at Pahiatua, and was similarly placed behind Kareao at Ashhurst. ■

and Battle Song, who carried Mr. J. L. Nicoll's colours at Ashhurst, appear to have trained off, and could do with a let up. ■ March On won on his first appearance this season at Pahiatua, and if his rider had gone straight instead of coming out from the rails, he might have won at Ashhurst. '

The penalties for Ashhurst winners at Feilding are as follow :—Waituna. Hurdles: Bonibrook, 61b; St. Andrew.s Handicap, Kareao, 71b ; Kowhai Hack Handicap, Velociform, 61b; Flying Handicap, Civilform, 61b; Fitzroy Hack Handicap, Hytinus, 61b; Kiwitea Welter, Kareao, 71b; Counter Attack, 71b; Velociform, 21b. "'. „ . • ; /Recently the F.oston Racing Club invited applications for tie position of 'starter. :(Thirteen applied, including most o! • the North Island dispatchers, except Mr.: 0. O'Connor, who is engaged at Trenthani-at'the same time. Mr. Angus Keith, was'Teappointed to the position. Mr. Keith has served the West Coast ,club for a long time. For about ten 'years, he-held'the position of secretary, 'land for.; a considerable period has filled the role cjf, starter;. The action'of the club in reappoiriting Mr. Keith should bo well received throughout the district ■;H: Gray rode Sir H, Cunliffe Owen's Elevation filly: (by Qrpunent) to victory iii the Welbeik Selling Plate for twoyearrfllds at Leicester on 25th September., : He wa3 second,: on Lady Owen's Castille:in the September Maiden Plate at the'same meeting. 'According 'to English, files,ia lot, of came for these two/just before the race started. ; A. Goodman will probably take Printemps,; Stream, arid Rene, Mavis to the feilding Meeting. v; _ . All:.;Ashhurst. winners Jpenalised for .Feilding: have had, their;, engagements continued. Kareao was allowed to drop out of the Kiwitea Welter, but is still in the St. Andrew's Handicap. ;-Alaric'has been spaid up. for in the St. Andre%y's Handicap and Flying Handicap at Feilding. The distance of the first^named event has been reduced this season from: a mile and a half "to a mile aija. a quarter. ; ■ ■ ■

•;S. Watsbri, who formerly ..trained Sir Donald, has three three-year-olds by Quarantine, in his team at Mr.' W. J. Wareham's stable at Terrace End. Strange, to-'say, they are all' chestnuts, with white faces arid other markings. One is a'gelding from Yolonia, by Camp-fire-r-Matiri', by" Mahaki—Waitiri. He has been' appropriately: named .Pratique by his breeder, Mr. J. Cameron. The filly frojn an unnamed full sister to Diamond Nap will race, as Lady-Dolomel. She is owned'by Mr.-Wareham, and will probably, make her first appearance at the concluding day of the Manawatu Meeting.' The other'filly is from Melologue (dam, of Redlogue). She has evidently had a? bad.time, and is not so forward; as the other pair. They are all well grown,' and do their sire credit.

Quarantine did* not get-many opportunities during the time'he was located at", Palmerston North prior to going to Waita'ra, where he is now owned. One of the first of his stock to race (Atapo) recently ran first and' second at Pahiatual.'.'. He nearly iresembles his aire, who is'jef black in colour.

: Kithara(dam.of Paonui) has produced a cqlfc to Warplane. Metronome, a fullsister to Paonui, broke her leg, and two fillies'liy .Sarto-also met with accidents. ' Backsheesh; and Basso, the only local horses engaged at the Ashhurst Meeting, did not make the trip up. Zero Hour has been schooled over hurdles at Trentham, and may be found competing. in jumping events at the West Coast Christmas Meetings. Rational is to take his place in the Feilding Stakes field, and wil] be steered by his usual pilot, A, M'Cormac. I hat horseman will also ride Sunny Vale. ' r

The maidsna scan out at Ashhurst included several likely-looking Bor t s that via urobibbr b» ■- beard of-duriaa • thi

holiday meeting*. Stymie (Sarto—Waioluki), Kyla (Spalpeen-Bess Laddo) and Pu"e I™* (Polydamon-Pursefiller) will probably all improve on their recent showing Swallowflight. who was among the winners at Riccarton, and recently joined J. T. Jamieson's stable, is top weight m his engagement on the opening day at Woodville ■ b

A number of New Zealand horses have at vanous times during the past thirty years been taken to Suva, and raced more or less successfully. Horses have been taken there frequently from Sydney. A mare known as Bother, who won at Randwick, was one of them She afterwards was brought to Auckland, and after running, with varying results was put to the stud Tand ; bred Fuss who in turn .produced No Bother,, a useful gelding.m these parts up to the time of the;.-accident .which terminated his career. -No horses raised in Fiji have since been brought to Auckland to compete, but one for which engagements :haye been made at the Takapuna Jockey ; cl«b I Sprins; Meeting is Adi Vunivola, who has had previous racing experience. A remarkable. thing about the horses left in the Feilding Stakes is the fact that there is not a single two-year-old engaged. Horses of that age, although having a good pull in the weights and a round course, have not been very successful in recent years. The fest one to win was Surveyor, when the meeting was held in Janaury. The only other two-year-olds to win were Glenculloch, Peronilla, Rangitero, and Egypt. In recent years the winner of the 1 Feilding staves has also scored in the Oroua Stakes, run on the second day. Rationfi W? D v,° h eventa. Gloaming pulled off the double two years in succession and Acre also took both events. Beaumont and Tenadees are maiden two-year-oldii 'engaged in the Oroua Stakes on the second day. - W S Bagby had several rides at AshreJord ed to add to'hiswwinnie

The Maniapoto gelding Rewi Poto, whose ast start was in the, Grand National Hurdle Race at Riccarton in August, 1919, figures among the nominations for the hurdle races at the Takapuna Meeting at the end of this month. He was an aged horse then, and there caanot be much hope of his coming back after four years' retirement: At Riccarton on Wednesday morning Gloaming was ridden for the first time since hs arrived back from Australia and was given two rounds <m the plough at half pace. He is much easier to handle than he used to be. 1 It is remarkable the number of people that go racing, who talk through their pockets at the track, although in everyday hfe and on other subjects they may be level-headed enough, "in a close finish it is always difficult to convince the backers of the defeated horse that his fancy did not win. He never takes into consideration the angle at which he views the finish compared to the judge. However, although some growling may result, ii is only rarely that a vigorous demonstration against the ofiicial ruling is given, such as greeted the decision of Judge Waters that Little Marg had won the Fourteen-Two Handicap at Victoria Park. Little Marg was at an outside quote, and she defeated KiUashandra. who was a hot favourite, so naturally backers of Killashandra had the ascendant voice and made themselves .properly ?e a, rd by howling -■■' 'Robbery ! !l ihieves!' etc., and also hurled choice epithets at Mr. Waters as he wended hit way from the box to the scales.- As in the Melbourne riots, the women made themselves conspicuous, and shrieked ir/ shrill tones at the portly form of the genial Mr. Waters, one old dame, with striking purple roses 'in her hat, being most 'vociferous. The Victoria Part, management did not endeavour to protect its ofiicial in any way, but some actioi should have been taken. A couple oi detectives or policemen in the crowo could easily have stopped the most de monstrative ones; and that would hay. effectually ended the exhibition of ignor ance. It rhust have been rather galling to Mr. Waters to have to put up wifcl; such denunciation, as his decision wa£ right beyond the slightest doubt. Vie tpria Park is one course where the Pres? box is right behind the judge's box, and the writers can accurately tell the result. The opinion was unanimous that Little Marg won, and by the margin stated by the judge—half a neck—but the majority of die crowd had lost their money and their tempers went the same way. while the association of Little Marg's trainer with the Victoria Park Club aroused disquieting ideas. Once again it is necessary to point out the fallacy of disputing the judge's decision, as he is the only one that can accurately tell, and although hooting may relieve the feelings, it does not bring a refund of lost money.—"Sydney Sportsman.'? Recently "Spectator" received information of the! death in Sydney of Mr. W. H. Keith, who raced horses in Canterbury as long back as 45 years ago, and who for a. term owned a useful horse in Guy Fawkes, son of Ravensworth, Later on he raced quite a number of horses in the Wellington, Wanganui, and Taranaki districts, most of which were bred about Wanganui, and the best of them were the Sou-Wester gelding Boreas and the Somnus mare Dudu, but there were quite a number of really useful performers, and he had some rattling good timber-toppers. Reform, Lady Bab, and Allegro will be remembered by old-timers as competitors in steeplechasing eventa over the Ellerslie country. Dart and Jack's the Lad were .a pair who distinguished themselves on the Coast over hurdles, and the latter, with very little steeplechasing experience, later on ran second in the V.R.C. Grand National Steeplechase. The deceased had a great fondness for jumping horses, and was represented in Australia by several good performers with not the best of luck, Westerly, by Westmere from The Painter mare Martha, being one who distinguished himself on the Victorian side, after running a great race in the V.R.C. Hurdles. Mr. Alf. Keith, of Ashburton, and Mr. Peter Keith, who is resident in Sydney, are brothers of the deceased.. Up to a few years ago. Mr. Keith had been a promi,nent dealer in cattle in both Islands. He had been resident in Australia for about ten years. . .' • . ■■■ -• :

The Feilding Jockey Club Meeting will be held on Wednesday and Friday next. The first race will start at 10 a.m The meeting, is a very popular one, and there is bound to be a large atteridance. The fields are good, and some close finishes are expected.