NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1925, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

FIXTURES. February 5, 7—Gisborne R.C. Summer. February 7, v—To Kuiti K.C. Annual. February 12, U— Dunedin J.C. Autumn. February la, U— Taranaki J.(J. Autumn. February 12, 14—Poverty Bay Turf Club. February 14—Jiastcrtou R.C. Autumn. February 14, lU—Kotorua K.C. Annual. Nominations for the Woorfville and Nolsou Meetings close on Friday. Both are popular gatherings. Small fields, but rather larger than usual, should be seen out at the Gisborne Cup Meeting to-morrow. The nine, acceptors for the principal event represent jusfc useful class. Haurangi, 7.5, lias apparently struck form, aud he, appears to have a good handy weight. Uocd Sport, 8.1) in the open sprint event should be just about ready, while j Startle,. 8.3, is a very useful sprinter. Merchant, who is well engaged at Gisborue, was backed and beaten at. Awapuni and JMarton during the holidays. Apparently there had been good cause for the backing, and lie might make amends at Gisborne to-morrow. Polyphemus, engaged' at Gisborne tomorrow, is a half-brother by Polydamon to Royal Blood. Reports credit him. with 'being a smart galloper, and he has two recent winning brackets to his credit. Highway seems nicely placed in the First Welter at Gisborne to-morrow. He defeated a smart field in good style at Awapuni on Boxing Day. Acceptances for the JSlasterton Meeting are due on Friday at 9 p.m. The value of the regulation skull cap for National Hunt riders was made apparent in the first race at Carlisle, saya sin English exchange. . At the hurdle in front of the stand Silver Zep appeared to v take off too soon, and on landing shot his jockey over his head. Boyle | narrowly missed being galloped over, but received a crack on the head, and it ia considered that the skull cap alone prevented serious injuries. Carpentier lightened up with his rac. ing at Trentham, and he is now haviug^ a spell. ■ It is unlikely that he will fulfil his engagements at the Dunediu Jockey Club's Meeting next week. Sir Charles Campbell's two steeple' chasers, Tigerland and Whipcord, who have been enjoying a spell since the Grand National Meeting, will probably join R. Longley's team this week, to be got ready for next winter's jumping campaign. It is intended to race En Route over hurdles during the winter, and lie should be in jjood fettle for the early meetings. Many Kittle 'is in regular work again, but_ his tasks are of an easy character so far, from which it can be judged that &. W. King does not intend to race him til) late in the season. The sale of • Caligula for the stud in Germany is reported. Caligula will be recalled as the St. Leger winner of, 1920, when he. carried the colours of Mr. 3NL Goculdas, an Indian owner/ whose religion precludes him from leaving his uative_ land. Caligula's success brought attention to the possibilities of The Tetcarch as a sire of stayers, for the colt named was a son of the "spotted wonder." The Tetrarch had previously been chiefly regarded as a sire of sprinters or inilers; but Caligula's Doncaster victory caused a revision of opinion. Since then The Tetrarch had had two other St Leger winners in Polemarch and Salmon Trout. Th» statement in referring to Poethlyns Grand National victory, to the effect that the Aintree fences had in .that season been neglected and cut down in the trimming process to below the recognised heights, is, states the "Sporting Life and Sportsman," contrary to tne facts. Suggestions which were made at the time in several irresponsible quarters were officially and promptly contradicted. It will be realised that such a statement is not only a reflection upon the officials of the Liverpool Meeting, but that it may have a tendency to belittle the merit of Poethlyn's 'performance on the occasion. Three leading horsemen in England B Carslake, V. Smyth, and G. Hulme, intended wintering m South Africa It was stated that the trip was ourely a holiday one, and no riding would be undertaken. A colonial can hardly realise the amount of travelling a leading jockey m England is compelled to undertake, and at the end of a flat-racing season one can understand their anxiety for a rest and a change. J. Beale will ride Deucalion, and F h. Jones PiJliowinkie, in the Dunedin Gloaming, Nincompoop, and Chignon are all being given a little more strenuous work now at Riccarton. They might race at the Midsummer Meeting of the Canterbury Jockey Club before being aaiifc to Australia. & ' The false rail at Trentham has been discussed by several writers since the last meeting, and there is some diversity of opinion as to whether it was vi) advantage or otherwise.- One thing is certain—m several races there wa? ji graat deal of crowding as soon as the horses came to the false rail—and it is reasonable to suppose that it was responsible. If the leading horses would ho d a straight line, ;1 11 would be well, but the tendency is for them to go in to li e .actual railings. Although one bouthern writer contended that the also rail gave Suggestion the Consolation Handicap, that was absolutely erroneous, for the rail nearly cost him the race. In effect, instead of getting though on th e inside", as H. Gray ex peeled Suggestion to do, he was shut in altogether, and had to be pulled wide on the outside. Only very vigorous handling by Gray caused Suggestion to score by a narrow margin. Providing the false rail was treated as it is intended, it would be a distinct advantage, but, as it is, it leads to trouble Prominent, clubs in Australia-' have tried the idea mid abandoned it, and it will come as no surprise to find the rails straightened again at Trentham. Loughrea has been asked to carry another big burden in the Dunedin *Cup but unless he improves a great deal on his Trentham form he can have little chance of success. It seems as if the big weights he has carried all through the season have beef? a little too much for him. and one wonders in passing just what Mr. ,L. C. Hazlett, his owner now thinks of the 7st nfinjmum. Mr! Hazlett, of the Dunedin Jockey Club', was one of the keenest advocates for the 7st minimum, before Parliament in its wisdom (») chose to interfere and enfoice n minimum weight which only I adds to the burdens of good horses, anil lessens the chances of apprentices.' 1 »i— — •*'• Australian Jockey Club lias decided to debnr ons-eyed horses from racing in that Sl-ale. I'riicticnily all the Commonwealth is now closed to horses so afflicted. Tbe price realised by the two-year-old filly Garden of Allah (Golden Sun —Light of Asia] at the Newmarket December sales gives a fair idea of the ..\7iluc <jI young horses, in England. Lost

(BY "VEDETTE")

season Garden of Allah won once in three starts, and when > Mr. Dawkins made his two-year-old handicap at the close of the season ho only put 7.4 on iier, against 9.1 oti Saucy Sue. Yet when Garden of Allah was subsequently submitted to auction at Newmarket she made 5000 guineas. Her buyer probably had in view her value for breeding purposes when he went that high) but it makes one wonder what Saucy Su e would have realised if she had gone to auction. At yearling sales.a well-grown youngster invariably comes in for more attention than those of smaller stature. Unfortunately for buyers,' some of the big 'uns sold-at Randwick have been great disappointments, and subsequently they were described as being as bad as they were big, states a, Sydney exchange. St. Gerssans, who, at the close of tho recent English season, was about the best three-year-old in training, is only 15.2 i, while other good horses of the same age in Daimyo and Caravel are 15.1 and 15.2 respectively. A prominent Australian breeder, recently in New .Zealand, discussed this point most emphatically. He said buyers paid too much attention to avoirdupois—they were buying by weight—and so long as they wanted beef, breeders would give it to them, F. Dempsey, when riding for the last time in Melbourne prior to leaving for England, appropriately enough scored on Sailing Home at Caulfield in the Anniversary Handicap.,