SPORTS OF ALE KINDS.

Evening Star, Issue 12927, 25 September 1906, Page 3

SPORTS OF ALE KINDS.

THE TURF.

Avoodale Geraldine.< .....September 27 and' 28 Wanganoi....... —...-.September 27 and 28

[Gossip By Old Idkntttxy.]

f_ Mr J. Lougldin did nob get back from Sydney on the 17th, as he hoped to do. He found that he could not get away. His present • arrangement is to reach Dunedin the might before the Oamani meeting, and to mate a short stay, then return to Sydney., •

A good-looking three-year-old colt by Lupin from Ma Belle is now in M'Kay's stable at,the Forbury. He is to be named Starlight. Apollodoris.had a bit the best of Vladimir in a six-furlongs spin at Wingatui on Thursday last. By late mail advices from Melbourne Gladsome- was stil showing signs of soreness.

The chestnut gelding Putty (St. Leger— Ellerslie) has arrived at Sydney from New Zealand, and has gone into F. M'Grath's stable..

Great Scot did not shine at his first appearance on the Kmglkh turf. At Goodwood last month he ran, in the Chesterfield Cup, in which he had 9.0. There were only eight runners, and as Great Scot was quoted at 50 to 1 his appearance could not have commended ifcsejf to the critics. He ran no better than his price suggested would be the case, finishing last, the three-year-old My Golden Riach winning by three-quarters of a length from the favorite, Velocity Mr August Belmont has sent eighteen yearlings from America to England to be prepared for engagements in the last-men-tioned country. The best of the youngsters are by Octagon. Before starting in the Welter Plate at Mentone on the Bth inst. Bcoran was backed for the Gaulfield Cup for about /£3.000 at 100 to 2 and 100 to 3.

The Morphettville (S.A.) racecourse was flooded out again on the 9th, and the waters rose so rapidly that the lives of the caretaker and his family were in danger. They had to remove from their cottage and spend the night in.the stewards' stand. When the last mail left England, Persimmon headed the winning sires' list, twelve of his progeny having won nineteen races of the total value of £13,223. Carbine was next, with six winners of eleven races, value £12,182; but of course Spearmint's French winnings were not reckoned in that amount. Ayrshire w«s third, with £12,097, and Gallinule next, with £11,493. The Flemington flood of 1891 was outdone by that of last Monday, says " Terlinga " writing on the 15th inst. A drawing of the famous racecourse published in the 'Australasian ' of July 18, 1891, shows the tops of the steeplechase fences peeping out above the water. On Monday, I believe, the water was higher than this; but it subI sided .very quickly. The Grand National meeting of 1891 was held—after a postponement—eleven days after the flood. On the first day it rained hard, but the meeting was proceeded with and finished. Training operations at Flemington are entirely suspended. No idea can yet be formed of the damage done to the tracks, but they m'u 1 '" 1 ' be fit to work on for somc umem Atlantic Stakes, a nine-furlong race, of 910 sovs, rim at Liverpool (Eng.) a few weeks ago, resulted in a most unusual fiasco. ISiim Arrow, who has made a name for himself as a bad-tempered horse, was sent out at 3 to 1 on in a field of three, but could not be persuaded to face the machine. When the barrier did go up after a delav of twenty minutes Black Arrow was turned U;ewi-,Hi s r tray, and the rider of Vouas unable to get his mount to move off until thn only other starter, Albert Hall 16 to 1) had established a lead of a quarter of a mile.

When the American champion racehorse bysonby died an autopsy was performed on ™ , b y vetennaries, and the remarkable development of his frame and those of his organs which go to make the ideal racer caveeu a sensation among horse-nsn. .Pis chesc, lungs, and kidneys were found to be aimost. twice as large as those of 'he c*dinary thoroughbred, and this led the curators of the American Miueum of Najj *i l* ol7 ,* 0 m J uest Mr Keene that he add the horses skeleton to the collection at the institution, where it will be exhibited as the perfect type of the frame of a thoroughbred. Mr Keene consented, and Svfionbys body will bo disinterred from the temporary grave at Sheepshead Bay. lho Doncastor Club have decided to make the St Leger Stakes, 1908, of the guaranteed value of 6,500 sovs, out of which the nominator of the winner will receive 500 sovs. Hitherto the value of the fit. Leger has depended upon the number of subscrib ers. Last year Challacombe earned 4 400 sovs; the winner of the race this month will receive 100 sovs less than that sum. Pretty Polly's St. Leger was valued at 4,625 sovs; Rock Sand, 4,77550v5; Sceptre, t>,£/5 sovs; and Doricles, 5.400 sovs. Flying Fox only credited his owner with 4,050 sovs by winning on the Town Moor. The highest value recorded in past years was in 1879 when Eayon d'Or won 6,585 sovs. lhe most pronounced performance at Sydney lattersad's meeting was, eays the 'Australasian correspondent, that of Solution, 8.13, m the Eawwn Stakes. She met a. very fair field The flying Maniapoto (9.4), on track work was supposed to-be very for- ™' ./hen there were .the Derby favorites Collarit and Antonius, Famous, Man-el Loch, and others. The stable were very sweet on Maniapoto, with the elder Barden in the saddle, while MTaehlan bad the mount on Collarit. Perhaps the result m . g U ,^ n dl the tad' Maniagoto and Collarit been allowed to pace with botafapn. Different orders had evidently been issued, as though they all jumped well off together Maniapoto was held back behind the leaders, while M'Lachlan had a great battle with Collarit, who fought to pt his head Thus Solution was never troubled in the first part, and in the last half-mi* she simply left them, coming on in much the same style as did Sequence in his memorable Epsom Handicap, and finished quite eight lengths in advance of Famous (9.4), with Hewitt having an occasional look round at his followers. Famous did very well and beat Collarit (7.9) three lengths for second place, so that it will be readily seen that there was a long distance between Solution and the Derby colt Straightwires -yho was last. That the pace was on all the way the time, lmin 54sec, tells. Such a performance told at once on the winner's price for the Metropolitan . and unless something imforeseen happens the boult mare will start about the warmest favorite for the Metropolitan that we have had for some time. She pulled up remarkably well after the race. Antonius looked well and shaped well. Of course Solution's win brought with it no penalty for the Metropolitan, so that she will be meeting them on better terms. Judging by her performance she can stay out the distance. "Field" writes:—Whatever chance Collarit may have had of winning the Rawson Stakes was completely settled by the tactics adopted. No doubt acting to instructions, tried to keep him away from the front in the early part of the race, with the result that for the first five furlongs it was a fight between the rider and horse. Brilliant as Solution may be, it certainly appeared as if Collarit could have gone clean past- her at any part of the first half-mile, but the pulling about he received told l upon the colt at the latter end of the journey, and though he struggled gamely, Famous fairly outstayed him for second money. Consequent on his showing in this race, many good judges are of opinion that Collarit will not bo able to stay out the Derby distance, arguing that he is bound to pull himself to pieces if an attempt ra made to ride a waiting race on him, and that if he is allowed to stride along soon after the start he will run himself out before ihe straight is reached. Possibly this may bo right, but if Collarit does sail along at the commencement, Bjtden (who will have the mount) may be afele to steady him before going far, and ere the other competitors get to the big son of Haut Brion they may be even more.tired than he. Flying Fox's brother, Flying Lemur, did not long survive his removal from England to the Koyal Kisber stud in Hungary, dying at the beginning of -last month.. He jMjrchasad.. saks_ai; J&eiv_v

market (England) for 7,500 guineas, and ™. subsequently insured' on behalf of the Hungarian Government for £B,OOO. The. day .before Flying Lemur died, his three-year-old brother Pipistrello broke down so badly in. a race at Goodwood thai his jockey had to dismount before reaching the win-ning-post. Pipistrello will now go to the stud, but as he waa unsuccessful on the turf, it is improbable that his services will be in much demand, despite the fact that he is a brother to Plying Pox. The English 'Referee' regards Lout Davey's -Anti-Betting- Bill as "silly and mischievous" silly because it want prevent betting, and mischievous for the reason that decent people ought to feel and' ought to be taught that there is a wide distraction —the widest possible, indeed—between indiscretion and-criminality. It is always indiscreet to back a horse, but it is neither felony nor misdemeanor, and if you convert a man into a felon or a misdemeanant for doing what the day before yesterday was perfectly lawful, you break down the barrier which separates innocence from crime, and make a man feel thai the law is unreasonable and tyrannical Then he ceases to respect the law, and that is not a healthy state of affairs. It is curiously short-sighted folly,on the part of Lord Davey and the Bishop of Hereford to try and treat the working man as a child, because he is not a child, and he declines to be treated as if he were. He will bet if he wants to, and he does want. The mere attempt to prevent him will make him bet all the more, in defiance of a stupid Act. The cocrcers go the wrong way to work. Many of their political supporters do not believe in them, but "it wouldn't do" to say so. Of coarse, if these restrictions ere forced upon the working man, if the thin, edge of tiie wedge is inserted, the provisions of ihe Act will bo extended if possible, and an attempt made to stop betting altogether. This would be amusing. We should have much more fun, and many of us who now seldom or never bet would do so continually for the sake of exercising our ingenuity, and showing in how many ways the Act could be circumvented ; and it would not be a wholesome state of things when the well-to-do man and his struggling small wage-earning brother set themselves to work to make an Act of Parliament, a ludicrous nullity. If our political masters had a little more courage and a little more sense they would boldly introduce—or encourage the introduction of ■—the totalisator.

The ex-New Zealand steeplechaser Up-to-Date has been turned out for a spell at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Dingo, also owned by Mr Anderson, was shipped back to Sydney from Melbourne, and is to compete at the A-J.C. spring meeting. During the debate on the Gaming and Betting Bill in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Mr Eden George, formerly a Ghristchurch photographer and now a well-known New South Wales horseowner, stated that he had lost £13,000 in racing in four years. The New Zealand jockey C. O'Neill, who had one of his thighs broken at Flemington when Debenture fell with him in a maiden hurdle race, has experienced a bad time. After the fractuired bone had been set it was found not to have knitted properly, and the leg had to be broken again and reset. The injured limb is now in plaster of paris. A remarkably ingenious racing fraud, by which a gang of swindlers netted over £20,000 on the bogus result of a race, has been perpetrated in several American pool rooms. A small race meeting took place at Windsor, Ontario, just over the Canadian border. The swindlers backed a horse named Beau Brummel in the pool rooms of Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, New York, London (Ont.), and several other towns. The favorite in the race won, but the swindlers tapped the wire to New York, whence racing news is distributed, and returned Beau Brummel as the winner at 10 to 1 against. The bets were immediately paid over, but scarcely had this been done when the operator, who had noticed a peculiarity in the style of telegraphing, used another wire, and found that the favorite had won. The pool room keepers were then compelled to pay those who had backed the favorite as well as the swindlers. The latter, who had worked the fraud in about ten pool rooms, had decamped. The pool room keepers cannot prosecute, as they would thereby be accusing themselves of felony. James Scobie arrived in Sydney from Ballarat on the 15th with Emir, Charles Stuart, Benbow, and Jack Smith, and in the afternoon he exercised them on the Randwick taa. On the 17th the quartet were again out, and Jack Smith was bracketed with Emir for a half-mile spin on the tan, Emir having the better of the bargain in 52sec. Benbow ran down half a mile in 54sec, and Charles Stuart did some pacing. The 'Sydney Morning Herald' says that the latter looks wonderfully well and very much improved since wo last saw him, being bigger, fuller of fleeh, a»d moro muscular about the thighs and quarteirs. Since he last ran in Sydney Emir has done stud work, and "appears more settled and solid than he used to be, and his bodily condition is perfect. Bonbow and Jack Smith are engaged in the Derby. The former is robust and big, but is troubled with a slight throat affection, which he makes evident when galloping. A horse that may come into the Caulfield Cup betting before long is The Bairn, an aged chestnut gelding, by Lochiel. The Bairn won the Warwick Handicap, early this month, carrying 8.13, with lengths to spare. Had Mr Maitland to rehandicap him for the Caulficld Cup, he would probably put a stone on to the 6.9 he allotted him a few weeks ago. The brood mare Merganser, purchased by Mr Tilson, the Wairarapa breeder, at the clearing sale of the late Mr W. Rathbone's stud for eighty-five guineas, has produced a colt foai to Birkenhead. Merganser is this season on the list of the Cadogan horse Lethe.

Basil, wanner of the Steeplechase at Moonee Valley recently, is a rather remarkable customer if what is said of him is true. He stands about 14.3, and was purchased a year ago at the Bourke salea far £7 10s by a Bendigonian. Basil carried his purchaser, who weighs about 18st, over 400 miles, droving a mob of cattle, won four races (three over hurdles) in April and May last, can amble eight mSes an hour, and when bought at the yards had no pedigree. "Flaveur" reports that Letherin, Submarine, and La Torpedo, three New Zealand Cup horses trained in the Wairarapa, are doing good work. Letherin is at Opaki, Submarine at Masterton, and La Torpedo at Tauhorenikau. La Torpedo is likely .to race at Masterton on 25th October.

The following drew the placed horses in the Adelaide Grand National Hurdle Race sweep :—l, Current, John M'Namara, Westoort, New Zealand, £6,000; 2, Pit Syndicate, Raetihi, New Zealand, £2,000; 3, Florin, John H. Robertson, Dunedin! New Zealand, £I,OOO. ROWING. Members of the Otago Rowing Club are busy preparing, under the direction of Mr Stabks—-who has accepted the captaincy—for the opening, of the season. The two practice tubs, the ihree practice dinker fours, and the two practice double-sculls are bting scraped and revarnished; the riggers of the dinkcr boats are being scraped and painted; and the pleasure boats being done up.

lhore is a strong probability that George Towns and PMward Durnan will be matched to row for the sculling championship of the world and £SOO a side on the Parramatta River in March next. The Canadian is willing to come to Australia if allowed £IOO for expenses. Towns has cabled to Durnan that ho will allow him the amount asked for expenses.

The meeting of the Harvard and Cambridge crews on the Thames, representing tha best student crews respectively of America, and England, resulted in a very gratifying manner for the Englishmen. They started favorites at 6 to 4 on, and they vindicated the esteem of their backers from the cutset. The secret of the perfection of the English university rowing, remarks "Tingle," is the thoroughness with which men are selected and prepared. Long ago the American universities realised the importance of this, and for some time the same . system has been in vogue on their side of the Atlantic, but it would appear .. The'.Ame-,

ncans must pereenae for-a few itecadw-witi* a style, proving it. where experience teaches, and then they will be more likely to take tiie amateur to place alongside their yachthig supremacy.

FOOTBALL.

RUGBY.

[Bt Rkferot.]

The South Island put up a great fight agaimt the North, who -had luck to assist them to some extent in their, victory. Congratulations to Alick McDonald on being the best forward on the grounds The redoubtable Otago man was regarded as one of the three best, forwards in the famous All Black combination. Results of inter-iskuid ' matches:—lß97, North won by 16 points to 3; 1902, South won by 20 points to 14; 1904, drawn, 3 points each; 1905, North won by 26 points to nfl.; 1906, North won by 9 points to 5T Results of matches played between Otago University and Sydney University:—l9os, at Sydney: Sydney won by 16 points to 13; 1905, at Sydney, Sydney won by 14 points to 12; 1906, at Dunedin, Otago woa by 21 points to nil; 1906, at Ihmedta, Otago won by 3 points to nil. The season in Sydney just closed was the best on record, from the point of view of public interest, the attendances being consistently good throughout. The Metropolitan Rugby Union, alone cleared well over £2,000 net. Glebe won the premiership. W. E. Ma£thews, the plucky little Sytbey University player, is regarded as thi soundest all-round half-back in New South Wales.

Fisher, vice-captain of the Sydney University team, is one of the few New South Welshmen who have had tiie dual honor of representing his State at both cricket and Rugby. The New Zealand Rugby team at Ihnban have won all their matches, scoring 99 points to nil. In one representative match nine of the New Zealand combination were included.

The New South Wales Rugby Union hans decided to call for applications for the post of secretary at a salary of £250 per annum, to comment* duty on December 1. The Sydney 'Referee,' referring to the first match between Otago and Sydney, said: Otago University fairly ran over the Sydney University men in their first match. at Dunedin. One quite expected the Sydney team to be defeated in this, their opening contest, though not by 21 points to niL They reached Dunedin only on Thursday, and the history of Australian teams in New Zealand clearly proves that l instead of two or three days on land before starting play a week is requisite, unless an easy match be provided. When the Otago University visited Sydney last year they were given a match against a scratch team on the Saturday, the first university match taking place on the following Wednesday. That ought to have been the arrangement on this occasion. It is clear, however, apart from the question of seasickness, that Otago were too good altogether for the team that opposed them. In. view of the scores, and of the fact that <• when a football combination has a hard gruelling match in- circumstances such as marked this one, the men rarely recover from the effects for a week or "two, the Otago club are pretty sure to again win. The last fixture of any importance this season will' take place on Saturday, when the redoubtable University and the hard-to-beat Dunedin, will play a match in aid of the hospital fund and A. R. Bremner, an injured Dunedin player, who has been bedridden for over four years. It will be remembered that the Dark Bines were the only team to defeat the Light Blues in the last match of the flag competition, so that those attending the match on the Caledonian Ground on Saturday can look forward to an interesting contest. The 'Varsity will have their best team in the field, and the only alteration in the Dunedin will be that J. O'Sullivan. who played with this club last year, and who has been in Wellington this season, will replace M'Phail at five-eighth, this player having left Dunedin.

The banners for the present season were presented to the following victorious teams at the O.R.F.U. Committee meeting last night: —First grade, University; second grade, Dunedin; third grade, Alhambra; fourth grade, Southern; Wednesday players, Railway Loco, team; schools' championship, High School B; junior schools' flag, Kensington. •' All Black," in the 'New Zealand Times," in his notes of last Saturday on the Otago Wellington match, wrote : " Loose eyclonic rushes must 'be a specialty with Otago for. wards this year. Some of theirs last Saturday were eye-openers to local enthusiasts Another good feature of their play was the perfect understanding that seemed to exist among them when in the scrum. Once they 'screwed the scrum' in a way that made many friends for them among the spectators. So perfectly was it engineered that the middle and back rows of their pack came away cleanly with the ball at toe, and left their hookers and opponents completely behind them. The score that almost resulted would have been a fitting reward for this cieverly-wcrked manoeuvre. Their pack was perfectly balanced, and very steady, and though inferior to ours in weight, held its ground every scrum. "The skill of the Otago front-rankeiis— Casey and Spiers—when backed up by eomo weight to-day, should prove a valuable asset to the South Island team. Not only in the hooking department wore these two very useful against Wellington, but in the open field also they played an important part. 'All Black' MT)onald was soon in evidence. A few minutes after the kick-ofl he led an assault into Wellington territory, and practically kept in the lead of his fellows until the end of the game. He toot a band in all rushes, including the passing bout that led to Otago's first try. Critics of 'All Black' play at Home sorted out Seeling and M'Donald as New Zealand's two best forwards. To-day's match should therefore enable* local people to decide who was the best forward representing the colony on British fields. Baton was also very prominent among the Ofcago vanguard. His physique was used to best advantage on the line-out, and he more than held his own in the open play. Porteous still plays the hard game that got him his New Zealand cap in 1903. He made bght work of his opposing winger.

" If Otago were playing second-class backfield men last Saturday, it speaks well for their best performeiß. Their line-kicking was perforated well. Unlike the Wellington men, they found the line invariably, and, considering the unfa-vocable circumstances, their fielding and general defence were excellent. The full-back, Davidson, was very good in all these respects, his exhibition being the best seen, and Stevens, the selected. South Island goal defender, will have to do remarkably well to-day or suffer severely in comparison with Davidson, who, it is thought, should be in his place. Clark, the Otago half-back, played a sound defensive game, and went down to the local forwards fearlessly His only fault seemed to be a tendency to run into the ruck too frequently with the ball, and thus take a quantity of unnecessary gruelling on himself."