AUSTRALIAN FIXTURES.

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 74, 24 September 1927, Page 23

AUSTRALIAN FIXTURES.

October. I—Victoria Eacing Club. October; I,' 3, 5, B—Australian Jockey Club ' (Derby. Day, Metropolitan Bay, Craven ,Plate Day, and Itanclwlck Plate Day). October; 8, 12, 15—Victoria Amateur Turr Club . (Caulfleld Cup, last day). October -15-^City-Tatts. (Randwlck). Oetober22—Jlbbnee Valley. October 22—Canterbury Park (N.S.W;) October 29, November 1, 3, s—Victoria5 —Victoria Racing Club (Melbourne Cup Ist November).

Kacing: fixtures next week are the concluding days of the Avondale and Napier Park"-Clubs on Monday, the Geraldine Meeting on Thursday and Friday, and the Hawkes Bay Meeting on Saturday. The- secretary of the Eacing Conference'VHas lost .no time in advertising for a ftipendiary steward to fill the vacancy «C*ed ..-by' Mr. J. M'Mahon's resignation. JtJparently one of the present stipendiary •towards, is-to be prompted to the chief position, for the salary advertised is £650, or only a fraction more than half paid to Mr. MTVlahon. Out of this sum has to -fee paid out-of-pocket and hotel expenses when' the official is away from home attending race meetings, so that the. actual salary will be approximately £550: a. year.. These figures suggest that the conference intends to retrench at the expense of the stipendiary steward system.' Whether the saving of a fe,v hundreds a year will impair the efficiency of a now. much-criticised system is a question many thoughtful people will ask. Early in the week the tracks at Trentham were in good order, and on Tuesday morning Grand Knight showed that there was-little amiss with himself or the going, by sprinting half a mile in better than 50sec. Grand Knight, Shot Silk, and Wild Pigeon leave at the end of next week for.JEllerslie. During the last two days, however, there has been an abundance of rain at Trentham, with the reBUlt that fast work for the time being is out of the question. .Qood reports come from Southland concerning the three-year-old filly Some Rose, by Some Boy 11., from Rose'de Val. She started only once last season, -winning the M Lean Stakes; She is booked to race in the Dunedin Guineas next month and if •he.performs up to expectations she may visit, Eiccarton for the New Zealand Oaks. Her dam, Miss de Val, is a half-sister by Hymettus .to Degage. - .King Quex was allow.-d to drop out of nis^firat day engagement at Napier Park, •bnttt, Be is a runner on the second day he maybe worth a passing thought. ThelAvondale Guineas will be decided on ; Monday at Ellerslie. Last.year Lysanderand Commendation ran a dead-heat in this, event, but such an outstanding contest does not appear likely this year. The; probable runners will include Laughing: Prince, Great Charter, Damaris or Thaw, Star God, Catkin, and Paganelli. Laughing Prince, whether he wins or not to-day, is almost certain to start favourite, and- m addition he will be very hard to beat;.

.The, new building for Tattersall's Club an Sydney is to be opened next Tuesday. It has a double frontage on Castlereagh and Elizabeth streets, and is described as •no'of the most imposing structures in a

•tree* oT fine buildings, and is quite up ! to the-title of the largest and most mod-! em club-house in the Commonwealth.' The ' mam entry is in Elizabeth street, facinsr Hyde. Park, and from what can be gleaned from "old hands," is just about the,= : distance' post in the straight run iome of the.first race track in Australia, and almost opposite the new St. James's station on the underground railway. The whole of the ground floor is devoted to business, purposes. On the first floor is the. most modern clubroom, with reception and waiting-rooms' for ladies. ' The second floor is devoted to a modern bil-liard-room. There arc also on this floor a. most, comfortably furnished card-room, library, and barber's saloon. The main dining-room, also private dining-rooms are on the third floor, together with the'secretary s office. The fourth story is deyoteU to what is termed'the athletic quar-' J er?', w«? a swimming-pool CO feet in length,-2o feet in width, with a graded depth offrom 3ft Gin to Bft Gin The w.a.t« r"? I* will be filtered, purified, heated, and circulated at the rate of 7500 gallons an hour There are also a gymnasium, steam and hot air, massage, and rest rooms.- In addition, there are 40 bedrooms with telephone, hot and cold water, and other convenience ■ that can be ■wished for. The furnishing is lavish throughout.

Fortafest,.i\'io ran si;.:h a good race in the \Doona Trial at Caulfield, supplies a bright example of the composite stj'le oE nomenclature, says the "Australasian." The last.part of the name of his dam, Manifest, is added to the first of his sire, Fortafix. These composite names remind us of. the old coloured woman who. when asked why;,she called her boy Fertiliser, said:— "Why,.it is dis way. His pappy he is named Ferdinand, and I is named Eliza, so ire named dis chile .Fertiliser foi-.de bofe-of us." For originality some of'our owners have nothinj; on this old negress. Talking of nomenclature at one of his clubs m London, somebody once asked Lord . Marcus Beresford whether he thought Fake: Tooth a good name "for a

horse. "Top Notch!" was the reply; "absolutely the very beat; you can't stop him!" At the same club a very deaf member appealed to Lord Marcus to be told what another member was saying to to him. "He's wishing you a happy new 'ear," shouted Lord Marcus, "and,' lord knows, you want one!"

The well-known cross-country jockey W. O'Halloran has decided to settle down in Adelaide and follow his calling. O'Halloran, who originally rode in New Zealand, was for some time associated with the stable of another Dominion racing man in Stan Eeid, who is now training at Caulfield.

The popularity of racing in South Australai is shown in figures prepared by the Police Commissioner (Brig.-Gen. Leane) dealing with totalisator investments for the year ended 30th June last. During that period £1,691,519 was handled in the totalisator, and that sum represents an increase of £84,330 on the operations for the previous 12 months. • During the year just ended 67 racing clubs in the State held 137 registered meetings, while the registered figures for the previous period were four less. Of the total investments during the year ended 30th June last £126,863 was retained by the 67 clubs, £84,575 was paid to the Government in tax £7153 was distributed as fractions among charitable institutions, and £2391 representing unclaimed dividends flowed mtothe State coffers; so that of the £1,----691,519 invested during the year the sum of £220,982 did not find its way back to the hands of the betting public. The foregoing figures show that the racing game does not pay such high taxation in South Australia as in New Zealand. There are no bookmakers according , to law in South Australia.

The Melbourne "Leader" is advocating the fixing of a maximum weight in good class races. There is much to be said in favour of this for the really good horses, so long as the handicapper is given a reasonable scale. In .New Zealand, with the 7 stone minimum foisted on to t-ne racing game by political interference, the question of a maximum weight in handicaps is increasingly difficult. The "Leader ' goes on to say:—There is plenty of precedent for fixing the maximum weight m races. It cannot be said that the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase, the greatest jumping race in the world, has Buffered because the maximum weight carried in it has been fixed at 12.7. The Moonee Valley Racing Club tried the experiment last year of having a handicap flat race with a maximum weight,, and it was a great success. The race, which is the Quality Handicap, is run over seven furlongs, and the maximum weight is nine stone. It was substituted for the September Stakes, a weight-for-age race with penalties and allowance, as it was thought it would be a better method of getting good horses to compete than it would be in a weight-for-age race where one good horse generally overshaded his opponents. There is a margin of two stone and a half for the handicapper, and with that he has a chance of bringing the horses together. At the. recent annual meeting of the V.R.C., the chairman said the committee would not agree to raising the minimum weight to 7 stone, because the handicappers would have to give the good horses too much weight. When the King presented a cup to be run for each year in Australia, Mr. Mackinnon said he favoured a handicap for the race with a maximum weight, so that good horses could compete for it and not be overweighted. If a maximum weight can be fixed for the King's Cup, one naturally, asks why it cannot be included in the conditions of other races. _ If they knew their horses were not going to be overweighted many more owners of crack racehorses would start them in handicaps instead of reserving them for weight-for-age racing and the Melbourne Cup, as many of them do under present conditions.