TURF NEWS IN BRIEF

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 24

TURF NEWS IN BRIEF

■ The only racing next week will be conducted by the Poverty Bay Hunt Club, on Saturday. ,

Weights for the minor events at Riccarton are due on Monday, and the acceptances for the first day close on Thursday. All thoroughbreds in the Dominion and the Commonwealth —and some others —add a year to their age tomorrow (August 1).

The various leases of Npcturnus have contained a.clause.giving a right to purchase at. £250, but no one has yet exercised the option.

-.Among, the mares already booked to Defoe for the coming season are three from the South Island, Arena (by Cockpit), Rosonur (dam of Makeup), and Aro Arc (by Arrowsmith). .:

The Grand National Steeplechase is decided over twenty-one fences, which is one less than the, number in the Wellington Steeplechase and four less than the number in the Great Northern Steeplechase. The obstacles, however, are, the most formidable in the Dominion. •

The Tetratema—Thyeme stallion Theio, who is being imported . from England by Mn.F. B. Donnelly to join Tidal and Lord Quex at his stud at Hastings, arrived at Sydney en route to New Zealand this week and is expected to complete the trip out next week. :'

Black Marlin has been returned to his owner, Mr. H. Kean Clarke, Whangarei. , When, the Lucullus gelding won at the last Waikato Meeting, his winter prospects were regarded highly, but; an injury made him backward for ithe Ellerslie carnival and he bled before he fell, in the Wellington Steeplechase early in the month. Lady Hoariri has had three seasons' racing, and until she won the Glenmore Maiden Race at the Eangitikei Hunt Meeting' last Saturday, her total earnings.were only. £12, so that both stake and dividend would be very welcome to her persevering owner. Lady Hoariri is. by Hoariri from Warscript, .by" Warplane from Sunniva, a San Fran mare. ;

Hunting Song's • progeny up to the end of the recent Wellington Meeting had earned £15,470 .in the Dominion during : the , present season. Chief 'Ruler and Acre were then having a. close battle for second, and Paper • Money.-was a handy fourth, with .'a ' substantial drop to Balboa. Balboa's stock are among the best winners measured by number of races. . . . :.

Fears that were expressed in some quarters, that there would be defaulters in the ranks of bookmakers following backers' "run. of luck at the Royal Ascot Meeting last month proved unfounded. There was not the slightest hitch over the'settling.

Lady Zia Wernher : -had good and bad news on Ascot Gold Cup day. Her bad luck was* to -lose the coltfoal by Hyperion out of Double Life, the dam of Precipitation. The youngster had been ailing for some weeks. It was singular that;the foal should die within a few hours of his halfbrother's great triumph in the Gold Cup.

According to a recent English exchange, H.H. the Aga Khan has sold his Eclipse Stakes winner Rustom Pasha, and the horse.is to shortly be exported to, the Argentine. Rustom Pasha has been at the stud in France. He is by Son-in-Law !out of Cos, and six of his offspring have .won races worth 'over■'-.; 70.00 -.soys in. ../England this season. . ...

R. B. Berry's team for the Addington Meeting consists of Lucky Jack, Parisienne, Great Jewel, King's Guard, and Grace McElwyn. The latter has received a concession from the Reassessment Board.

The American pacer Fremont will not be raced at the corning meeting, R. B. Berry having decided to make sure he is thoroughly acclimatised before asking him to race.