THE TURF.

Evening Star, Issue 12868, 18 July 1906, Page 3

THE TURF.

Grand National August 14, 16, and 18. (Gossir- By Old Identitv.] ■ Mr J. MTKewen has had the bad luck to lose his colt by Blackstone—Red Riding Rood. The youngster never had a gallop, but he was being given a steady canter on the plough at the Forbory when he crossed his forelegs, and in pulling them apart each snapped at the cannonbonc. W. Henderson, the caretaker, promptly anticipated tlie owner's wishes by bringing out his gun and shooting the colt. The accident happened on a perfectly level ami solid part of the track. Pipi was taken to Ricearton on Monday ?>f this week, to be trained there bv H. iarr for the Grand National. The horse is very well. During the settling over the first day of (he V.R.C. National meeting the New Zealand candidate Mclodeon was backed for each of che Cups. £15,000 was se'*rred at 100 to 2 and 3 for both races. A wager of 1,000 to 40 was taken Scot Free for the Melbourne Cup. The purchaser of Boabdil was Mr A. Powell, who has already backed Boabdil for the next Viceroy's Cup, and the hardy l>rown horse is just the sort to do really well in India. The present owner of Realm, winncT of the V.R.C. National Hurdles, bought him for £75. Realm was then three years old. He was bred by Mr R. Keogh, of Bushy Park, near Maffra. D. J. Price has put into work at Randwick the racehorses Sandy and Vardo,who recently went from New Zealand. Thus the Sydnev correspondent of the '.Anstralasian':—The New Zealander Chivalry, by Conqueror from Justice, was ?iven_a run at Moorefield in the Tramway Handicap. He is a very good stamp of horse, and in the early "part of the race gave evidence that he is possessed of pace. His rider (G. Price) eased him off towards the finish, and for doing so was interviewed by the stewards, who, T understand, administered a caution. Price is, no doubt, a very good rider, and handled Cairngorm well. So far a.s not riding Chivalry out is concerned, there was nothing in it, as tho horse can hardly be himself, and Price is not the only jockey who has not ridden his mount out during the last month or so. " Lochiel " thus refers lo the Steeplechase on the first day of the Wellington meeting : —Only five of the dozen acceptors faced tho starter. These were Slow Tom (11.4), Irish (10.4), Playfair (10.3), Mocassin (10.0), and Rongoa (9.7). Tho first two named were almost equallv backed on the totalisator, Playfair being* a handy third. Mocassin received fair support, but Rongoa was almost neglected. It was an ex- " nr.Uent race, but had not Slow Tom and Irish fell in the third round—when apparently still full of running—there would probably have been seen a ding-dong finish l>etwcen the four that wonld have been worth one's while to go miles to see. The cause of _the falls must have been the slipgoingi f° r the solid fences had all been reduced to 3ft 6in since they were first put up. Slow Tom came down at the tsod bank—probably the easiest jump on Iho steeplechase course. Irish toppled over at the "logs"—a solidly-built but not otherwise formidable structure. Rongoa, wbo was u placed" from start to finish, Rvetrtuafly ran home a winner by a length from Mocassin, who finished gamely under the whip and kept the ultimate result in doubt up to the last few strides. Playfair, who jumped faultlessly until nearing the turn for home, ran off at the last obstacle but one, and so lost any chance he may have possessed. The slippery going doubtless made hard obstacles out of aciually easy ones, but in effect the race was :onverted from a steeplechase into a hurdle race—which is not as it should be. A steeplechase is supposed to be a test of cross-corrntry jumping, not a watch-break-ing rush over inclined fences. Spearmint's Derby is thus described by our Loudon representative:—The Derby of 1906 proved a rare puzzle to the prophets of the turf, and a regular knock-down for acte-post speculators. During the winter most money was behind Mr Purefoy's Lally, but his Newmarket Stakes running made him out to be little if anything hi front of the Carbine colt Ramrod or the Two Thousand Guineas winner Gorges. These, in turn, were shown to be about on a j-ar with Gingal, SarceUe, and Sancy, and the queer-tempered Black Arrow's victory in the Payne Stakes made him look like being dangerous bo the best of them if caught in a racing humor. Then there were half a dozen more or le?s dark horses apparently fancied by their connections to reckon with, including Major Eustace Loder's Spearmint, a Carbine oorh, whose two-year-old performances made hhn out to be only moderate, but who was said to trained i.i a remarkable fashion, and when tried with the famous mare Pretty Polly not only made her gallop all the way, but l>ested her at the finish. If the trial was made on anything like, propsr weight-for-age lines, thas made Spearmint out to be something of a " dead certainty," but though backed with, any amount of confidence by his stable connections, " Old Jack's" son's reputed performance with Pretty Polly was» taken with many grains of salt by the general public, and' it was not until the last cays before the race that the horse found favor with the general ran of people and threatened Lally's position as favorite. Meanwhile Gingal and Ramrod—the two other Carbine colts engaged—had been scratched, as akso had a. particularly dangerous candidate in Sir Daniel Cooper's, filly Flail, winner of the One Thousand and Spearmint's stable companion. The filly, on book form, had the nteasure of nearly all the colts engaged, and had all kept well with her Spearmint would have been reserved for the Grand Prix de Paris, for whkh. race he was being specially prepared. Other fancied candidates were Mr Heuineroann's Mama.—named after the Australian flyer which won the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Cup, the Adelaide Cup, the Newmarket Handicap, the V.R.C. Grand National, and other good races—Beppo, and His Kminence, whilst a few loyal subjects pinned tlveir faith to the King's " dark" candidate Nulli Secundus, concerning which we heard some wonderful tales a couple of weeks ago. These tales, alas! had no foundation jn fact, for Nulli Secundus belied liis name in his trial and disgraced himself in the nice. When the field muster.nl twenty-two strong at the pest on Wednesday 'last the atmospheric conditions were absolutely perfect, and the i:ocrse was in splendid 'order. The King awl Prince Christian were present, and the crowd on the hill broke all records. It was a ease of "black acres of humanity." The betting at the start was 4 to 1 Lally, 6 to 1 Spearmint, 8 to 1 Malua and Sancv' 10 to 1 Gorgr*, 100 to 7 Black Arrow, 18 to 1 Pieton and! His Eminence, 25 to 1 Sarcelle. White Knight. Beppo. and Radium, 33 to 1 Troutbcck, 50 to 1 Nulli Secundus, and from 66 to 1 to 100 to 1 against the rest. The start was delayed a little bjr the antics of Black Arrow and the favorite, and when the gate did "o vp Prince William was left at the post. ° At a ripping pace Troutbeck made play from Spearmint, but «oon an outsider, the Slipway colt, tried to justify his name, and, heading Spearmint, tried to take the lead; but Picton shot past him, and half a mile f:ora the start ran to the liead of affairs. The pace was now a cracker, and the field Tapidly commenced to' string out. Tho leader's closest attendants at this juncture were Spearmint, Minos, Malua, Beppo, and Saocy, these being well clear of the rest. Approaching Tattenham Corner Troutbeck was sent to the front, and swung round the famous bend a couple of lengths ahead of Picton, with Hi.? Eminence third and u ?e j Tm i nt galloping smoothly along just behind. So the leaders ran rill a quarter of a mile from the winning-post, when Danny Maher gave Carbine's son "the office" to get home as quickly as possible. The rolt responded m splendid style, and swiftly cutting down those in front of him, assumed the lead. Running his race out in a determined fashion. Spearmint increased the gap at every stride, and finally won amid uproarious applause by a length and a-half from Picton, which beat Troutbeck by a couple of lengths for second honors. Radium, close up, was fourth, and Malua next; but the favorite Lally was " down th« field," mad the King's horse crawled in last folly 30Qyds behind the winner. The

time was 2nun oofsec, which, is a record for th~ race, the previous best having been Cicero's 2mhv 39fsec last year. Pretty Polly however, won the Coronation Cup over the same coarse last year in the wonderful time of 2min 33|sec. By Spearmint's victory Major Eustace Loder annexes the sura of £6,450, and is said to have cleared some £30,000 in hots besides. Spearmint, a bay colt by Carbine out of Maid of the Mint {Minting—Warble), bred by Sir Tattoo Sykes,. was purchased by Major Loder as a yearling for 300gs. Mr George Watson, "the prince of startera," whose death -was recorded by a Melbourne cablegram last week, had reached his eightieth year. The 'Argus' notice contaimrthe following about the old gentle-man:—-He was a man of strong individuality. Determination was stamped on his face, which, clean-shaven and wedl cut, suggested a picture of Ihe Iron Duke. Possessing a strong will, he could never brook opposition, and woe betide a delinquent who incurred ks displeasure, wihettier at the starting-post or in the hunting field. On one occasion, when Malvolio won the Melbourne Cup, finding some difficulty in getting the field away quickly, he fined every jockey (with one exception) riding in the race £lO for disobedience at the post. Mr Wateon was a strong opponent of the starting-gate, and when it was introduced at Flemington it was only after great persuasion that he consented to continue as starter. A few jears ago he retired in favor of his eon, Mr Godfrey Watson. Born at BaDydarton, County of Carlow, Mr W.itson came of a famous hunting family. He arrived in Melbourne in 1851, and in 1352 was in occupation of Kirk's Bazaar, which from those days has continued a great meet-ing-place for sporting men. He subsequently went in for the coaching business, in partnership with Mr Cyrus Hewitt, and their "Cobb and Co.V coaches werekno-.vu all over the colony. Mr Watson himself was a very fine driver, and safely brought a coach and team through many a perilous journey. More a hunting than a lacing man, he still ' owned, trained, and rode several racehorses in tto old days. Many years ago a great steeplechase was run annually at Campbeltown, Tasmania,, and Mr Watson won this race with Lottery in a field of seventeen. A good performer which he owned was Shadow, a mare bred in Tasmania. Mr Watson won the Victoria Dorby in 1860 with Plying Colors, and the V.R.C. Oaks and Geelong Produce Stakes the same year with Palestine. He also won many good jumping races with Ballarat, Banker, and other horses. In 1853 Mr Watson established the Melbourne Hunt Club, j i was elected master, a position which he nominally retained at the time of his death. When he came out to Australia, Mr Watson brought with him a few couple of foxhounds from his father's kennels. These formed the nucleus of the first pack of hounds. Mr Watson has left a large grown-up family. Mr Tom Watson, who is a starter in Sydney, and Mr Godfrey Watson, the V.RC. starter, are sons of his. Mr Robert Watson and Mr George Watson, two more sons, have had experience with the flag, and still another son, Mr WilTam Watron, was once a prominent amateur boxer. Both of h:s daue-htere were, until recently, wellknown followers of the Melbourne Hounds The West Australian gelding Shamrock started first favorite for the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdle Race at 4to 1. Realm, the winner, went out at 10 to 1. He is by Majestic, a son of Trenton but nobody seems to know the pedigree of his dam, Lynette. "lerlinga" writes:— "It was a good clean race, with no falls, and Realm won very easily. At two miles Shamrock ilorro. The Sun, Rattlesnake, Realm, and Cprintbus all had good chances. At two and a-half miles backers of Coriuthus, Rattlesnake, and Realm had grounds for hoping that their respective fancy might win; but from the entrance to the straight Realm was an easy winner. He stayed out the full three miles, and none of the others could. Thus it has been again proved that for a three-mile race public or even private gallops over a shorter distance arc not, an infallible guide. Rattlesnake won in a canter at. Moonee Valley. It looked as though the further he went the further he could have won. But, although as fit as hands could make him—he pulled up splendidly—and a nice, well-mannered horse, that ran as kmdly as possible in the race, he could make no show against Realm over the last 300vds."

As to the other events at Flemrngton on the same day the Maiden Hurdle Race went to Manason, son of New Zealand-bred Mana, who started at 6to L Debenture fell in this race, and his rider, C. O'Neill had his ihigh broken. The Myross Handicap, a seven-ftrrloug run for olds, was won by Orrme, son of Orzil and Aline owned by Mr J. E. Stanley, who bought the cort as a yearling for 120 guineas Aline, the dame of Orime, was got by Grandmaster from Hilda, by Vattendon from a mare running back to Cornelia the ancestresj. of Frailty. Orline v trained by Adam Skirving, formerly of New Zealand. Martinique was picked upon as the most rehable of the starters for the Maiden Steeplechase, and the 'Argus' says that he got right away from his opponents in jumping but in the run homo he tired badly and was beaten by the Caulfield-rramed More, who went out at 10 to 1. The book maker* had another .fplendid race in th» Winter Handicap. Kafnuck. who has still ■Z% 5 2?L, waß ade a 2 to 1 chance, with Red Streak at 7 to 2, and 10 to 1 was obtainable about anything else. Kamnck f *?™ *»*«• to the front, and, bard ridden alonff the bend, be fed into the riraisrht. but before the distance he fafled. and after w £ m °S r ™™**> Rfd Streak, »nd Willv Wally. the last-named wn n bv a head. The wrrmer is a very useful R.nenalf P T*; He was bred by Mr Thomas Cook at TnrarrviTlo. and did a good de*l of racmg m Queensland before coming to Vic

fe" """P*** A* Home Office by the London of to'ice on the summary eonvictior-s forrtreet betting in the metropolitan police district durmjr the, post three years suggests that the enrtrnc law on the subject is in ro way effective or deterrent. For in stance m the three yean tom 1904, and 1905, the pSons victed of street fc, ;„ the metropolitan police district—numbered 5.338 wb. e the number of summary conviction" worked out at 15.922. The disproportion appears to be explained by the fact that of the persons convicted 2,241 were so convicted, some twice, some thrice, S nd some four, five, six or more times, the numbers increasing trll the extreme is reached in one person being convicted no fewer than fiftyfour times. Can the bw be said to have any terrors for the man *rho is convicted fifty-four times in three years—roughly once every three weeks? We turn to the fines imposed and find that the total amount for each of the three years in oue*hon was £75 316 7s 6d. If this amount of fines is divided by the number of convections in three years (15,922), it will be seen that the average fine works out at something under £5. As to tho deterrent effect of that, one has to do no more than repeat the figures which the Commissioner of Police himself gives, that persons concerned submit to conviction time after time, till in one case as many as fifty-four convictions are recorded against one man in three years.